(CNN) - John McCain's campaign manager Rick Davis and Missouri Governor Matt Blunt accused Barack Obama of ties to ACORN, the embattled community group facing allegations of voter registration violations in several battleground states.
Governor Blunt talked about the community organization’s voting law violations in Missouri and Davis said he hoped that the press would examine ACORN’s activities “so that none of those battleground states are stolen from the campaign in this election.”
This week ACORN and Project Vote announced that their voter registration drive had been the most succeful in history with more than 1.3 million voters registered in 21 states.
As they have done with recent attempts to link Obama to Bill Ayers, the McCain campaign tried to raise questions over whether the Illinois senator was being truthful about his past association with ACORN.
Listen: Davis, Blunt on Obama, ACORN
The Missouri governor said Obama’s ties to ACORN went a long way back, to a period “before he launched his political career in the land of Bill Ayers,” and cited that in 1993 Obama acted as their lawyer on a case and ran a 1992 ran a voter registration drive and taught classes with them in the early 1990s.
When a reporter asked point-blank if the campaign was charging the Obama camp of conspiring with ACORN, Campaign manager Rick Davis said that the Democrat had given $832,000 to a front group for ACORN, and said the McCain campaign was just trying to get questions answered about his association with the group.
Asked whether McCain would address the issue in his debate with Obama, Davis demurred, saying that he hoped the media would ask the Democrat before the debate.
And asked about the angry crowds at recent events that had shouted out things like “terrorist” and “off with his head” at recent rallies, Davis said that he didn’t know who those people were, and if they were there as supporters or to disrupt the rallies.
He said while people are “incredibly frustrated” that he is “very confident that it has nothing to do with what the candidates are saying on the stump” because their red-meat rhetoric pales in comparison with Obama and Biden. Davis alleged that there were similar incident at Obama rallies but that they didn’t get the same attention that the McCain disruptions did.
The McCain campaign and the RNC also looked to emphasize Obama’s links to ACORN by releasing a web video and launching a Web site that highlights those alleged ties, and provides information about the group’s activities in a number of states likely to be battlegrounds in November.
As it has with the McCain-Palin’s effort to highlight Obama’s ties to William Ayers, the Obama campaign accused the McCain campaign of trying to distract attention away from the many issues the country is facing less than a month before Election Day.
“Today’s conference call was another effort by the McCain campaign to throw out false charges to ‘turn the page’ from the issues that matter to American families,” said Obama-Biden campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor. “Barack Obama strongly condemns voter registration fraud or any other breach of election law by any party or group. The McCain campaign’s allegations about Sen. Obama are completely transparent and false. He believes that the registration of voters at record levels is good for our democracy, and the McCain-Palin campaign’s false claims are nothing more than another dishonorable, shameful attempt to divert voters’ attention from the unprecedented challenges facing their families and our nation,” Vietor added.
Six Republicans in the House of Representatives who were all previously Secretaries of State asked Attorney General Mukasey Friday to begin an investigation into whether ACORN is engaging in voter fraud, echoing a similar request from McCain Thursday on the campaign trail. A number of congressional Republicans also urged Thursday that any federal funding to ACORN be immediately cut off.
ACORN's Las Vegas office was raided by Nevada state officials last week. CNN also recently reported about questionable voter registration applications submitted as a result of ACORN’s registration efforts in Lake County, Indiana.
Related: ACORN responds to McCain Web video
From CNN Politics
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What other garbage do you have McCain? How about we sift through all of your ties over the years like Gordon Libby or the fact that your wife is still tied to Keating and is still making millions from that relationship.
FRANKLY IS COULDN'T CARE LESS WHAT
MCBUSH SAYS. I HOWEVER CAN TIE MCBUSH
TO MY & AMERICA'S NEWLY FOUND POVERTY.....
I ALSO WONDER WHEN IS HE GOING TO FIND
ALL THAT HONOR HE CLAIMS TO HAVE ????
HAVEN'T SEEN ANY OF THAT LATELY.
They have to say something. They're not saying much, but it's something.
Obama/Biden 08
GET OVER IT MCSAME & MCPAIN!
OBAMA/BIDEN '08!!!
Let's not forget, "his supporters told him to do this", and a guess, he listened!
grasping at straws. What a lost cause McShame is.
Just another attempt by McCain to find a twig while sinking in quick sand he created. This mans is an embarrasment to america whil Palin is a joke.
I am waiting to see when McCain will attack Obama's daughters.. Shameful.. Tastless campaigning. Now he is flip flopping telling his "followers" they don't have to be scared of Obama! Talk about extreme!
ACORN ACORN ACORN ACORN ACORN ACORN ACORN ACORN
ACORN ACORN ACORN ACORN ACORN ACORN VOTER FRAUD.
"HI MY NAME IS BARACK OBAMA AND I APPROVE THIS MESSAGE'
DESPERADO............................
Man, my boy is more corrupt than "The Outfit!" LOL!!!
This is crazy ! where is the DNC ! I'm SICK of all the shennanigan's from the McCrazy campaign you people are looking up from the bottom of the barrel. How do you sleep at night?
As soon as Obama says "I didn't know anything about it," CNN and most major media outlets will just say, "Okay, of course not," and accept his answer as gospel, just like they did with Rev. Wright and Bill Ayers.
We really don't need another liar as president.
Whatever happened to hard-hitting, investigative journalism?
It's very disheartening to see the negative responses McCain and Palin have set in motion to disrupt Obama's campaign. Voters are racist and discriminatory in their comments towards Senator Obama. To those of you out there who have made these disgusting comments I have this to say: This country doesn't belong to you and you alone, it belongs to people like me, with a native american background. It belongs to the blacks, the irish, the italians, germans and any other ethnic group who was either born here or has entered this country legally to stay. If you want a president like McCain who has set this in motion then you have lost sight of whats important, which is not race or religion but who can bring us all together to make this country better than it is.
blah, blah, blah..................
McCain has not talked about any issues for days now.
Obama/Biden 2008
McThuselah/Chelsea Clinton 2016
I WANT TO SCREAMMMMMM
Does ACORN only help democrats? Or do they register Republicans as well? I can't stand this mess and too be honest if he registerd 20 million how would it work if those 20 million don't VOTE. You have to show Id when you vote, if the people have submitted fake registration of voters who are dead or made up fake names and address, how would that benefit OBAMA. Obama a man who has earned his education in law school would know this. This makes no since and it dosen't benefit Obama to do that.
CNN stop posting and reporting dumb BS I can figure this out, anything ANYTHING AT ALL, TO DISTRACT THE VOTERS.
But damm it I'm not distracted I see through the BS
Does it not bother people that there is a group that submitted over 5,000 registrations and less than half of them were legitimate. One registration was actually under the name Jimmy Johns with an actual Jimmy Johns location address. How can anyone, republican or democrate deny that this group is horrible and Barry needs to just come out and say yes, I worked with them in the past, it was a bad judgement call, I don't approve of any of their practices and yes, federal funding for ACORN needs to be cut off immediately. Then it would be end of story...
McCain Palin know they have missed this one; they should be thinking of John's exit fron The Senate and Sarah's back to her catwalk days. Barack cannot be involved in vote rigging, when Americans and the entire world are behind him; common lets face what matter to The Americans.....Strong economy is POWER
And I charge McCain for the following:
Four counts of masquerading as a husband and a decent father–you cheated on your wife and left her with three kids.
Two counts of lying to the government–first you said you were disabled to get a full disability check, then you said you were abled to stay in the military for 20 years to collect the full retirement pay.
Over 4,000 counts of lying to the soldiers–you pretend you're with them, but you voted against them 14 out of 15 times.
You're a phony and a fake and you don't deserve to be anybody's president.
ECONOMY is #1 the ISSUE
ECONOMY is #1 the ISSUE
ECONOMY is #1 the ISSUE
ECONOMY is #1 the ISSUE
ECONOMY is #1 the ISSUE
ECONOMY is #1 the ISSUE
ECONOMY is #1 the ISSUE
ACORN is not an illegal organization. They do not want to seceed from the United States (AIP=Palins), nor does the organization have nazi's in it (McCain).
As a matter of fact, the ONLY reason I have a house is because their support and advocacy. They had the courage to fight Wall Street; you all remember, the Wall Street everyone is against now?
Get over it mcCain and Sarah short skirt. Don't ask for what you want...
McCain, Palin And There Supporters Take A Shower, Your Stinking Up The Place!
The Ugly Americans
Desparate times calls for desparate measures.....McCain and Palin are trying everything they can, because they are loosing and will not win come Nov.4. They need to focus on Palin's investigation that is still going on.
Oh by the way, Does anybody know who Sarah Palin is? I have still yet heard anything about her or where she stands. She only talks about Barack Obama. Oh well, I guess when you do not have anything important or good to say about yourself you talk about some one else as a distraction.
GEE THE STOCK MARKET WENT DOWN AGAIN TODAY
& MY PORTFOLIO HAS LOST 12 YEARS OF GROWTH.
IS MCSENILE GOING TO GIVE BE BACK SOME OF
THAT MONEY OUT OF HIS FORTUNE ?
THAT'S WHAT I WANT TO KNOW !!!