Obama camp seems to dare McCain to bring up Ayers

Michelle Obama’s chief of staff on Thursday said Republican presidential nominee John McCain “didn’t have the courage” to bring up Barack Obama’s link to William Ayers at a debate Tuesday. 

{mosads}The McCain campaign has sought to highlight the association between the Democratic presidential nominee and Ayers, who was a member of a domestic terrorist group, but the Arizona senator until now has let vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and surrogates take the lead on raising the issue.

On Thursday, the McCain camp released a Web ad on Ayers and the candidate responded to a question about the Weather Underground member at a campaign event.

Michelle Obama’s chief of staff Stephanie Cutter seemed to dare McCain to bring up Ayers at the final presidential debate next week by noting that he did not do so at this week’s town hall-style debate.

“Two points on [Tuesday’s] debate: one, that the Ayers allegation didn’t come up from real people asking the real questions that they care about,” Cutter said on MSNBC. “And two, John McCain didn’t have the courage to bring it up to Barack Obama to his face. You know, that means that John McCain knows that this is a ridiculous issue.”