WASHINGTON (AFP) — Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden on Wednesday accused his Republican rivals of "injecting fear and loathing" into an already charged White House campaign -- including stoking rumors that Barack Obama has terrorist ties.
Speaking on CBS television, Biden dismissed as "malarkey" allegations by the campaign of John McCain of unsavory ties between Obama, the Democrats' presidential nominee, and William Ayers, former leader "The Weathermen," a domestic terror group.
"It's just malarkey -- flat malarkey," Biden said, brushing aside last week's allegations by Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin that the Illinois senator had been "pallin' around with terrorists."
Palin's remarks while stumping in Colorado Saturday linked Obama and Ayers, a longtime resident of Illinois senator's hometown Chicago, but who, according to his campaign, has no close ties to him.
"Barack Obama was eight years old when this guy was engaging in activities he was engaged in," said Biden.
"He is no part of our campaign. He will be no part of anything having to do with the White House," Biden said, accusing the McCain campaign of "injecting fear and loathing into the increasingly nasty presidential campaign.
The longtime US senator from Delaware expressed alarm that the McCain campaign might be encouraging speculation among their supporters that Obama is himself a questionable character, in part because of his Kenyan heritage and his exotic background -- including his middle name, "Hussein."
"I think it's mildly dangerous," said Biden.
"I mean, here you have out there these kinds of, you know, incitements out there -- a guy introducing Barack using his middle name as if it's some epitaph or something," he said. "This is over the top."
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