With less than a month to go for the US presidential elections, the Republican Sarah Palin has stepped up her attacks on the Democrat Barack Obama. Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential candidate, seized on a report about Obama’s relationship with a former 1960s anti-Vietnam radical – Bill Ayers – and accused the White House hopeful of “palling around with terrorists.”

Palin referred to a front-page story, in the New York Times, which traced Obama’s sporadic interactions with Ayers. The article said: “A review of records of the schools project and interviews with a dozen people who know both men, suggest that Mr. Obama, 47, has played down his contacts with Mr. Ayers, 63.” However, it continues: “But the two men do not appear to have been close. Nor has Mr. Obama ever expressed sympathy for the radical views and actions of Mr. Ayers.”

Apparently, McCain’s campaign has sent out word it’s really ready to play hard ball against Obama. Palin seized on Obama-Ayers relationship after the McCain campaign said it planned to shift its strategy and try to turn the campaign into a referendum on Obama.

According to a report, Palin said in Colorado that: “This is not a man who sees America as you see it, and how I see America. We see America as the greatest force for good in this world. Our opponent though, is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect that he’s palling around with terrorists who would target their own country.”

The stepped-up effort to portray Obama as “unacceptable to American voters” is an attempt that can be expected to accelerate. Ayers’ name almost assuredly will surface in Obama’s second showdown with McCain.

Just as assuredly, the Obama campaign will try to keep the spotlight on the issue that seems to have turned the election its way: the nation’s economic turmoil. Reacting to Palin’s Colorado comments, Obama spokesman, Hari Sevugan, said: “Governor Palin’s comments, while offensive, are not surprising, given the McCain campaign’s statement this morning that they would be launching Swiftboat-like attacks in hopes of deflecting attention from the nation’s economic ills.”