Obama uses Palin's words to rip robocalls

WASHINGTON, Oct. 20 (UPI) -- Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., denounced the so-called robocalls made by his Republican rival, noting even his running mate is decrying them.

The robocalls -- automatic phone calls made randomly to homes in several swing states -- call into question Obama's association with 1960s radical Bill Ayers and his economic platform, ABC News reported.

"It's getting so bad that even Sen. McCain's running mate denounced his tactics last night," Obama said to a crowd at Steinbrenner Field. "And you know, you really have to work hard to violate (Alaska) Governor (Sarah) Palin's standards on negative campaigning. You gotta work hard."

Palin said Sunday she would talk to Americans about the McCain-Palin plan to right the economy and not have to "rely on the old conventional way of campaigning that includes those robocalls and includes spending so much money on the television ads that I think is kind of draining out there in terms of Americans' attention span."

The U.S. public is frustrated with all the ads, Palin said, "and you're seeing a lot of that, of course, with the huge amounts of money that Barack Obama is able to spend on his ads and his robocalls, also."