Railroaders place to shoot the shit.

Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has continued but toned down her criticism Barack Obama's association with 1960s-era radical Bill Ayers and questioned the Democratic presidential candidates' relationship with Rev. Jeremiah Wright, an incendiary former pastor. GOP presidential contender John McCain has previously condemned the North Carolina Republican Party in April for an ad that featured Wright. Here are the Republicans' remarks on the subjects:

---

ON AYERS

-"Our opponent ... is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect, imperfect enough, that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country." - Palin, to donors Saturday at a private airport in Englewood, Colo.

-"This is someone who sees America as 'imperfect enough' to work with a former domestic terrorist who targeted his own country." - Palin, at a rally Monday in Clearwater, Fla.

---

ON WRIGHT

-"To tell you the truth, Bill, I don't know why that association isn't discussed more, because those were appalling things that that pastor had said about our great country, and to have sat in the pews for 20 years and listened to that - with, I don't know, a sense of condoning it, I guess, because he didn't get up and leave - to me, that does say something about character. But, you know, I guess that would be a John McCain call on whether he wants to bring that up." Palin, in an interview with William Kristol, published Monday in The New York Times.

-"I'm making it very clear, as I have a couple of times in the past, that there's no place for that kind of campaigning, and the American people don't want it." - McCain, speaking to reporters on April 23 about the North Carolina GOP ad which called Obama "too extreme" because of his association with Wright.