Will Obama's Association with Bill Ayers Scuttle his Candidacy?

[T.A.M.]

may be we should start a new thread in the regular "politics" section dedicated to Mr Ayers, as I do not see, in the slightest now, the relevance.

TAM

 

[Shadowdweller]

The Weatherman group plotted murder; they just did a lousy job of it:
But they blew themselves up instead.

A plot with which Ayers himself was never even implicated.

 

[Brainster]

Newsweek has a piece on the attacks to come for Obama on this issue:

Operatives such as David Bossie, whose Citizens United group made the Willie Horton ad that helped sink Michael Dukakis's 1988 presidential bid, are sharpening knives as expectations mount that Obama will be their target in the fall. Bossie says he is assembling material for TV spots about Obama's ties with Ayers, a Chicago professor and unrepentant former member of the Weather Underground, a group that bombed several government buildings to protest the Vietnam War. The Ayers issue bounced around right-wing media for months, but it received broad exposure at last week's debate on ABC, when Obama was asked a question about their relationship. Obama, who lives near Ayers in Chicago's Hyde Park, attended an event at Ayers's house when Obama ran for the state Senate in 1995—and served on the board of a nonprofit with him for several years. "Obama is aware of the acts Ayers committed when he was 8 years old and has called them 'detestable'," says spokesman Ben LaBolt, adding that Obama occasionally bumps into Ayers in his neighborhood "but has not seen him for months." At a recent dinner party, according to one guest who asked not to be identified discussing a private gathering, Ayers "ridiculed" the notion that Obama shared his left-wing views: "He thought the idea that there was a political connection between them was absurd." (Ayers declined to comment.)

 

[T.A.M.]

you were saying about the "occasional elbow or two" in another thread brain...

does that look like they are preparing for the occasional elbow or two, to you???

TAM

 

[The Painter]

TAM, who are you voting for?

 

[T.A.M.]

is that a legitimate question, not seeing on my avatar that I am from Canada, or a wisecrack that if you are not from the USA, you cannot comment on US politics?

TAM

 

[corplinx]

is that a legitimate question, not seeing on my avatar that I am from Canada, or a wisecrack that if you are not from the USA, you cannot comment on US politics?

TAM

No, its just queer that two largest Obama apologists on the forum are you and adequate who can't vote for him.

 

[T.A.M.]

queer...perhaps, but what does it say about how the world at large reflects on who they would like to see as your leader...or is n=2 too small a sample size...lol

oh, by the way, I do not consider myself an Obama "Apologist" so much as someone who appreciates his abilities, admires his vision, and someone who dislikes the REPs in power, and Hillary.

TAM

 

[Cain]

I did reply again but my post seems to be missing so now I'm reduced to remembering what I said.

"Brain"ster:

LOL! So Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn weren't true believers? I suggest you watch that little video I included in the OP.

No, the difference between Bill Ayers and Eric Rudolph is that there are always liberals willing to excuse disgusting and immoral behavior on the part of the left. If Eric Rudolph were to be freed (not that it's likely), do you think any Republican would associate with him 20 years later, or hold a fundraiser at his house, or appear on panels with him?

Except you're failing to acknowledge that oh-so-quaint distinction between murdering people and destroying property. I also said "true-believing follower." The members of the Weather Underground profiled in the above mentioned documentary tended to be more reflective and independent-minded. The central distinction though goes to private vs. state-sponsored terrorism. Why are Republicans not asked to account for their association with Henry Kissinger? Instead the guy gets invited to exclusive parties, and they brag about receiving his policy advice. Meanwhile you're attacking Obama for having a rather trivial association with someone who helped blow up buildings so that people like Kissinger would stop burning people.

Ward Churchill provides another point of comparison. The raison d'être for the right-wing campaign against Churchill had everything to do with the content of his beliefs, although later he was finally fired for plagiarism and other academic misconduct. But for the conservative media he represented a left-wing, America-hating professor, and so they had to attack him even if it was for overlooked remarks made years earlier. Now let's compare that to John Yoo, a guy responsible for crafting policy. These are just really screwed up values and priorities. Also, I'll guarantee you more people on the left are internally conflicted about sacking a scumbag like Yoo versus the anti-Churchill conservatives who are always yammering on about "political correctness."

 

[Brainster]

McCain weighs in on the issue:

“I'm sure he's very patriotic. But his relationship with Mr. Ayers is open to question,” said McCain.

“He became friends with him and spent time with him while the guy was unrepentant over his activities as a member of a terrorist organization, the Weathermen,” said the Arizona senator.

“Does he condemn them? Would he condemn someone who that says they're unrepentant and wished that they had bombed more?”

Note the Obama camp's substantive reply:

The Obama campaign responded a short time later. “Unable to sell his out-of-touch ideas on the economy and Iraq, John McCain has stooped to the same smear politics and low road that he denounced in 2000," said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton. "The American people can’t afford a third term of President Bush’s failed policies and divisive tactics.”

Translation: We don't have a good answer.

 

[corplinx]

Is there really anything more to this than a crusty old academic leftist who was a radical when it was cool holding a fundraiser for Obama that had the sin of being the first?

 

[Puppycow]

Is there really anything more to this than a crusty old academic leftist who was a radical when it was cool holding a fundraiser for Obama that had the sin of being the first?

No.

 

[Tsukasa Buddha]

No, its just queer that two largest Obama apologists on the forum are you and adequate who can't vote for him.

Aw, I don't count ?

I need to get cracking. Darn you, T.A.M.!

 

[Gravy]

If Eric Rudolph were to be freed (not that it's likely), do you think any Republican would associate with him 20 years later, or hold a fundraiser at his house, or appear on panels with him?

That depends. Does Rudolph golf?

 

[Brainster]

Uh-oh. The Broadway Baby connection surfaces. Ayers' wife, Bernardine Dohrn, apparently assisted the criminals who pulled off a Brinks robbery in New York that left a security guard and two cops dead.

Investigators tracked the identities on two licenses for the getaway cars. The names belonged to women who had shopped at Broadway Baby in December 1979. But they weren't robbers.

And who was the manager of Broadway Baby during that period of the customer ID theft?

Dohrn, the future wife of Ayers, identified by investigators as taking customer information from one, and possibly both, of the women shoppers. Dohrn was never charged in that case.

But she did serve seven months for refusing to testify to the grand jury and for not providing a handwriting sample.

Dohrn and Ayers raised Chesa Boudin, the child of Kathy Boudin and David Graham, who were both involved in the Brinks Robbery. Did they raise him in the proper Marxist fashion?

"When I was younger, I was angry. Now I'm not angry. I'm sad that my parents have to suffer what they have to suffer on a daily basis, that millions of other people have to suffer as well. My parents were all dedicated to fighting U.S. imperialism around the world. I'm dedicated to the same thing."

 

[Brainster]

Oh, my. Obama's Fact Check page tries to claim that Ayers and Dohrn are just mainstream Chicago liberals these days:

AYERS AND DOHRN BECAME RESPECTABLE FIXTURES OF THE MAINSTREAM IN CHICAGO

Bill Ayers And Bernadine Dohrn "Became Respectable Fixtures In Mainstream Liberal Chicago Years Ago." Alexander Cockburn wrote in and op-ed for the Las Vegas Review Journal, "Late last week, the Clinton campaign was leaking stories about support for Obama from the former Weather Underground couple Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, both of whom became respectable fixtures in mainstream liberal Chicago years ago." [Las Vegas Review Journal, 3/2/08]

That is not a defense they will want to hang onto given Ayers' and Dohrn's recent comments about "living in the belly of the beast" and "death to capitalism!" That's just piling more wood on the fire.

 

[BPSCG]

That is not a defense they will want to hang onto given Ayers' and Dohrn's recent comments about "living in the belly of the beast" and "death to capitalism!" That's just piling more wood on the fire.

Weak defense, but Obama's in a tough spot on this. If they just ignore it and hope it goes away, it stays out there and the narrative becomes "Obama hangs with terrorists."

FWIW, he does seem to have a lot of friends who hate America: Wright, Ayers, his wife...

 

[Tsukasa Buddha]

Oh, my. Obama's Fact Check page tries to claim that Ayers and Dohrn are just mainstream Chicago liberals these days:



That is not a defense they will want to hang onto given Ayers' and Dohrn's recent comments about "living in the belly of the beast" and "death to capitalism!" That's just piling more wood on the fire.

Yup, that's pretty mainstream for Chicago liberals .

Oddly, the only people I've met who know who the hell Ayers is actually like him.

 

[kallsop]

Weak defense, but Obama's in a tough spot on this. If they just ignore it and hope it goes away, it stays out there and the narrative becomes "Obama hangs with terrorists."

The Al Gore 'bot made that mistake when he ignored the story about his claiming to have invented the internet. He didn't literally say that. He did say his mother-in-law was taking dog medicine because she couldn't afford the human medicine. What a nice concerned millionaire son-in-law she has

If Obama let's other define who he is, he's going to sink. That's true for any candidate.

 

[Brainster]

Is Obama's association with Ayers much closer than has been reported? Elizabeth Wurzel, in a bizarre piece about her adolescent crush on Bernardine Dohrn drops this tidbit:

Apparently, back when he was running for state senate, Barack Obama had fund-raising events at the home of Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, and there's been some press about the senator's friendship with this controversial Weathercouple. Many reporters are well aware, even though Mr. Obama has described his connection to Ayers and Dohrn as "flimsy," that the senator's relationship with his radical Hyde Park neighbors is actually quite warm, even close.

Say what? The rest of the article is rather embarrassing as this ending hints:

In a way, the public is saying that we don't want the country erupting into a divisiveness akin to what created the '60s scene, the atmosphere of the Weather Underground. Even Jeremiah Wright, an embarrassing pastor who would probably have brought down a less-deft political prestidigitator, will not do in Barack Obama. The Reverend rants and raves. It's a mess. But Mr. Obama's campaign will carry on.

As for Mr. Obama's friends, the Weathercouple: By all accounts, Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers are unfathomably charming, brilliant and comely people, absolutely irresistible. Everybody who meets them is taken and forgets what they should know.

Mr. Obama expects us all to understand this, because we understand everything else. He is doing something most unusual: He's acting as if the American people are thinking with their brains. He's giving all of us a lot of credit. Could it be that we deserve it?

Rolling my eyes here. For starters, Reverend Wright seems to be doing a pretty good job of bringing down even a deft political prestidigitator, to the point where Obama's nomination seems to be unraveling.

But by all means, let's hear more about this brilliant and comely couples' warm relationship with Barack Obama.