Brainster
Penultimate Amazing
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- May 26, 2006
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This came up during the presidential debate the other day:
A bit of background here. The Weather Underground was a group of extremist radicals who splintered from the New Left-oriented Students for a Democratic Society. As Stephanopoulos noted, they engaged in bombings. Although they never killed anybody intentionally, three of their members were blown up when a pipe bomb they were manufacturing for a soldiers' dance at Fort Dix detonated accidentally. Among those killed was Ayers' girlfriend at the time. The group became fugitives. Ayers and his eventual wife, Bernardine Dohrn lived on the run for a decade, finally surrendering to authorities in 1980. Because of governmental misconduct, they were never tried, and eventually both became professors (at prestigious schools: the University of Chicago and Northwestern University). They remain radical Marxists and as noted do not repent their actions.
During Obama's initial run for the Illinois State Senate, he held his very first campaign fundraiser at the home of Ayers and Dohrn. Second, he sat on the nine-person board of a charitable foundation with Ayers for three years, even after Ayers made his extremely controversial remarks (in fairness to Ayers, although they were published on 9-11-01, they were from an interview he gave before the terrorist attacks). Ayers made a small donation to Obama's campaign in 2001. And Obama gave a speech in 2005 at an event where Ayers was also a speaker.
Obama's defense thus far is three-pronged. As he stated at the debate:
But as noted above, this is not just some guy who lives in his neighborhood; this is somebody who held a fundraiser at his house for Obama's first campaign.
Obama went on to use the tu quoque defense:
This is a valid criticism of Bill Clinton. The women pardoned (Susan Rosenberg and Linda Evans), had not repented their actions.
But Obama won't be able to slough this off in the general election campaign by pointing to John McCain's ties to the Weather Underground.
The third defense (offered by Obama's defenders) is that he can't be held responsible for what Bill Ayers did when Barack was 8 years old. This of course is a strawman; nobody's saying he should be responsible for what Ayers did. He's responsible for associating with Ayers, despite knowing the man's background and unrepentant posture. Ayers' comments published on 9-11 caused a firestorm of controversy because of the timing; there's no way Obama could have missed hearing about it.
How bad does this look? This video is getting a lot of attention:
That's very hard-hitting and unfair at least on one point (the image of the North Tower of the WTC after the crash of Flight 11). But effective? Hoo-boy!
A bit of background here. The Weather Underground was a group of extremist radicals who splintered from the New Left-oriented Students for a Democratic Society. As Stephanopoulos noted, they engaged in bombings. Although they never killed anybody intentionally, three of their members were blown up when a pipe bomb they were manufacturing for a soldiers' dance at Fort Dix detonated accidentally. Among those killed was Ayers' girlfriend at the time. The group became fugitives. Ayers and his eventual wife, Bernardine Dohrn lived on the run for a decade, finally surrendering to authorities in 1980. Because of governmental misconduct, they were never tried, and eventually both became professors (at prestigious schools: the University of Chicago and Northwestern University). They remain radical Marxists and as noted do not repent their actions.
During Obama's initial run for the Illinois State Senate, he held his very first campaign fundraiser at the home of Ayers and Dohrn. Second, he sat on the nine-person board of a charitable foundation with Ayers for three years, even after Ayers made his extremely controversial remarks (in fairness to Ayers, although they were published on 9-11-01, they were from an interview he gave before the terrorist attacks). Ayers made a small donation to Obama's campaign in 2001. And Obama gave a speech in 2005 at an event where Ayers was also a speaker.
Obama's defense thus far is three-pronged. As he stated at the debate:
But as noted above, this is not just some guy who lives in his neighborhood; this is somebody who held a fundraiser at his house for Obama's first campaign.
Obama went on to use the tu quoque defense:
This is a valid criticism of Bill Clinton. The women pardoned (Susan Rosenberg and Linda Evans), had not repented their actions.
But Obama won't be able to slough this off in the general election campaign by pointing to John McCain's ties to the Weather Underground.
The third defense (offered by Obama's defenders) is that he can't be held responsible for what Bill Ayers did when Barack was 8 years old. This of course is a strawman; nobody's saying he should be responsible for what Ayers did. He's responsible for associating with Ayers, despite knowing the man's background and unrepentant posture. Ayers' comments published on 9-11 caused a firestorm of controversy because of the timing; there's no way Obama could have missed hearing about it.
How bad does this look? This video is getting a lot of attention:
That's very hard-hitting and unfair at least on one point (the image of the North Tower of the WTC after the crash of Flight 11). But effective? Hoo-boy!
