Obama careless with the truth
Watching Lateline and caught a clip of Obama denying there was any substance to the story of his association with William Ayers, a Weatherman of the 60s and 70s.
“And the notion that somehow as a consequence of me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8 years old, somehow reflects on me and my values doesn’t make much sense…”This is William Ayres Of the day he bombed the Pentagon, Ayers says, “Everything was absolutely ideal. … The sky was blue. The birds were singing. And the bastards were finally going to get what was coming to them.”
On another occasion, Ayers stated: “There’s something about a good bomb … Night after night, day after day, each majestic scene I witnessed was so terrible and so unexpected that no city would ever again stand innocently fixed in my mind. Big buildings and wide streets, cement and steel were no longer permanent. They, too, were fragile and destructible. A torch, a bomb, a strong enough wind, and they, too, would come undone or get knocked down.”and this from a memoir of sorts released on 9/11
‘I don’t regret setting bombs,” Bill Ayers said. ”I feel we didn’t do enough.”From Hillary Clinton;
Obama served on a board with former Weather Underground member William Ayers and “that relationship with Mr. Ayers on this board continued after 9/11.”and this;
Deborah Harrington, president of the Woods Fund, a philanthropic organization in Chicago, said Obama was a director from 1994 through 2001. That overlaps Ayers’ time as a director by three years. It also means Obama served with Ayers for the final months of 2001, after Ayers made his comments to the New York Times.So Senator, we’re not talking about something that happened 40 years ago but an ongoing association with an anarchist that does reflects on you and your values. You were working with Ayres when you were 40, not 40 years ago. Is that what you meant to say? If not, you lied! As far as I’m concerned there is no Statute of limitations on being an anarchist dedicated to a terrorist bombing campaign against your own countryman and even if Ayres now has an aura of respectability about him he is what he was and Obama sat down with him. Worse, he did it in full knowledge of what Ayers had done. Not that the ABC mentioned any of these details – just the denial, leaving viewers with the impression that it all happened when Obama was a just an eight year old. Amazing isn’t it that the US Democrats have a campaign HQ in Australia – ah…the ABC, ever reliable. UPDATE: An article by a victim of William Ayers UPDATE2: Dogfight at Bankstown has good coverage on the subject matter.
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The problem of Barack Obama’s relationship with Bill Ayers will not go away. Ayers was pictured in a 2001 article for Chicago magazine, stomping on an American flag, and told the New York Times just before 9/11 that the notion of the United States as a just and fair and decent place “makes me want to puke.”
As a US citizen I take my right to vote for our leaders as a very serious issue. I want to find out as much as I can on the background of the candidates. I believe most people in the USA are a “product” of their environment and the company they keep… Past and present.
Kev
Ive served on a board or two – in the case of one an ex fellow member is now in the clink. This doesnt make me a crook,
This is pure and simple a pretty clumsy attempt at a smear – and it doesnt seem to be getting much traction outside libertarian blogs. Its interesting that the Republican minders are using Palin to rather than McCain to push it – a pretty good indication that its dodgy.
Watch the smears ramp up, particularly if the polls continue to trend as they have in the last week.
US politics is even more bizarre than ours.
William Ayers is currently a professor of early education at the University of Chicago. He cofounded an organization called the Weather Underground in the late 1960’s. That group became the more violent wing of SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) , and Ayers was eventually accused of involvement in several bombings in opposition to the Vietnam War. His relation to Obama is minimal. Apparently he once hosted a “coffee klatch” for Obama’s run for the state senate. They lived in the same neighborhood, and ran into each other due to their shared passion for educational reform. Barack Obama was eight years old when the Weather Underground was active, and has denounced its past operations. The two do not speak to each other currently.
Read more at SERENDIPITY
17 etc. We are not talking about a common criminal but a terrorist and the fact that Obama played the “when I was eight” card. He knowingly sat on a board with a person who wanted to blow up society and should have explained his actions “when I was 40”
When you lie down with dogs, you wake up with flees.
F.Mitchell, You are entitled to know all about a candidate for President of the US but the media will attempt to thwart you in that endeavour. My problem, as an outsider, is that the Democrats have turned up with two seemingly anti-American candidates over the last two elections. Kerry was an out and out supporter of the North Vietnamese and very anti his own military and now Obama’s traveling companions seemingly come from the same stable.
Worrying…to me Obama seems all style and little substance but it is working in that the polls have him ahead.
Kev, the worry is that should McCain become ill or die during his term, that half wit Palin will be the President fo the USA. Come on Kev, you aren’t stupid, the thought of her as President must surely make you shudder. Obama is the man for the job, and I hope he wins, for the good of the world.
Eddie,
I never, ever support or encourage left wing politicians. Any one who has any connection whatsoever with Weathermen is not to be trusted.
Why is Palin a half wit? If you get all your news from the Democrats Australian HQ at the ABC and SBS then of course all you ever see or hear is negatives on Palin and that is reason in itself not to think she’s a half wit. The trash the media are putting out on Palin beggars description and the media are refusing to question any of the sources. Not so me..I pursue it to the end and have generally found the accusations are politically based and mostly out and out lies.
We are not electing her as President and this must be the one and only election where people have made that statement. To be sure McCain is in his 70s but that is less a risk than the left wing, all style and no substance Obama.
So Eddie, define why she is a half wit? Does just being a Republican fit the bill or is there something substantial. I watched her on the VP debate and she was quiet reasonable there even considering the Democrat arbitrator. She appeals to a vast audience of ordinary folk out in the suburbs who can respect a woman who has achieved what she has whilst having children, staying with her man, refusing abortion, talking plainly and running a state.
I’m not ready to write her off yet and she certainly isn’t a half wit
Why is she a half wit? These two quotes should sum up the story so far.
quote 1
“Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right. Also, for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending soldiers out on a task that is from God. That’s what we have to make sure that we’re praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God’s plan.”
quote 2
“I’m the mayor, I can do whatever I want until the courts tell me I can’t.'” –Sarah Palin, as quoted by former City Council Member Nick Carney, after he raised objections about the $50,000 she spent renovating the mayor’s office without approval of the city council
KEv, the Republicans led by a bigger half with Mr Bush Jnr have destroyed America the whole world wants Obama to win and maay be Americas last chance to regain credibility in the world.
Kev
This is the substance –
Obama was part of a panel sponsored by the child care faculty at a University in Chicago where Ayers is employed as a professor. He shared the rostrum with a Catholic priest, a teacher at a detention centre, an ex-inmate of the same centre and Ayers speaking with his academic hat on. It was a pretty run-of-the-mill talkfest on an issue (the rehabilitation of young offenders) which is important in his constituency.
The Republican machine has seized on it and is using it as an “October surprise” in the same way as they used the Swift Boat controversy against Kerry. It’s the only public association – albeit pretty meaningless – that they have, and they’ve been digging very hard.
Funny thing is, there’s dirt available on both Palin and McCain, but the Democrat machine hasn’t used it to any effect –
On Palin – http://www.andrewhalcro.com/why_walt_monegan_got_fired
On McCain – http://video.google.com.au/videosearch?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=&=&q=“keating economics”&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wv#
Hopefully Australian politics won’t be reduced to this, but every indication is that in future it will, if it’s not there already.
Ah yes, the web is alive with accusations of just how unsuitable Palin is to be anything other than a mother (and a poor one at that – she even let a Down’s Syndrome baby go to full term) but while there is an element of truth with some of the accusations – there always is when one trawls back to conception looking for peccadillos, many are a fabrication. Check here for some answers.
Sorry, neither of those two comments qualify her as a half wit. You may not be aware but every time a soldier goes to war God’s name is invoked. We have Padres and political leaders who are often religious and it is almost mandatory to use words like Palin did. So she’s religious? I can see how that is ‘just so stupid’ to the Left but even though I’m not religious myself I don’t stress about those who are. So long as she’s not extreme right, and she isn’t, there is nothing wrong with religion.
I’m Mayor and can do what I wantThere is one source for that statement; Nick Carney. He doesn’t like her and they ended up being political enemies
Maybe a big deal maybe not. Maybe the office was really “blokey”; either way, if we called every politician ‘half wit’ because they decorated their offices on taking power it would be big list.
Doesn’t look like the locals were worried about her new feminine office, does it?
The whole world doesn’t want Obama to win. Those people polled in Europe want him to win but then they would. An America under Obama would be much quieter and that would suit them. Enough of this “America demanding they actually contribute to the fight against the Taliban” Having said that I would rather be Obama than McCain right now but let’s wait and see. Substance may yet prevail over style.
And of course Bush is responsible for the current financial crisis and it has nothing to do with the Democrats and the crazy ‘give everyone a loan – even if they can’t service’ it programs. Google CRA, it may disappoint as it doesn’t really conform to the BDS (Bush Derangement Syndrome) attitude that everything is Bush’s fault as much as one would like.
Greetings,
Harry Truman was regarded as a pretty ordinary fellow (possibly even a half wit) by many when he was vice president. But he had great commonsense. Now he is ranked among the greatest of the US presidents.
I think Palin also has commonsense and I do not see why she shouldn’t equal Truman should she also inherit the presidency.
Similarly, there was much derisory laughter when it was discovered she does not hold a passport. To be sure, I was fearfully impressed by this “unworldliness”. For here I thought, is a politician who sees unnecessary travel overseas at taxpayers’ expense as well, unnecessary. I take that as a sign of integrity.
If I am right in my assessment, and she does have commonsense and integrity, is there much else to be desired?
lets close those tags…
Kev,
It’s not surprising that ‘17 whatever’ tries to minimize Obama’s relationship with Ayers – he’s a ‘joiner’ and has swallowed deeply from ‘the ones’ rather large jug of Kool Aid.
In his typically simple way he’s just repeating the talking points of the Obama campaign. However, there is a lot of evidence that Ayers ‘found’ Obama and actively promoted and supported his ‘entrée’ into US politics and that Obama is lying about his relationship with both Ayers and the radical preacher who also mentored him…
To jog the memory here is a link to an eyewitness account of the sort of thing Ayers did as a member of the Weather Underground’ – http://www.city-journal.org/2008/eon0430jm.html
Here’s a list of accounts of Obama’s close relationship with his lefty mate.
In 1995, During Obama’s First State Senate Campaign, William Ayers And Wife Bernadine Dohrn Hosted A Meeting Of Chicago Liberals At Their Home For Obama, Which One Attendee Said Was Aimed At "Launching Him."
“In 1995, State Senator Alice Palmer introduced her chosen successor, Barack Obama, to a few of the district’s influential liberals at the home of two well known figures on the local left: William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn. While Ayers and Dohrn may be thought of in Hyde Park as local activists, they’re better known nationally as two of the most notorious — and unrepentant — figures from the violent fringe of the 1960s anti-war movement. … ‘I can remember being one of a small group of people who came to Bill Ayers’ house to learn that Alice Palmer was stepping down from the senate and running for Congress,’ said Dr. Quentin Young, a prominent Chicago physician and advocate for single-payer health care, of the informal gathering at the home of Ayers and his wife, Dohrn. ‘[Palmer] identified [Obama] as her successor.’ … Dr. Young and another guest, Maria Warren, described it similarly: as an introduction to Hyde Park liberals of the handpicked successor to Palmer, a well-regarded figure on the left. ‘When I first met Barack Obama, he was giving a standard, innocuous little talk in the living room of those two legends-in-their-own-minds, Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn,’ Warren wrote on her blog in 2005. ‘They were launching him — introducing him to the Hyde Park community as the best thing since sliced bread.’" (Ben Smith, "Obama Once Visited ’60s Radicals," The Politico, 1/22/08).
From March Of 1995 Until September Of 1997, Obama And Ayers Attended At Least Seven Meetings Together Relating To The Chicago Annenberg Challenge. (Chicago Annenberg Challenge, Board Of Directors Meeting, Minutes Of The Board, 3/15/95, 3/31/95, 4/13/95, 6/5/95, 9/30/97; National Annenberg Challenge Evaluation Meeting, List Of Participants, 5/24/95; Chicago Annenberg Challenge, Chicago School Reform Collaborative Meeting, Minutes, 10/23/96)
Bill Ayers Was Asked To Help Obama Formulate The Chicago Annenberg Challenge By-Laws. (Chicago Annenberg Challenge Board Of Directors Minutes, 3/15/95)
In 1997, Obama Praised Ayers’ Book On The Juvenile Justice System. "The two men were involved in efforts to reform the city’s education system. They appeared together on academic panels, including one organized by Michelle Obama to discuss the juvenile justice system, an area of mutual concern. Mr. Ayers’s book on the subject won a rave review in The Chicago Tribune by Mr. Obama, who called it ‘a searing and timely account.’" (Jo Becker and Christopher Drew, "Pragmatic Politics, Forged On The South Side," The New York Times, 5/11/08)
"[Obama And Ayers] Have Also Appeared Jointly On Two Academic Panels, One In 1997 And Another In 2001." (Russell Berman, "Obama’s Ties To Left Come Under Scrutiny," The New York Sun, 2/19/08)
From 1999 To 2002, Obama Served With Ayers On The Board Of Directors For Woods Fund Of Chicago. "[Ayers] served with [Obama] from 1999 to 2002 on the board of the Woods Fund, an anti-poverty group." (Timothy J. Burger, "Obama’s Chicago Ties Might Fuel ‘Republican Attack Machine’," Bloomberg, 2/15/08)
During The Time Obama And Ayers Served Together On The Woods Fund, Ayers Was Quoted Saying "I Don’t Regret Setting Bombs … I Feel We Didn’t Do Enough." "’I don’t regret setting bombs,’ Bill Ayers said. ‘I feel we didn’t do enough.’ Mr. Ayers, who spent the 1970’s as a fugitive in the Weather Underground, was sitting in the kitchen of his big turn-of-the-19th-century stone house in the Hyde Park district of Chicago." (Dinitia Smith, "No Regrets For A Love Of Explosives," The New York Times, 9/11/01)
Obama, Born August 14th, 1961, Was 40 Years Old When Ayers Was Quoted. (Obama For America Website, http://www.barackobama.com, Accessed 10/6/08; Dinitia Smith, "No Regrets For A Love Of Explosives," The New York Times, 9/11/01)
While Obama And Ayers Were Serving On The Woods Fund Together, Ayers Posed Standing On An American Flag For An Article In Chicago Magazine Entitled "No Regrets." (Marcia Froelke Coburn, "No Regrets," Chicago Magazine, 8/01)
Obama And Ayers Are Neighbors In Chicago’s Hyde Park Neighborhood. "Twenty-six years later, at a lunchtime meeting about school reform in a Chicago skyscraper, Barack Obama met Mr. Ayers, by then an education professor. Their paths have crossed sporadically since then, at a coffee Mr. Ayers hosted for Mr. Obama’s first run for office, on the schools project and a charitable board, and in casual encounters as Hyde Park neighbors." (Scott Shane, "Obama And ’60s Bomber: A Look Into Crossed Paths," The New York Times, 10/4/08)
Obama Spokesman Ben LaBolt Told The New York Times That Last Year Obama And Ayers "Bumped Into Each Other On The Street In Hyde Park." "[Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt] said they have not spoken by phone or exchanged e-mail messages since Mr. Obama began serving in the United States Senate in January 2005 and last met more than a year ago when they bumped into each other on the street in Hyde Park." (Scott Shane, "Obama And ’60s Bomber: A Look Into Crossed Paths," The New York Times, 10/4/08)
Neighbors Have Said "It’s Only Natural" That Obama Would Know Ayers, Who Often Opens His Home For Gatherings, As Obama And His Wife "Are A Part Of Our Neighborhood And Part Of Our Social Circle." "Since coming out of hiding in 1980, the couple have raised three boys in Chicago and become part of the fabric of their liberal South Side neighborhood. Neighbors said it’s only natural that Obama would know Ayers and Dohrn, who often open their homes for gatherings filled with lively discussions about politics, arts and social issues. Obama and his wife ‘are part of our neighborhood and part of our social circle,’ said Elizabeth Chandler, a neighbor of Ayers’." (Trevor Jensen, Robert Mitchum and Mary Owen, "Bill Ayers’ Turbulent Past Contrasts With Quiet Academic Life," Chicago Tribune, 4/17/08)
"William Ayers … [Was] A Founding Member Of The Group That Bombed The U.S. Capitol And The Pentagon During The 1970s." (Russell Berman, "Obama’s Ties To Left Come Under Scrutiny," The New York Sun, 2/19/08)
Ayers’ Group, The Weather Underground, Is A "Violent Left-Wing Activist Group." "Senator Obama’s ties to a former leader of the violent left-wing activist group the Weather Underground are drawing new scrutiny as he battles Senator Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination." (Russell Berman, "Obama’s Ties To Left Come Under Scrutiny," The New York Sun, 2/19/08)
The Weather Underground Produced A Manual Which Begins, "We Are A Guerrilla Organization. We Are Communist Women And Men, Underground In The United States For More Than Four Years." "The coalition was said to be a violence-prone faction inspired by the Weather Underground’s ”Prairie Fire,” a guerrilla warfare manual published in 1974. The manual begins, ‘We are a guerrilla organization. We are Communist women and men, underground in the United States for more than four years.’" (Paul L. Montgomery, "2 Women In Brink’s Case Identified With Weathermen From Start In ’69," The New York Times, 10/ 22/81).
Peter W
Do you mind if I briefly analyse your “evidence”?
For the sake of brevity, I’ll number your references from 1 to 14.
12, 13 & 14 are varying descriptions of Ayers’ activities in the 1970s. Most of us who were alive at the time have vague memories of the activities of the Weathermen, just as we do of organisations in Australia such as the Save Our Sons movement. The relevance of these movements to current politics is as non-existent here as it is in the US. The fact that the group existed is historical fact, and your citations simply remind us of that. It means absolutely nothing to voting members of X and Y generations and the Millennials. None of these references attempt to link Obama with Ayers.
9, 10 and 11 remind us that they both lived in Chicago in the same neighbourhood. Big deal – were the Obamas expected to move house? What on earth is this supposed to prove? Again, none of these references attempt to link Obama with Ayers.
8, 7 and 6 are statements about Ayers linked in one case with Obama’s birthdate, and in the other two with statements Ayers made about an apparent lack of remorse. OK, so this means that Obama shares a neighbourhood with an unrepentant terrorist, and he was 40 at the time that Ayers was unrepentant. The inference (completely without evidence in these citations) is that Obama sympathises with terrorists. Trying to establish guilt by association was exactly the strategy that damaged the Liberal Party just prior to the last federal poll (the Kelly/Clarke saga). Most modern voters are too smart to be fooled by this anachronistic technique. The outcome here will be similar.
5 and 4 report Obama sharing podiums with Obama. This is hardly revelatory, given that both have shared interests in juvenile justice and child development, and Ayers has some academic standing in the field. I’m pretty sure that the USA isn’t much different from here in the sense that there’s no thought police employed to test for political affiliation before inviting someone on to a panel. I’ve participated in lots of panels over the years without ever being asked my political slant on a particular subject. The moderators are usually more interested in information, ideas and lively discussion. The people who trawled this material obviously have a very limited understanding of pluralism.
1 contains a report of a report –
“When I first met Barack Obama, he was giving a standard, innocuous little talk in the living room of those two legends-in-their-own-minds, Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn”.
Assuming this is true (and we know that everything blogged is always the absolute truth) – it describes a youthful Obama giving an “innocuous” talk at the home of an ex-terrorist. What is this supposed to prove? It has about as much meaning as the fact that Palin is married to an ex-member of the Alaska Independence Party and addressed one of their recent conventions. An ex-leader of this organisation, Joe Vogler, is on the public record as saying “I’m an Alaskan, not an American. I’ve got no use for America or her damned institutions.” But I guess that’s OK, because she’s on the Republican ticket.
2 and 3 are more of the same, only this time the link is the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a public school reform project. Others on this board were Stanley O. Ikenberry, president of the University of Illinois (1979–1995); member of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago (1983–1995); former professor of education (1965–1971) and senior vice president (1971–1979) of Pennsylvania State University, Arnold R. Weber, president of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago (1995–1999); member of the board of directors of the Arie and Ida Crown Memorial and the Tribune Company; former president of Northwestern University (1985–1994) and the University of Colorado (1980–1985); professor of labour economics and friend and colleague of George P. Shultz at MIT, the University of Chicago, and in the Nixon administration, Ray Romero, vice president and general counsel of Ameritech; Chicago School Finance Authority board member (appointed in 1992 by Governor Jim Edgar); candidate in the 1996 Democratic primary for the 5th Congressional District of Illinois; winner, Crain’s Chicago Business 40 Under 40 award, 1991; former Illinois Commerce Commission commissioner (appointed in 1985 by Governor Jim Thompson); former civil rights attorney as Midwest regional director of MALDEF where he was lead counsel for Hispanic plaintiffs in the 1985 Chicago ward remap, Wanda White, executive director of the Community Workshop on Economic Development; former policy director of the Women’s Self-Employment Project; former deputy commissioner of economic development under Chicago Mayors Washington, Sawyer and Daley, Susan Crown, president of the Arie and Ida Crown Memorial; vice president of Henry Crown & Company; daughter of Lester Crown, Handy Lindsey, Jr., executive director (1988–1997) then president (1997–2003) of the Field Foundation of Illinois; former associate director of the Chicago Community Trust (1986–1988). William Ayers was one of the three co-authors of the winning Annenberg Challenge $49.2 million grant proposal.Obama at that time was a lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School;
As you can see, these are obviously a bunch of terrorist sympathisers, although the fact that one of them (George P Schultz) is an ex-member of the Nixon administration is a bit confusing.
The Swift boat smear, a totally disgraceful episode, worked against Kerry. Americans have learned from that, given the situation they now find themselves in. I doubt it will work again.
“and has swallowed deeply from ‘the ones’ rather large jug of Kool Aid”
Never touch the stuff Peter W – my preferred tipple is a good Margaret River red.
“The Swift boat smear, a totally disgraceful episode…”
I still haven’t seen Kerry’s secret squirrel hat – you know the one he claimed to have been given by a spook on a fictional trip to Cambodia one Christmas.
Kerry strode onto the stage at the Democratic Party convention and announced “I’m John Kerry and I’m reporting for duty” in front of giant screens displaying images purporting to show his ‘heroic’ actions in SVN.
He used his service record as a political tool in a deliberate campaign to smear Bush’s service in the Air National Guard.
It failed, not because Bush’s service didn’t measure up, but because Kerry inflated his own record and lied and slandered during the Winter Soldier affair.
He is in US parlance “an arse hat”, whilst Obama is just a lightweight sponsored by the ‘Chicago New Party’ and radicals like Ayers.
Obama continued his relationship with Ayers long after he would have known what kind of ideology Ayers continues to hold dear – he is beholden to Ayers and his ilk as is his wife.
That Kerry was loose with the truth is a matter of record.
Obama’s false portrayal of Ayers as “just a guy in the neighbourhood” is equally obtuse.
What would any other politician have done when he or she discovered that a terrorist was sitting on the same board as them? Wouldn’t just about anyone else have said “no thank you” to such an invitation?
The board appointments and sundry other regular contacts expose as a lie Obama’s claim that he doesn’t know Ayers very well.
Both of the forums at U of C were set up by Michelle Obama in her capacity as University of Chicago PR executive; evidently she saw nothing wrong in associating with terrorists either.
In a desperate effort to enhance his meagre qualifications Obama regularly cites his time on the boards with Ayers and his relationship with Rezko, the convicted slum lord fraudster who helped him buy his house in that ‘neighbourhood’, as evidence he has the ‘executive’ experience to be President.
Obama’s political career was launched at Ayers’ house, Ayers then set up the Chicago Annenburg Challenge (CAC) and hired ‘community organiser’ Obama as chairman of the board of CAC.
The ‘accidental’ neighbours then worked closely together on the Woods Fund and appeared together on several public forums to promote their pet legislation.
During this time Obama and Ayers directed millions of dollars from CAC to amongst other ‘charities’ the ‘Trinity Church of Christ’ now well known as the pulpit home of racist ‘Reverend’ Wright who Obama claims as a mentor.
Why did Obama and Ayers disburse so much cash to Wright and other ‘pastors’ of large black American churches in the Chicago area?
Vote buying plain and simple.
Ayers gave an unqualified Obama the job that bought him his political career and Obama owes him big time.
Why did Ayers promote Obama so diligently? Is it because Obama is a mainstream, middle of the road kind of guy who loves America and doesn’t share Ayers’ violent radical ideology?
If you believe that 17 you’ll believe anything.
Peter W
This smear, and others like it, have become completely irrelevant.
Take a look at the polls – http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/latestpolls/index.html
With the S&P 500 falling 7.6 percent overnight, American voters have suddenly lost interest in dog-whistle politics. They’re more worried about their financial security than guilt by association.
They’re more worried about their financial security than guilt by association.
Then the last thing they should is elect a president from the party that engineered the financial problems in the first place but it does look like they going to.
Guilt by association doesn’t quiet cut it and nor does the The Swift boat smear. To define people mentioning Kerry’s consorting with the enemy and defiling his own military as a smear and totally disgraceful episode suggests a huge disconnect with the realities of our times. So does ignoring Obama’s association with the same sort of activists that Kerry did although the media’s whitewashing this fact seems to be working.
Still, I’m hoping the media and Obama don’t win but I’m not overly optimistic.
What’s good for the goose……
This released today –
http://news.sbs.com.au/worldnewsaustralia/alaska_inquiry_finds_palin_abused_power_559680
The GOP apparatchiks had been trying to keep it under wraps until after the election. This was a bi-partisan report.
An extract –
“Sarah Palin unlawfully abused her power as governor by trying to have her former brother-in-law fired as a state trooper, the chief investigator of an Alaska legislative panel concluded.”
Even though her behaviour was termed “unlawful” the nearly 300-page report does not recommend sanctions or a criminal investigation.
She may be easy on the eye, but her ethics are clearly a bit suss.
17 etc
Not quite
Kev
The author of that piece has a tenuous undertsanding of the term “contradiction”. The panel found that she abused her position. They did not recommend any criminal proceedings. That’s not a contradiction – it’s a non sequitor. They simply let her off lightly. If Obama (or Biden for that matter had abused their positions), you’d hear the bleating from Palin’s disciples on this side of the Pacific.
My point (What’s good for the goose….) is that none of this nonsense has any part in a campaign for the leadership of the most powerful nation in the world, and the fact that they (both sides) have resorted to this is a pretty fair indication of the level of political discourse in the US.
What is more sinister is people at McCain rallies screaming “traitor” and “terrorist” when Obama’s name is mentioned. I’ve just seen a video of this and it’s ugly – to the point where McCain, described Obama as “a decent man” in an (unsuccessful) attempt to shut them down.
It resonates a great deal with me, as I remember Bobby Kennedy – who was assassinated on my 21st Birthday.
The level of hate surrounding this contest is unhealthy and dangerous. Let’s hope that all candidates make it to November 4th alive.
The report found:
“Governor Palin’s firing of Commissioner Monegan was a proper and lawful exercie of her constitutional and statutory authority to hire and fire executive branch department heads.”
“…as I remember Bobby Kennedy…”
Yawn.
William Ayers is a professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, with whom Barack served on the board of an education-reform organization in the mid-1990’s. According to the Associated Press, they are not close: “No evidence shows they were “pals” or even close when they worked on community boards years ago …” (http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D93KD6Q00&show_article=1)
Smear groups and now the McCain campaign are trying to connect Obama to acts Ayers committed 40 years ago – when Barack was just eight years old. Here’s what the New York Times reported on the connection (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/04/us/politics/04ayers.html)
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, whom he has called “somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8.”
Barack has publicly denouncedAyers’ radical actions from the 1960’s (http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/02/obamas_weatherman_connection.html):
Senator Obama strongly condemns the violent actions of the Weathermen group, as he does all acts of violence. But he was an eight-year-old child when Ayers and the Weathermen were active, and any attempt to connect Obama with events of almost forty years ago is ridiculous.
Jimmy,
You didn’t read my post.
Obama’s connection with dubious Americans has been well and truly established but it doesn’t seem to matter so I’m surprised his supporters keep on denying it.
And throwing the US media at me is like throwing marsh mellows. Try the link below for an opinion on media coverage of the US Presidential election; an opinion I happen to share.
The sheer bias in the print and television coverage of this election campaign is not just bewildering, but appalling.