Posted on 04/17/2008 11:24:46 AM PDT by SJackson
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2008/04/finally_the_media_discovers_ob.html
It is a major story in the New York Times, Politico, the New York Post, and the left wing Guardian in Great Britain. It is the most curious of all Barack Obama's problematic relationships and calls into question not only his judgement but the core of his politics.
The story is about William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn - two members of the radical 1960's terrorist group the Weather Underground - and the fact that the possible next president of the United States is on a first name basis with a self-confessed bomber of the Pentagon who not only has no regrets for his terrorist action but wishes he could do it all over again.
Larry Rohter and Michael Luo of the New York Times:
On March 6, 1970, a bomb explosion destroyed a Greenwich Village town house, killing three members of the radical Weather Underground and driving other members of the group even deeper into hiding.
On Wednesday night, those events emerged as the focus of a sharp exchange between Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama at their debate in Philadelphia. Mr. Obama was asked by a moderator, George Stephanopoulos of ABC News, about his relationship with Bill Ayers, a former Weather Underground leader who is now a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
In the early 1970s, the Weathermen, who took their name from a line in a Bob Dylan song, claimed responsibility for bombing the Capitol, the Pentagon, the State Department Building and banks, courthouses and police stations.
Charges against Ayers and Dohrn were dropped because of the Feds spyed on the duo illegally. But the question absolutely must be asked just what was Obama doing having anything at all to do with this man:
Mr. Ayers is listed as a member of the nine-member board of the Woods Fund of Chicago, an offshoot of the Woods Charitable Fund, founded in 1941 by a prominent lawyer and telephone company executive. According to the fund’s Web site, it has focused in recent years on “issues that affected the area’s least advantaged, including welfare reform, affordable housing” and “tax policy as a tool in reducing poverty.”
For a time, Mr. Obama was on the board with Mr. Ayers, though he no longer has a formal association with the group. At the debate, he described Mr. Ayers as “a guy who lives in my neighborhood,” but “not somebody who I exchange ideas from on a regular basis.” Mr. Obama said he was being unjustly linked to “somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8 years old.”
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?
There's more to this relationship than Ayers simply being a "guy who lives in my nieghborhood." The two were introduced back in 1995 when Obama was presented by outgoing state senator Alice Palmer to Ayers and other far left activists in the University Chicago neighborhood of Hyde Park at Ayers house according to this story by Ben Smith in Politico. And RezkoWatch reports on 2 other forums where we know Obama and Ayers participated:
Wondering whether the three may have crossed paths is not speculation. It is a fact that they have. Ayers, Dohrn, and Obama have appeared together at a number of gatherings and academic events. In November 1997, Ayers and Obama participated in a panel at the University of Chicago entitled Should a child ever be called a “super predator?” to debate “the merits of the juvenile justice system”.
In April 2002, Ayers, Dohrn, and Obama, then an Illinois State Senator, participated together at a conference entitled “Intellectuals: Who Needs Them?” sponsored by The Center for Public Intellectuals and the University of Illinois-Chicago. Ayers and Obama were two of the six members of the “Intellectuals in Times of Crisis” panel.
This information along with the fact that Obama served with Ayers on the Board of the Woods Foundation, gives the lie to Obama's claim that he doesn't know Ayers very well. And both of those forums at U of C were set up by none other than Michelle Obama in her capacity as University of Chcago PR executive; eviidently she too saw nothing wrong in glad handing with terrorists.
It is beyond belief that the press is just now getting around to this, the most incredible of all Obama radical associations. And the scary thought is that it will change few minds about Obama and his hypocritical brand of "new politics."
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j7cAG1TxjwCG7Xv6Wdn5m7kp_RfwD903OQ001
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Democratic Sen. Barack Obama is defending his relationship with William Ayers, a college professor who was once part of the radical Weather Underground and spent years as a fugitive after a 1970 explosion that killed three members of the group.
Obama suggests he barely knows Ayers and shouldn't be held accountable for anything Ayers said or did. But others, including Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton, say the relationship gives Republicans an issue to exploit against Obama.
THE SPIN:
Obama was asked about Ayers as part of a discussion of his patriotism in a presidential debate Wednesday night in Philadelphia.
Obama responded that Ayers is "a guy who lives in my neighborhood" but hasn't endorsed him and doesn't regularly exchange ideas with him.
"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," Obama said.
Clinton seized on Ayers as "an issue that certainly the Republicans will be raising." She pointed out that Obama and Ayers served on a charity board together and brought the 9-11 terrorist attacks into the mix by noting that an interview in which Ayers denied any regret for the radical group's bomb-making happened to appear on the day of the attacks.
THE FACTS:
Ayers was part of the Weather Underground, a radical group that claimed credit for explosions at the U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon and more. Originally known as the Weathermen, the group took its name from a Bob Dylan lyric: "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows."
In 1970, a bomb the group was making — to use against an Army base — exploded at a New York town house, killing three members. Ayers fled and spent years as a fugitive. He met and married fellow fugitive Bernadine Dohrn during that period.
The two surfaced in 1980. Ayers had been charged with various offenses stemming from demonstrations in Chicago in 1969, but those charges had been dismissed for prosecutorial misconduct. He never faced any charges related to the town house explosion. Dohrn pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated battery and two counts of bail-jumping in connection with a 1969 anti-war protest.
Ayers now teaches at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Dohrn heads the Children and Family Justice Center at Northwestern University. Ayers has advised Chicago Mayor Richard Daley on education issues.
Ayers and Obama both served on the board of directors of the Woods Fund, a Chicago-based charity that focuses on developing community groups to assist the poor. A variety of business executives, journalists and academics serve on the board.
When Obama was organizing his first race for the state legislature, the incumbent lawmaker he hoped to replace introduced him to her supporters and urged them to back Obama. One introductory event took place at the home of Ayers and Dohrn.
Ayers contributed $200 to Obama's legislative campaign in 2001, but there is no other sign that he has actively aided Obama's political career.
During Wednesday's debate, Obama argued that if the candidates are to be held responsible for distant connections to the Weather Underground, then Clinton would fail, too. He pointed out that her husband, just before leaving the White House, commuted the sentences of two members of the group who had been convicted of weapons and explosives charges.
When Obama was organizing his first race for the state legislature, the incumbent lawmaker he hoped to replace introduced him to her supporters and urged them to back Obama. One introductory event took place at the home of Ayers and Dohrn.
Just a guy who lives in my neighborhood...not somebody who I exchange ideas from on a regular basis
Works for me.
Just in time to help Hillary...surprise, surprise. If Hillary wins the Democratic nomination, she’ll be the next President of the United States. What is it about that that is so hard for prominent Republican commentators to understand? Why don’t they shut up already about Obama?!
No, didn't think so.
This should be a big plus for Obama in liberal circles. Democrats love this stuff.
“Operation Doomsday.”
Hannity has been flogging this Ayers connection. Finally broke through to MSM like Rev Wright. Good for him.
I was in high school when the weathermen were active. I remember one woman - I read an article about her over and over. I think her name was Camilla Hall.
As a high school girl I couldn’t understand why anyone would get so radical they would makes bombs to kill innocent people. She ended up having a “work accident”.
Our own brand of terrorist evil, bred by the far left. That Obama could even sit in the same room with one of these- well, I’m only a bitter rural person, but I at least have the principles that I would get up and leave. Just like I would have walked out of his “church”.
“Rush Limbaugh is calling for the Super Delegates to go with a 3rd candidate”
No, no no Rush. The goal of Operation Chaos should be (as you stated) to create chaos within the party all the way up to the convention. Rush should then call for super delegates to push for a “dream ticket”
That way, the country could bury both of these losers in one fell swoop.
An Obami/Clinton ticket would be a dream ticket....for an opponent. It would be the worst ticket in the history of Presidential elections. COuld be a 50 state sweep - and no chance that either would be nominated again.
“Operation Doomsday.”
Love it. As some of the MSM tries to save Obama, Hitlery gets more negative exposure. These Rats are getting what they deserve.
I can’t imagine a more entertaining circus than this Democratic primary is turning out to be. I especially love the fact that the more Obama attack Hillary, the deeper in her heels go. LOL
John McCain was hardly my first choice, but at least the other Republican nominees had the good sense to get out of the race when it seemed they weren’t going to win the nomination. Overall, I think that makes the Republicans look far more sensible and capable than these two idiots on the Democratic side.
From one Typical White Person to another, you have a good point.
Hannity has been on this like a duck on a june bug. He said the other day he doesn’t care about anything else, he will pound this until the MSM picks it up.
Hannity is a true soldier for conservatism. I remember the 2004 election, where he was an absolute cheerleader to get out the vote after the MSM had declared Kerry already the winner. “If you live in Ohio, get out your cell phone - call up everyone on the your list and ask if they’ve voted. If they haven’t give them a ride!”
I was talking to my son about this the other day. I told him I was actually getting to admire Hillary.
My son knows I don’t use profanity. So then he turned to me and said, “Mom, you won’t say it, but what you are trying to say is the woman has bal*s!.”
She does. She is tough and disciplined, and has true chutzpah. I do respect for that. Now if she only had a moral bone in her body.
I heard she was raised by republican parents. Then she fell into the hands of a socialist methodist “youth pastor” who took her around to see every radical in the book. He was later fired.
That man has a lot to answer for.
He doesn't exchange ideas with Ayers on a “frequent basis”. What the heck????? So we can infer that you exchange ideas on an infrequent basis??? On national television Obama intimated that he DOES exchange ideas with this NUT from time to time.
I LOVED Charlie and George last night!!!!!! It appears that the ‘kings’ clothes are becoming more and more transparent!
Great work, Sean. I thought I heard Rush say that Sean had Charlie on H&C and enlightened him about the Ayers issue. Anyone know about this?
I believe him, after all now he's a US Senator, commuting between Chicago and DC, not a Illinois State Senator commuting beween Springfield and Chicago, and working for the same employer as Ayers. The significance of these relationships, like Ayers and Wright and Rezko is that they illuminate the types of people he'll surround himself in the White House. I don't want Jeremiah Wright advising the President spiritually any more than I want Ayers and Dohrn advising him on education. How difficult would it be to condemn in the strongest terms the terrorists and racists who aided him in the early days of his political career.
Correcting my previous post: It was George who was a guest on Hannity’s radio show...and Sean brought up Ayers then.
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