The Negative Campaigns: Obama and Ayers
Don’t look now but the Presidential election campaigns have become negative. Both candidates started their campaigns as wanting to be different than previous elections. They weren’t going to stoop to the negative campaign levels….riiiiight. Based on how both men are running their campaigns, I don’t think it has turned out to be any different than previous elections.
The biggest news story outside of the debates and Wall Street has been Obama’s connection with Bill Ayers. I don’t pretend to know that much about Ayers other than what you can read on Wikipedia and in newpapers. My parents weren’t even in high school when he engaged in some terrorists acts that he was never charged for. It is obvious this week that McCain’s camp is doing everything they can to use this story to paint Obama as dangerous. Here is McCain’s latest ad against Obama on the Ayers connection (video embedded):
Here are a couple of my questions on this story:
- Why did McCain wait this long to push this story? Why didn’t Clinton push it?
- If Ayers is truly a threat and makes Obama a dangerous candidate, how is he still a US citizen not in jail and also working as a professor at a state college?
(These questions aren’t to minimize the importance of the story. They aren’t even to say that I’m not troubled by any connection Obama might have with this man. I know my questions make me sound liberal…I’m just trying to read between the lines of why this is or isn’t a big deal. They are questions not statements.)
Does Obama’s connection with Ayers worry you?
said: 
said: 
said: 
said: 
said: 
said: 
Tyler Braun.
three words- money. affluence. power.
does it bother me? not any more than some of mccain’s policies and practices do…both parties have a long road to go to NOT be politicians
Interesting. What about McCain’s friendship with G. Gordon Liddy, who has admitted in his autobiography to plotting the murder of several people, never mind his Watergate conviction. Or what about his friendship with Charles Keating. Or what about McCain being on the advisory board of the U.S. Council for World Freedom which was associated with the death squads in Latin America. Then there’s that convicted felon who McCain said was a role model for young Americans. It happens to be McCain’s father in law who used mob ties to get his business started. http://straighttalkonmccain.blogspot.com/
Sean….this isn’t your chance to sound off on why you don’t like McCain, do it somewhere else.
Why did McCain wait? A great question. I don’t fully understand that either, but I think part of it is the press corps’ reluctance to dig into the story, so the facts are still coming out.
Why is Ayers not in jail? Because the federal investigation was botched and the case thrown out. In response, what did Ayers say about himself? “Guilty as hell. Free as a bird. America is a great country.”
Why is he a professor at a state college? Have you been on the campus of a state college anytime in the last 30 years?
The red flag in this case is that this is one of several Obama associations that are questionable.
Yes, Obama was 8 years old when Ayers bombed the Capitol and planned (but failed) to detonate a nail-filled bomb at an Army base social.
But Obama was 34 years old when Obama launched his political career in a social gathering in Ayers’ home. And he was 37 years old when Ayers and his wife said they didn’t do enough bombing. And Obama’s story keeps changing. I met him in his living room (would you host a political event in your living room with someone you didn’t know?). I met him at a lunch meeting about school reform. He was just a guy who lived in my neighborhood.
Obama was 42 years old when Tony Rezko (who was on Obama’s campaign finance committee and under federal investigation at the time) held a lavish fund raiser at the Rezko mansion for Obama. That was followed a year later by an agreement between Rezko’s wife and the Obamas to purchase their current house at $1.65 million, which was $300,000 below market value. (Rezko has been convicted of extortion, bribery, money laundering and mail fraud; his sentencing has been postponed until — surprise — after the election.)
Obama was about 36 years old when he used his position on a charitable foundation to steer money to the Arab American Action Network, a group that holds the establishment of Israel as an illegitimate catastrophe and whose leader supports Palestinian terror attacks on Israeli military targets.
Obama was about 27 years old when (as he acknowledges in his book, Dreams From My Father) he heard controversial statements from the Rev. Jeremiah Wright in Wright’s pulpit. He was 43 when he said he went to Wright’s church “every Sunday.” Three years later, he claims not to have heard such statements from Wright until they were brought to his attention by the press. And only then did he distance himself from Wright’s church.
How do these associations reflect on Obama as president? There’s no way to know that. But it’s fair, I think, to ask whether Obama’s choice of associates is a hint of the types of people and perspectives who will find their way into a presidential inner circle.
Ken…of course I’ve been on a state college campus in the last 30 years. I’ve only been out of college for less than 2 years. My point is that if he was a severe threat he would not have been hired. For what it is worth (I did a couple minutes of research), Ayers was the Citizen of the Year in Chicago in 1997 (yeah I know he was friends with the mayor). And he has also said that what he was quoted as saying in 2001 was not correct. Not that this information changes anything.
Thanks for your thoughts.
So Tyler why is it o.k. for Ken to list all the info. about Obama and his connection to others but you chided Sean for pretty much doing the same thing re: McCain? Just curious.
And this issue with Ayers did come up during the primary….if you were paying attention…..Look into the history of Chicago politics and the history of anti-Vietnam war protests. There are some pretty interesting characters there.
You raise a good point about asking why this guy (Ayers) is not in prison or ??? if he is such a reprehensible sort. Whether I like the answer or not, rule of law and statutes of limitations, I suppose.
BTW, my college advisor (at yes, gasp, a public university!) was an admitted communist—I met with him several times, in his office over the course of my four years there. Am I “guilty” by association? For the record: I am not a communist….
Debbie- Fair question to raise. I don’t think what Sean had to say has anything to do with this post. This is about Obama’s connection to Ayers and negative campaigns. This was not a chance for someone to rip McCain a part. What Ken said was related to what my post was about and was informational. What he brought up are questions that Obama should address more than he has to this point. He cannot simply sweep this under the rug because he is supposedly ahead.
Fair enough. I will answer the original question: no, they don’t worry me. See Ash’s comments above….