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 political beliefs.
How radical are the politics of Barack Obama?
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 the Feds spied on the duo illegally. But the question absolutely must be asked just what was Obama thinking 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 they? 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 neighborhood.” 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.
And Campus Watch reports on a farewell dinner for the radical Palestinian activist Rashid Khalidi, who was leaving the Arab American Action Network to take the Edward Said endowed chair at Colombia University, where Obama, Ayers, and Dohrn all gave glowing testimonials to Khalidi – whose group received $75,000 from the Woods Foundation
In bringing professor Khalidi to Morningside Heights from the University of Chicago, Columbia also got itself a twofer of Palestinian activism and advocacy. Mr. Khalidi’s wife, Mona, who also served in Beirut as chief editor of the English section of the WAFA press agency, was hired as dean of foreign students at Columbia’s SIPA, working under Dean Anderson. In Chicago, the Khalidis founded the Arab American Action Network, and Mona Khalidi served as its president. A big farewell dinner was held in their honor by AAAN with a commemorative book filled with testimonials from their friends and political allies. These included the left wing anti-war group Not In My Name, the Electronic Intifada, and the ex-Weatherman domestic terrorists Bernadine Dohrn and Bill Ayers. (There were also testimonials from then-state Senator Barack Obama and the mayor of Chicago.)
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; evidently 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.”
Much of this blog post originally appears at The American Thinker
1:44 pm
Maybe this will “change few minds about Barack Obama” because it is not considered important by the majority of people. Boards tend to be populated by a considerable variety of characters selected because of their influence and/or skills that can forward the work of the organization. They are typically selected by the leadership of the organization and they may or may not know each other or agree with each other. Is it not within possibility that the aforementioned Mr. Ayers has cleaned up his act since his gutless, illegal behaviors 40 years ago? The divisiveness of Viet Nam and the 60’s lead many people to do desperate things to stop the draft, to stop civil rights violations and to stop the wholesale slaughter of Americans and Southeast Asians. Political leaders were being shot down like dogs. Protestors on campus were also shot by Americans in military uniforms for their dissent.
How many people would like to be held to the things they thought and did 40 years ago, when they were young? Not many.
Many current conservatives admit to being quite liberal in their youth and likely did things they wouldn’t wish to own now. Perhaps even illegal things. Does that mean their contributions now have no meaning or value currently? Well of course not. People do change, there is a redemptive power that allows change and atonement for the folly of youth. For which I am eternally grateful, as most of us are. Every politician comes into contact with people who have extremely checkered pasts. Ronald Reagan had 225 (!) members of his administration quit, were fired, arrested, indicted or convicted for breaking the law or violating the Ethics Code they had sworn to uphold. I hope I can assume that you do not think Ronald Reagan was unfit to hold office, that he was a sellout to a criminal element because of his associations with these people. Let he who is without sin . . ., well, you know the rest.
3:07 pm
Ah … Still Liberal …
Ayers was published on 9/11/01 as saying he wished they had set more bombs … doesn’t sound like he cleaned up anything …
Go ahead make excuses for Obama … seems like the guy attracts alot of slimy people … I can only assume you have no issue with Wright, Rezko or Ayers …
Its not guilt by association … its associating with guilt, and racists, and domestic terrorists
3:12 pm
Still Liberal,
You will get no quarter here, life is based on choices we make, you are trying to equate a conscious/sober decision to TAKE HUMAN LIFE, and instill terror in the hearts of man with something like I got drunk and smoked pot or had sex with someone I wouldn’t have if sober or even I joined an organization without clearly understanding what they supported. Please don’t insult our intelligence with such a logical fallacy.
5:24 pm
[...] a result of last night’s question, the media are finally starting to cover the topic. It is a major story in the New York Times, Politico, the New York Post, and the left wing Guardian [...]
8:05 pm
Most people who committed multiple felonies forty years ago, felonies where people died, at that, do not sit on boards of directors. They are not tenured professors and they do not get to hang around with Senators. Only some leftists.
8:09 pm
[...] the notorious Weather Underground in the 1960s and 70s.” I can see why Michelle Obama would hand pick him for Board of the Woods Foundation. No one takes ethics more seriously than Mayor [...]
9:52 pm
You are judged by the company you keep…...
I know I don’t hang or even associate with those types,why does he (Obama)?
11:13 pm
I don’t care to debate the misdeeds of Ayers and Obama’s degree of association with him, because as far as I am concerned, anybody involved in politics is bound to get caught up in some shady characters. (Sometimes they even marry them.) What I find fascinating, is how it was Hillary and not McCain who brought the topic up. What point could she attempt to score, knowing that Bill pardoned 2 members of the same group? In fact, it was thrown back at her by Obama, so neither of them come off looking very good. Now the MSN is going to associate both Democrats with these nuts!
However, if dealing with terrorists were the crime that Rick makes it out to be, the entire Bush and Kennedy clan would be in prison! Please don’t get me started on the Weather Underground either; I grew up a block away from that Greenwich Village townhouse destroyed by their bomb. Sure its not a nice story…but then walk to 6th Avenue and see the empty hole where the WTC was…or think of the bombings all over the UK in the past 40 years and how the Ruling Families in our country have never been held accountable for their close dealings with the IRA and the House of Saud.
This is not to say don’t hold Barak’s feet to the fire, but please keep terrorist associations in perspective. Also, see what can be dug up on McCain; lets see who has more dubious friends than the other! I’m sure we will all learn so much about how they might govern the country based on old friends and shady deals. Is anybody learning anything but negative points here?
(Not to get on your case in particular Rick, you are just the nearest blog for posting! Thanks for hosting my 2 minute hate…)
12:29 am
Clinton, Obama face off in Philadelphia…
Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama will debate each other Wednesday night for the first time in …
6:57 am
I’m not for Obama but Mr. Clinton pardoned some of these same guys and hill knew about it so they are both guilty.
11:41 am
Michelle Obama and Dohrn were both at Sidley Austin in 1988. This is possibly when they met and became friends. Obama met Michelle at Sidley Austin. So the three of them likely go back to the late 1980’s. See links at my name for links to sources.
1:04 pm
This is a nothing story and I have proof.
There is a type of person who was born too late to be politically active in the 60’s but now espouses radical 60’s viewpoints. This is they type of person that Barack Obama has been accused of being, due to his limited association with Bill Ayers (I mean “William!” I don’t know the guy!). As a moderate Democrat, I can spot these people as easily as (I’m guessing here) a moderate Republican might spot a survivalist or a KKK member. I call them hippies, but they’re not exactly. And Obama isn’t one of them:
– Hippies wear hemp pants and sandals. Obama wears suits and normal-person shoes.
– Hippies smell like body odor and patchouli. Obama has been described (by Joe Biden, who I trust) as “clean.”
Hippies are usually white…
See? Case closed. Now can we please talk about the important issue—that Obama once got into a fender-bender with a gay guy, so he’s probably gay now.
2:15 pm
Where are the actual pro-Americans, if any, in Obama’s social circle?
2:36 pm
jambrowski Said:
3:12 pm
Still Liberal,
You will get no quarter here, life is based on choices we make, you are trying to equate a conscious/sober decision to TAKE HUMAN LIFE, and instill terror in the hearts of man with something like I got drunk and smoked pot or had sex with someone I wouldn’t have if sober or even I joined an organization without clearly understanding what they supported. Please don’t insult our intelligence with such a logical fallacy.
So I can safely assume that your black and white thinking demands you to see George Bush as someone who made a choice to kill and terrorize Iraqis by the thousands (remember shock and awe, etc.)? And I don’t see any intelligence to insult on your part. Do you even know what a logical fallacy is? My analogy was exactly on target, the difference between my example and your examples only differ in degree, not substance or logical construction. And by the way, as viciously stupid as Ayers bombings were, no one was killed, he did not TAKE A HUMAN LIFE.
Why on earth would you read a thinker like Moran when you display yourself as only a knee jeck reactionary?
4:17 pm
This issue calls into question Obama’s judgment? I totally disagree. The type of judgment you’re talking about is the practice of judging every situation in life through the lens of a presidential campaign. Is your preacher a little nutty? Leave the church because the national press won’t like your preacher. Are you serving on a board with some hippy wacko? Don’t just ignore him—leave the board because the national press won’t like him.
Hillary Clinton has lived a good part of her life with her ‘eye on the prize.’ Many of her decisions in life were made with the presidential campaign in mind. Where has it gotten her? Everyone thinks she’s phony and calculating. That’s not the kind of judgment I want in a president.
George Bush hides behind his army of advisors and doesn’t read the news. Anyone with a different point of view is banned from his town hall meetings. Where has it gotten him? Everyone thinks he’s cowardly, close-minded, and out of touch. That’s not the kind of judgment I want in a president.
9:17 pm
“In April 2002, Ayers, Dohrn, and Obama, then an Illinois State Senator, participated together at a conference entitled “Intellectuals: Who Needs Them?”’
Intellectuals?! There people are so full of them selves. David Horowitz after interviewing Bill Ayers for 10 hours said, “What I saw was a shallowness beyond conception”.
Bernadine Dohrn at the Flint Michigan Weatherman “war council” famously stated regarding the Manson slayings,
“Dig It. First they killed those pigs, then they ate dinner in the same room with them, they even shoved a fork into a victim’s stomach! Wild!”
These people worship Lenin, Stalin, Mao and according to one of Bill’s blog entries; “Capitalism is exhausted as a force for progress: built on exploitation, theft, conquest, war, and racism”
6:02 am
Rick:
I have it on good authority that 40 years ago you were invited to a party where several people were smoking marijuana on a back patio away from the main group and that you were on a first-name basis with some of those people, one of whom you served on a board with.
That you did not immediately call the police and have these people turned in is appalling and certainly colors everything you have done—and most especially said—in the intervening years.
Shame on you.
Heh. Just finished my answer for you – even included your argument.
ed.
1:26 pm
Your attempts at trying to establish guilt by association are pathetic. But so typical of a party that views Karl Rovesputin as a God. Thank God the people of this country will send the rethuglican party back to where it belongs in November…the minority party. Hopefully for another 40 years. It will probably take that long to repair the damage of Rethuglican rule on this country.
10:19 pm
[...] Huffington Post – “Ayers And Obama: What Is Their Relationship?” Right Wing Nut House – “Finally, the Media ‘Discovers’ Obama-Ayers Relationship” CNN - “McCain: Obama’s patriotic, but his Ayers ties are ‘open to [...]
12:16 pm
[...] that if a candidate wants to run on his judgment, the thinks he says, does, lies about and the company he keeps would all be valid topics of [...]
9:30 am
[...] Rick Moran reviews the MSM coverage to date and sums up the key facts: There’s more to this relationship than Ayers simply being a “guy who lives in my neighborhood.” 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…RezkoWatch reports on 2 other forums where we know Obama and Ayers participated: [...]
10:28 am
[...] Rick Moran reviews the MSM coverage to date and sums up the key facts: There’s more to this relationship than Ayers simply being a “guy who lives in my neighborhood.” 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…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.And Campus Watch reports on a farewell dinner for the radical Palestinian activist Rashid Khalidi, who was leaving the Arab American Action Network to take the Edward Said endowed chair at Colombia University, where Obama, Ayers, and Dohrn all gave glowing testimonials to Khalidi – whose group received $75,000 from the Woods Foundation. [...]
4:25 pm
[...] choose his fans, but Obama has had a much closer relationship than that and, on Obama’s side, it’s been one in which he or his wife has sought them out. After all, it was in their home that he launched his political career, and it was his wife who [...]
6:13 pm
[...] choose his fans, but Obama has had a much closer relationship than that and, on Obama’s side, it’s been one in which he or his wife has sought them out. After all, it was in their home that he launched his political career, and it was his wife who [...]
7:34 pm
Rick, we miss your input over at MM!
11:39 pm
[...] Rick Moran reviews the MSM coverage to date and sums up the key facts: There’s more to this relationship than Ayers simply being a “guy who lives in my neighborhood.” 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…RezkoWatch reports on 2 other forums where we know Obama and Ayers participated: [...]
10:46 am
I’m watching the slow-motion destruction of a Democratic candidate for president. What a shame. To think the American people don’t have a choice but to just “take” bush’s ideas for another 4 years is utterly demoralizing.
I’ve got so much angst about Americas future, that I’m almost ready to forgive this Ayers connection. At some point we’ve got to move in a different direction. Perhaps connections are no indicator of presidential performance. W was clean as a whistle and look at the mess he got us into. Is a lack of boogie men in one’s background a guarantee of good presidential performance?
4:13 pm
It doesn’t matter how old Obama was when Ayers did his bombing. What matters is what reasoning he used to continue to associate with Ayers when “history” was explained to him. I am tired of Obama pretending that the birds he has flocked with do not prove anything about him.