Obama Silent on Ayers; McCain Forthcoming on Keating 5
Shortly after Sarah Palin mentioned that Barack Obama had been “palling around with terrorists,” the mainstream media finally began to take note of Obama’s association with unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers. Of course, many outlets have attempted to use Palin’s words against her, with one news service making leaps of logic to say her comment amounted to racism.
No sooner did the MSM finally take note of this unsavory Obama association than the Obama campaign decided to dredge up John McCain’s involvement the Keating Five.
Having recently finished McCain’s book, Worth the Fighting For, I recall that he wrote at great length about that difficult time of his life. So, I wondered in either of his two books, did Obama mention his relationships to Ayers?
Having read both this year, I could not recall any such reference. So, I picked them up again. In the index to his second book, The Audacity of Hope, I could find no listings for Ayers, Dohrn (Bernadine, Ayers’ wife, also of the Weather Underground, Annenberg Challenge, Chicago Annenberg Challenge, Woods Fund.
His first book, Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, lacked an index. As I opened the book, I recalled it that ended when he set off for Harvard Law School and was originally published in 1995, about the time Ayers helped him launch his bid for the Illinois legislature.
So, there you have it. McCain has written about this episode in his life (where the Senate Ethics Committee while reprimanding him for “poor judgment,” acknowledged his innocence). Even Obama has said, “John McCain’s public record about issues that he has apologized for or written about are not germane to the presidency.”
Yet, his campaign brings them up.
Obama, on the other hand, has not offered a full public accounting of his relationship to Ayers. It’s about time the media take notice. Now they need answer some serious questions, including why he misrepresented and downplayed this relationship in the Pennsylvania debate in April and on Bill O’Reilly’s show last month.
UPDATE:Â Click on “more” to read a statement from the McCain campaign which gets at the very point of my post:
The difference here is clear: John McCain has been open and honest about the Keating matter, and even the Democratic special counsel in charge recommended that Senator McCain be completely exonerated. By contrast, Barack Obama has been fundamentally dishonest about his friendship and work with the unrepentant terrorist William Ayers, whose radical group bombed the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol. Nor has Barack Obama come clean on his close friendship with Tony Rezko, a felon convicted on bribery charges who subsidized the purchase of Barack Obama’s home. It’s obvious that Barack Obama is frantically attacking because he knows that most voters find these kinds of friendships, and the failed judgment they expose, to be unacceptable for our next president.
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I just heard “The Chosen One” engage in more hypocrisy by stating that we shouldn’t discuss Ayers because the economy is more important and then his own campaign runs a bogus ad on “The Keating 5″ and the MSM buys that hook line and sinker.
The article attached on code words for racism never cease to amaze me. So let me see, if “The Chosen One” steals the election, which we know he will do with the likes of ACORN’ help in registering 1.3 million new voters, and then is the POTUS and we criticize him, then that is racism too?
here we go….4 years of hell and the Marxist ruining the economy and our foreign policy.
Comment by Rocket — October 6, 2008 @ 5:15 pm - October 6, 2008
you mean to say that there is a terrorist that’s roaming around but they didn’t catch him and him put in jail??? whoa!!! some kind of terrorist.
Comment by michael — October 6, 2008 @ 5:31 pm - October 6, 2008
Ayers was convicted but it was overturned due to “improper procedure” regarding the wire-tapping of his phones.
Ayers has admitted he did “the deed” and says they (the terrorists) did not do enough.
Maybe an Obama presidency will give him a second chance to bomb our capital. He is certainly doing damage to a future generation by teaching the youth of Chicago.
Jeb
Comment by Jeb — October 6, 2008 @ 5:42 pm - October 6, 2008
Ayers has admitted he did “the deed†and says they (the terrorists) did not do enough.
His exact words were “Guilty as sin, free as a bird.”
Now, the Obama campaign is floating the explanation that Obama was just too stupid to realize Ayers had been a terrorist when they worked together.
It’s credible, I’ll give them that. This is the same guy who was so dumb he sat through 500 Rev. Wright sermons without realizing he was an America-hating nutjob.
And he is also stupid enough to believe that raising taxes by trillions of dollars in the teeth of a global recession is a good idea.
Cheer up. If Comrade Obama is this stupid, holding him to one term should be child’s play.
Comment by V the K — October 6, 2008 @ 5:51 pm - October 6, 2008
Unfortunately Obama is anything but stupid, but I agree that he is good for one term only. The only tricky part is surviving that term, and being able to recover from it. With Pelosi and Reid in charge of Congress, and Obama on the White House, I’m pretty damned scared.
Comment by Hunter — October 6, 2008 @ 6:00 pm - October 6, 2008
The only tricky part is surviving that term, and being able to recover from it. With Pelosi and Reid in charge of Congress, and Obama on the White House, I’m pretty damned scared.
I was at a meeting today where some people were expressing their frustration that the market was tanking, real estate was tanking, even gold was tanking. They asked me where I was putting my money, and I said, “rifles, ammunition, and freeze dried food.” I think they thought I was kidding.
I grew up in a relatively poor family, which I guess makes me a little less frightened than others might be. I look at people in Cuba, North Korea, and other places where Obamunism is the prevailing form of politics and economics, and comfort myself that the things that really matter… our faith, our families…. are things not even Obama can take away from us.
And if he tries, there’s gonna be a revolution, and that might end up being a good thing.
Comment by V the K — October 6, 2008 @ 6:27 pm - October 6, 2008
#6 – I’m ready to start the Gay Patriot Underground. Freedom or death!
(FYI – that was the rallying cry of the Greek underground during Nazi occupation, of which my aunt and mother were a part. So you see I come by it honestly.)
Regards,
Peter H.
Comment by Peter Hughes — October 6, 2008 @ 7:30 pm - October 6, 2008
You may get stabbed in the head
With a dagger or a sword
You may be burned to death
Or skinned alive, or worse
But when they torture you
You will not feel the need to run
For, though you die, La Resistance lives on
They may cut your dick in half
And serve it to a pig
And though it hurts, you’ll laugh
And dance a dickless jig
But that’s the way it goes
And though we’re shat upon
Though we die, La Resistance lives oooooonnnnn!
Comment by V the K — October 6, 2008 @ 7:50 pm - October 6, 2008
LOL!!! Obama was eight when Ayers was acting up, hasn’t seen him in years, and you’re still on this fantasy. Honestly, you need help – blind adherence to your ideology just makes you look silly. Silly you are.
Comment by David T — October 6, 2008 @ 7:53 pm - October 6, 2008
Wrong you are, David T. Obama launched his campaign in Ayers’ living room, served on a board with him throughout the 1990s & even appeared with him on a panel in 1997.
If it’s such a non-issue, David T, why did Obama lie about his relationship to the unrepentant terrorist.
Please tell me where my post is a fantasy. And please identify an errors in my writing which make it so.
Comment by GayPatriotWest — October 6, 2008 @ 8:04 pm - October 6, 2008
Bill Ayers was know nationally and internationally for his radical leftist agenda and his bombing campaign but somehow Chicago’s Barack Obama didn’t know? He didn’t know the real Jeremiah Wright? Rezko? The whole world can believe him, but I won’t.
Comment by leon — October 6, 2008 @ 8:39 pm - October 6, 2008
So, David T, do you , like Barack Obama, support people who endorse and support firebombing houses with children in them, who tell children to “kill their parents”, who plant bombs to kill American military personnel, who claims he “didn’t do enough” when it comes to bombing and killing other Americans, and who have the avowed goal to “smash monogamy” and sexualize children?
Comment by North Dallas Thirty — October 6, 2008 @ 8:43 pm - October 6, 2008
LA Resistance Lives On!!!!!!!!!!!
Comment by sonicfrog — October 6, 2008 @ 8:47 pm - October 6, 2008
Bill Ayers isn’t giving interviews. The Right Reverend Wright ………. Obama never heard the hate that Wright spewed from the pulpit.
Comment by Swampfox — October 6, 2008 @ 10:17 pm - October 6, 2008
According to the article on Ayers that Northdallas linked to Ayers “is today distinguished professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago”.
Obama was a child when Ayers was up to his misdeeds and in no way can be considered to have “supported” them. By the time Obama associated with Ayers he was a well respected member of the community and presented to Obama as such. Obama can’t be blamed for accepting Ayers as the responsible citizen he subsequently was and was presented to Obama as.
Comment by Priya Lynn — October 6, 2008 @ 10:28 pm - October 6, 2008
ok, then Pryla, why is Obama’s campaign claiming today that their man didn’t know he was a terrorist when the record indicates quite the opposite?
And why has Obama repeatedly misrepresented the relationship to the public?
Would you excuse John McCain if he launched his political career in the living room of a man who used to bomb abortion clinics, but now just opposes abortion?
Comment by GayPatriotWest — October 6, 2008 @ 10:43 pm - October 6, 2008
When Obama was in college, Bill Ayers and his wife were all over the news, particularly NYC area news. Where did Obama go to college around that time….NYC at Columbia University. I do not buy that Nobama did NOT know about Bill Ayers. I do not accept he was that stupid and ignorant. If is claiming that (and his campaign wants us to believe in the same breath he is stupid and ignorant and brilliant Ivy League educated) then he shouldn’t be Commander in Chief/POTUS.
NObama has sold a bill of Marxist goods to the MSM who is drinking the Kool Aid willingly.
I do agree that Nobama will be a one termer..just like Jimmy Carter and I also am again saying that Governor Palin will be elected President in a landslide in 2012….she will need all our help then to clean up the mess that Nobama will make..from destroying the economy beyond our worst nightmare and making a mess of our foreign policy….far worse then Jimmy Carter ever did.
Comment by Rocket — October 6, 2008 @ 10:49 pm - October 6, 2008
The Obamabots are completely mindless.
Comment by Vince P — October 7, 2008 @ 12:26 am - October 7, 2008
Saw on the news that they go a long way back. Worked together on a project and backed by numerous Democrat bigwigs in Chicago. Ayers is considered as a model Chicago citizen but then it’s better Obama just keeps mum about the Ayers connection. He doesn’t need a negative publicity.
Comment by joy — October 7, 2008 @ 12:44 am - October 7, 2008
If they caught Barry in a three-way with Kim Jong Il, Robert Mugabe, and Hugo Chavez, they’d just claim that it was all an innocent mistake. Oh, and call us racists for noticing.
A man is known by the company he keeps. If his company includes prominent, unrepentant terrorists and raving, lunatic preachers then at the very least, I question his judgement.
I am absolutely, 100 percent sure that if McCain had, once in his life, said “good morning” to Fred Phelps, we’d never hear the end of it.
It’s a testament to stupidity that a guy who beat out Barney Frank and Chris Dodd in the dollars-per-year-from-Freddie/Fannie contest can cough up K-5 and get away with it.
Comment by SoCalRobert — October 7, 2008 @ 1:06 am - October 7, 2008
And notice how leftist Obama supporters are now excusing firebombing houses, killing police officers with bombs, building shrapnel bombs to kill hundreds of American soldiers, and setting off hundreds of bombs across just California alone to be having “participated passionately in the civil rights and antiwar movements of the 1960s, as did hundreds of thousands of Americans”.
And of course, he gets off the hook because he’s made an “exemplary contribution” to the field of education by “publishing 16 books”.
Comment by North Dallas Thirty — October 7, 2008 @ 1:28 am - October 7, 2008
#19: NDT, I just went to the Support Bill Ayers site and signed the endorsement. Of course, for “name” I typed “Osama Bin Laden,” and for “affiliation” I typed “CEO, Unrepentant Terrorists, Inc.”
I encourage others to do the same–early and often.
Comment by Sean A — October 7, 2008 @ 1:40 am - October 7, 2008
Obama’s Pals:.
Comment by V the K — October 7, 2008 @ 7:32 am - October 7, 2008
It is worth the time to take a look at this Fox Report from today
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/08/26/newly-released-documents-highlight-obamas-relationship-ayers/
jeb
Comment by Jeb — October 7, 2008 @ 12:58 pm - October 7, 2008
Gay patriot west said “why is Obama’s campaign claiming today that their man didn’t know he was a terrorist when the record indicates quite the opposite?”.
I watched your little clip where you claimed Obama lied about his “radical” associations and I didn’t see any record showing Obama was aware of Ayer’s past. In fact the clip you had said the Mayor of Chicago(?) said he was an outstanding citizen and Ayers was given citizen of the year award for the work he did on the board with Obama. You can’ blame Obama for accepting Ayers as the outstanding citizen he was widely reputed to be by a vast array of people.
Gay patriot said “And why has Obama repeatedly misrepresented the relationship to the public?”.
You’re distorting. Obama’s done no such thing. The clip you have of CNN discussing Obama/Ayers doesn’t confirm any misrepresentations by Obama of his, for the most part, non-relationship with Ayers. All the links you provide to supposedly prove Obama was associating with a terrorist demonstrate Ayers had put his past behind him and by all accounts was a widely celibrated outstanding citizen putting the good of the community first. There was nothing wrong with Obama working with such a person and as the clip you posted showed having coincidental contact with him
Comment by Priya Lynn — October 7, 2008 @ 3:21 pm - October 7, 2008
Obama’s mostly coincidental association with Ayers is no comparision to the wrongdoings by Mccain.McCain once took money from the chairman of a savings and loan in exchange for pressuring government regulators into not exercising their duties. McCain was formally rebuked by the Ethics Committee for his involvement. Obama hasn’t done anything remotely that immoral.
Comment by Priya Lynn — October 7, 2008 @ 3:38 pm - October 7, 2008
Yup, Priya, Obama did misrepresent. Putting the good of the community first while hobnobbing with America’s enemies (Chavez) and using the Annenberg money to promote socialist ideas? While never renouncing his terrorist past?
All you’re doing is repeating liberal talking points at odds with reality.
Oh, and Priya, Bob Bennett, the Democrat investigating the Keating Five had this to say about McCain’s involvement:
So, please, Priya, familiarize yourself with the facts before chiming in. Oh, and I’ve seen your talking points before. They come from readers (and friends) cutting and pasting stuff they got from the Obama campaign. One reader even helpfully included the link.
Comment by GayPatriotWest — October 7, 2008 @ 3:57 pm - October 7, 2008
Priya — How about you check out this research from the RNC which details in facts the Obama-Ayers relationship.
Read it, if you want to know the truth and not be another Obama sockpuppet.
http://www.gop.com/images/research/100608Research2.pdf
Comment by GayPatriot — October 7, 2008 @ 4:02 pm - October 7, 2008
Priya, so Obama hasn’t done anything “remotely” as immoral as McCain? Care to explain his current residence, Casa de la Rezko? How about that gigantic earmark he set aside for his wife’s employer once he got to the Senate? How about going to the mat to protect that all-American ideal–INFANTICIDE (and, naturally, lying about his position later and then calling those who exposed him liars to boot)?
Everybody, you’re wasting your time. The fact is, even if Ayers didn’t exist and we were talking about Obama’s past involvement as a MEMBER of the Weather Underground himself, Priya and her ignorant, moral relativist ilk would still find a way to absolve him of all accountability. Seriously, if it were Obama that were responsible for innocent deaths and the bombings of police stations, government buildings and military installations 40 years ago, Priya’s position on the matter would be exactly the same. He’s a testament to CHANGE! He’s renounced his youthful “activism!” He’s become a productive member of society and a valued member of the community…blah, blah, blah…
There’s no doubt in my mind because these people are incapable of rational thought. Even if Obama and Ayers were the same person, it wouldn’t make a bit of difference to these imbeciles. It would just add to Obama’s leftist mystique and they would worship him all the more.
Comment by Sean A — October 7, 2008 @ 4:48 pm - October 7, 2008
And by the way, if anyone doubts my opinion, just re-read Priya’s description of Ayers:
“All the links you provide to supposedly prove Obama was associating with a terrorist demonstrate Ayers had put his past behind him and by all accounts was a widely celibrated outstanding citizen putting the good of the community first. There was nothing wrong with Obama working with such a person…”
She won’t even criticize Ayers–why would she (or those like her) criticize Obama if he WERE AYERS?
Comment by Sean A — October 7, 2008 @ 4:51 pm - October 7, 2008
Gay patriot, Mccain initially acknowledged his wrongdoing and now he’s trying to deny it. Never mind what the democrats say read what Mccain’s own longtime friend and lawyer Dowd said about him:
Gay patriot, I’ve read the RNC’s lies about Obama, they don’t impress me.
Sean A said “Priya, so Obama hasn’t done anything “remotely†as immoral as McCain?”.
That’s correct. Obama has been faithful to his one wife, Mccain’s wife was true to him while he was a POW and how did Mccain repay her? He cheated on her at her most vulnerable when she was a disfigured accident victim and ran off to marry a prettier and wealthy heiress. An heiress who stole from children’s charities to support her drug habit and McCain used his Senate staff and resources to cover up Cindy’s drug use, and to prevent the Drug Enforcement Agency from investigating his wife’s theft of illegal prescription drugs.
All you’ve got is coinicidental association of Obama with someone who’s wrongdoings took place when Obama was a child and who has since become an upstanding member of the community. Not even remotely comparable.
Comment by Priya Lynn — October 7, 2008 @ 5:39 pm - October 7, 2008
Priya, do you just spout off on conservative blogs without reading the posts to whichy you attach them or the comments which you claim to address?
I didn’t provide statements from the RNC, but statements from a Democrat who investigated the Keating 5. You didn’t even address my point.
And then you bring in unsubstantiated rumors from left-wing blogs about Mrs. McCain?
To call Ayers an upstanding member of the community even now is to ignore what he has said about his past actions.
If you’re going to attach your angry words to my blog, Priya, at least take the time to address my points. It’s amazing how so many on your side just shout at those on my side and don’t consider our arguments or our points, even when they take the time to visit our blogs.
Comment by GayPatriotWest — October 7, 2008 @ 6:29 pm - October 7, 2008
Gaypatriot said “Priya, do you just spout off on conservative blogs without reading the posts to whichy you attach them or the comments which you claim to address? I didn’t provide statements from the RNC, but statements from a Democrat who investigated the Keating 5. You didn’t even address my point.”.
And gay patriot, its no rumour about how Mccain dumped his wife in her time of need after she had stood faithfully by him. Mccain’s a scumbag. Obama was true and faithful to his ONE wife.
I was referring to your comment #28 where you said “How about you check out this research from the RNC which details in facts the Obama-Ayers relationship.” so spare me the “i didn’t say schtick”
Comment by Priya Lynn — October 7, 2008 @ 7:07 pm - October 7, 2008
Oops, my second and third paragraph in the previous comment should be switched.
Comment by Priya Lynn — October 7, 2008 @ 7:23 pm - October 7, 2008
Coincidental? Obama fully endorses and supports the unrepentant terrorist Ayers, who has publicly stated he wishes he had planted more bombs and insists that everyone who he and his group members killed was “guilty”.
It should be no surprise that Obama and Priya Lynn both support Ayers, though, given what he and his fellow Weathermen believe:
Convinced that all whites were born tainted with the original sin of “skin privilege,†the ï¬ghting brigade of the New Left internalized racialist thinking as hatred of their own whiteness. “All white babies are pigs,†declared one Weatherman. On one occasion the feminist poet Robin Morgan was breast-feeding her son at the ofï¬ces of the radical journal Rat. A Weatherwoman saw this and told her, “You have no right to have that pig male baby.†“How can you say that?†Morgan asked. “What should I do?†“Put it in the garbage,†the Weatherwoman answered.
Or in other words, nothing that Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s spiritual mentor and inspiration, didn’t preach for the twenty years Obama was clapping and cheering along with Wright.
In other words, nothing that Obama didn’t clap and cheer for in the twenty years he was listening to Jeremiah Wright proclaim it.
Comment by North Dallas Thirty — October 7, 2008 @ 8:06 pm - October 7, 2008
More Northdallas nonsense Obama has never said that he “fully endorses and supports” Ayers. You’re a pathetic chronic liar.
Comment by Priya Lynn — October 7, 2008 @ 8:46 pm - October 7, 2008
Of course he does, silly Priya; just look here.
If he didn’t fully endorse and support this man, why were Obama and his wife putting all this effort into working with him and praising him? Better yet, why was Obama directing millions of dollars to him in his “executive role” as head of the Annenberg Challenge?
Comment by North Dallas Thirty — October 7, 2008 @ 8:59 pm - October 7, 2008