NY Times: "Obama and ’60s Bomber: A Look Into Crossed Paths" 10/4/08

[Faygo Kid]

Could have posted this anywhere on DU, but perhaps it belongs here.

October 4, 2008

Obama and ’60s Bomber: A Look Into Crossed Paths

By SCOTT SHANE
CHICAGO — At a tumultuous meeting of anti-Vietnam War militants at the Chicago Coliseum in 1969, Bill Ayers helped found the radical Weathermen, launching a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and United States Capitol.

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.

Their relationship has become a touchstone for opponents of Mr. Obama, the Democratic senator, in his bid for the presidency. Video clips on YouTube, including a new advertisement that was broadcast on Friday, juxtapose Mr. Obama’s face with the young Mr. Ayers or grainy shots of the bombings.

In a televised interview last spring, Senator John McCain, Mr. Obama’s Republican rival, asked, “How can you countenance someone who was engaged in bombings that could have or did kill innocent people?”

More recently, conservative critics who accuse Mr. Obama of a stealth radical agenda have asserted that he has misleadingly minimized his relationship with Mr. Ayers, whom the candidate has dismissed as “a guy who lives in my neighborhood” and “somebody who worked on education issues in Chicago that I know.”

A review of records of the schools project and interviews with a dozen people who know both men, suggest that Mr. Obama, 47, has played down his contacts with Mr. Ayers, 63. 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.”

Obama campaign aides said the Ayers relationship had been greatly exaggerated by opponents to smear the candidate. . .
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/04/us/politics/04ayers.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

[spanone]

1. good cause the 527's are gonna go there and also the rev wright...these fuckers are shameless

maybe this will help diffuse the ayers bs

[Patchuli]

2. They will use any scare tactic

but it's funny how they forgive their own for all their despicable acts of lust and greed, like calling *'s sins 'youthful indiscretions.' If a Dem does it, it's always much worse in their tunnel vision. How can you fight a good fair fight with those who have no honor?

[FrenchieCat]

5. Charles Keating can cost taxpayers Billions and serve time

and be considered McCain's godfather....but that's ok.

Obama casually knows someone, and Obama is a boogeyman himself.

It is sick!

[Patchuli]

6. Speaking of bullcrap attacks

Check out this trash from the Texas contingent of right-wing fools: http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/republican_party_of_texas_video_joe_biden_plagiarist/

I especially enjoyed this guy's tagline!


Pilgrim
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Brianmaggot:

Your quote is interesting. It...hey - wait a minute! Barack? Barack Obama? Is that you?

Election ‘08 - We Are So Screwed

[e-mail]
Pilgrim on October 2, 2008 at 12:23 pm :rofl: :rofl:

[msongs]

3. MCain - 70's adulterer - the real reason he chose Palin over Cindy nt

[democrat in Tallahassee]

4. didn't mccain engage in bombing and killing innocent people in vietnam

just asking