The Obama/Ayers Connection

The Obama/Ayers Connection

A great quote from an October 3, 2008 New York Times article about the Obama/Ayers connection:

Steve Chapman, a columnist for The Chicago Tribune, defended Mr. Obama’s relationship with the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., his longtime pastor, whose black liberation theology and “God damn America” sermon became notorious last spring. But he denounced Mr. Obama for associating with Mr. Ayers, whom he said the University of Illinois should never have hired.
“I don’t think there’s a statute of limitations on terrorist bombings,” Mr. Chapman said in an interview, speaking not of the law but of political and moral implications.
“If you’re in public life, you ought to say, ‘I don’t want to be associated with this guy,’ ” Mr. Chapman said. “If John McCain had a long association with a guy who’d bombed abortion clinics, I don’t think people would say, ‘That’s ancient history.’ ”

And the proof of that is that Obama is making a big deal about McCain's somewhat peripheral involvement with the Keating 6. Keating was a bad guy; he corrupted members of Congress, and McCain was involved in this, although not as deeply as the five Democrats who made up the rest of the Keating 6. But Keating, as bad as he was, wasn't setting off bombs. This statement from one of the intended victims is worth reading:

ARLINGTON, VA — Today, John M. Murtagh made the following statement on Barack Obama’s relationship with William Ayers:
“When I was 9 years-old the Weather Underground, the terrorist group founded by Barack Obama’s friend William Ayers, firebombed my house. Barack Obama has dismissed concerns about his relationship with Ayers by noting that he was only a child when Ayers was planting bombs at the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol. But Ayers has never apologized for his crimes, he has reveled in them, expressing regret only for the fact that he didn’t do more.
“While Barack Obama once downplayed his relationship with Ayers, today his campaign took that deceit one step further. Barack Obama now denies he was even aware of his friend’s violent past when, in 1995, Ayers hosted a party launching Obama’s political career. Given Ayers’ celebrity status among the left, it’s difficult to believe. The question remains: what did Obama know, and when did he know it? When did Obama learn the truth about his friend? Barack Obama helped Ayers promote his book in 1997, served on charitable boards with him through 2002, and regularly exchanged emails and phone calls with him through 2005. At what point did Barack Obama discover that his friend was an unrepentant terrorist? And if he is so repulsed by the acts of terror committed by William Ayers, why did the relationship continue? Any honest accounting by Barack Obama will necessarily cast further doubt on his judgment and his fitness to serve as commander in chief.
“Barack Obama may have been a child when William Ayers was plotting attacks against U.S. targets — but I was one of those targets. Barack Obama’s friend tried to kill my family.”

Ask yourself: if someone seeking the Republican Party nomination for President had been talking to and going to the house of a Klansman who had firebombed black churches during the civil rights struggle, would the media be making excuses for it? If that Klansman, as late as 2001, was unrepentant, saying that he wished that he burned more black churches, would even a fleeting relationship with the Republican nominee be okay?

I fear for what this country is going to be like a few months into President Obama's Administration. Taxes will be higher? Sure. But that's just money. I shudder to think of the sort of 1960s radicals who are going to be appointed to the federal bench, and staffing sub-Cabinet posts all across the bureaucracy. The only real hope is that Obama will instead fill those posts with corrupt Chicago sorts, like Rezko. They, at least, will settle for robbing us blind.