Monday, October 06, 2008
Umbrella Time
"It's a dangerous road, but we have no choice. If we keep talking about the economic crisis, we're going to lose."-- A top McCain strategist, quoted by the New York Daily News, on trying to change the subject.
“Desperation, the world’s worst fragrance”, quoted from the movie “Singles”.
How do you know when a campaign is desperate? They start slinging as much mud as they possibly can and hope something, anything, sticks. From the quote above, the McCain campaign has decided now is the time to find their mud bog and start tossing.
This weekend, the illustrious Gov. Sarah Palin started trying to tie Barack Obama to Bill Ayers. Ayers is a 60’s radical and (maybe) reformed educational activist. Now, when this person’s name first appeared back in February I tried to track down the story. After all, why would I want to support someone who may be close to someone who was clearly nuts? But I found that the connections between Obama and Ayers were so tenuous as to be laughable.
Here’s the stories which I was able to find on the subject for the last 8 months.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Washington Post Fact Checker
There has been a sudden spate of blog items and newspaper articles, mainly in the British press, linking Barack Obama to a former member of the radical Weather Underground Organization that claimed responsibility for a dozen bombings between 1970 and 1974. The former Weatherman, William Ayers, now holds the position of distinguished professor of education at the University of Illinois-Chicago. Although never convicted of any crime, he told the New York Times in September 2001, "I don't regret setting bombs...I feel we didn't do enough."
Both Obama and Ayers were members of the board of an anti-poverty group, the Woods Fund of Chicago, between 1999 and 2002. In addition, Ayers contributed $200 to Obama's re-election fund to the Illinois State Senate in April 2001, as reported here. They lived within a few blocks of each other in the trendy Hyde Park section of Chicago, and moved in the same liberal-progressive circles.
Is there anything here that raises questions about Obama's judgment or is this just another example of guilt by association?
The Facts
The first article in the mainstream press linking Obama to Ayers appeared in the London Daily Mail on February 2. It was written by Peter Hitchens, the right-wing brother of the left-wing firebrand turned Iraq war supporter, Christopher Hitchens. Hitchens cited the Ayers connection to bolster his argument that Obama is "far more radical than he would like us to know."
The Hitchens piece was followed by a Bloomberg article last week pointing to the Ayers connection as support for Hillary Clinton's contention that Obama might not be able to withstand the "Republican attack machine." Larry Johnson, a former counterterrorism official at the CIA and the State Department, predicted that the Republicans would seize on the Ayers case, and other Chicago relationships, to "bludgeon Obama's presidential aspirations into the dust."
The London Sunday Times joined the chorus this weekend by reporting that Republicans were "out to crush Barack by painting him as a left-winger with dubious support".
The only hard facts that have come out so far are the $200 contribution by Ayers to the Obama re-election fund, and their joint membership of the eight-person Woods Fund Board. Ayers did not respond to e-mails and telephone calls requesting clarification of the relationship. Obama spokesman Bill Burton noted in a statement that Ayers was a professor of education at the
University of Illinois and a former aide to Mayor Richard M. Daley, and continued:
Senator Obama strongly condemns the violent actions of the Weathermen group, as he does all acts of violence. But he was an eight-year-old child when Ayers and the Weathermen were active, and any attempt to connect Obama with events of almost forty years ago is ridiculous.
In the short term, the person who has most to gain by speculation about Obama's acquaintance with a former terrorist is Hillary Clinton. The former First Lady likes to present herself as "tested and vetted" after years of exposure to Republican attacks, in contrast to Obama, a relative newcomer to hardscrabble presidential politics. Such arguments resonate with Johnson, the counterterrorism expert, who told me that he is a Clinton supporter, although not involved with the campaign.
But the Obama-Ayers link is a tenuous one. As Newsday pointed out, Clinton has her own, also tenuous, Weatherman connection. Her husband commuted the sentences of a couple of convicted Weather Underground members, Susan Rosenberg and Linda Sue Evans, shortly before leaving office in January 2001. Which is worse: pardoning a convicted terrorist or accepting a campaign contribution from a former Weatherman who was never convicted?
Whatever his past, Ayers is now a respected member of the Chicago intelligentsia, and still a member of the Woods Fund Board. The president of the Woods Fund, Deborah Harrington, said he had been selected for the board because of his solid academic credentials and "passion for social justice."
"This whole connection is a stretch," Harrington told me. "Barack was very well known in Chicago, and a highly respected legislator. It would be difficult to find people round here who never volunteered or contributed money to one of his campaigns."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From the USA Today, 8/2008
How their paths crossed
When Obama was asked about Ayers in an April debate, he said, "the notion that … me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8 years old, somehow reflects on me and my values doesn't make much sense."
After that debate, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley released a statement saying he doesn't condone what Ayers did in the 1960s. "It was a difficult time, but those days are long over," he said.
Ayers and Obama have moved in some of the same circles:
•In 1995, Ayers hosted a brunch for Obama, who was running for the Illinois Senate.
The ad says this meeting launched Obama's political career. Quentin Young, a physician who was there, says it was a typical Hyde Park event and to imply otherwise is "guilt by simultaneously being in the same place."
•In 1997, they were on a juvenile justice panel sponsored by the University of Chicago. They were on a 2002 panel on intellectualism that was co-sponsored by the Chicago Public Library.
•In 1997, the Chicago Tribune published a blurb from Obama about books he was reading. Obama said he was reading Ayers' A Kind and Just Parent: the Children of Juvenile Court.
•From 1999-2002, both men were on the board of the Woods Fund, a Chicago foundation that makes grants to arts and civic groups. Obama left the board in 2002; Ayers remains on it.
Laura Washington, chairwoman of the Woods Fund board, says suggestions of close ties are "an attempt to demonize Bill as a way of damaging Barack Obama."
•Ayers gave $200 to Obama's 2001 state Senate campaign.
--------------------------------------------------------------
FOX News and various media outlets have always said that there were no links between Obama and William Charles “Bill” Ayers who was an American activist in the 1960s and 1970s and is now a professor in the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, holding the honor of Distinguished Professor.
Time: Making An Issue Of Obama’s Relationship With Ayers And Dohrn Is “Absurd.” “Those have been the options in the debate. But the truth is a third option: Ayers and Dohrn are despicable, and yet making an issue of Obama’s relationship with them is absurd.” [Time, 5/29/08 ]
Chicago Sun Times: Obama’s Connection To Ayers Is A “Phony Flap”. The Chicago Sun-Times wrote in an editorial, “But Ayers, it is also true to say, has since followed in the footsteps of the great Chicago social worker Jane Addams, crusading for education and juvenile justice reform. His 1997 book, A Kind and Just Parent: The Children of Juvenile Court, has been praised for exposing how Cook County’s juvenile justice system all but eliminates a child’s chance for redemption. Is Barack Obama consorting with a radical? Hardly. Ayers is nothing more than an aging lefty with a foolish past who is doing good. And while, yes, Obama is friendly with Ayers, it appears to be only in the way of two community activists whose circles overlap. Obama’s middle name is Hussein. That doesn’t make him an Islamic terrorist. He stopped wearing a flag pin. That doesn’t make him unpatriotic. And he’s friendly with UIC Professor William Ayers. That doesn’t make him a bomb thrower. Time to move on to Phony Flap 6,537,204.” [Chicago Sun-Times , 3/3/08]
Noam Scheiber Of TNR: “I Don’t See Evidence Of Any Relationship” Between Obama And Ayers. Noam Scheiber of The New Republic wrote, “Ben says Ayers and Obama were, at best, casual friends. Even that seems to overstate things, though. I don’t see evidence of any relationship. The only concrete connection we know of is the meeting, which was attended by a number of local liberals; their contemporaneous membership on the board of a local organization; and a $200-donation by Ayers to one of Obama’s state senate campaigns. (Obama also once praised something Ayers had written about the juvenile justice system.) I’m not saying they couldn’t have been casual friends; just that there isn’t much evidence for that at this point.” [The New Republic, 2/22/08 ]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When America is faced with a horrible economy, a broken-down government, a healthcare system which is costing everyone more by the day, and a no-holds-barred energy crisis, we get to be entertained with John McCain and Sarah Palin doing the dance of the boogeyman.
We are already seeing ads being aired about Barack Obama not supporting the troops, which according to factcheck.org is at best a misrepresentation of his votes, at worst it’s an out and out lie.
We are going to see more and more stuff, and I fear that some of it will be racially-motivated. Palin already seems to be dancing awfully close to that line in her speeches.
But why not; if I’m the McCain campaign and I have an angry, relatively erratic candidate with a running mate whose qualifications all would call into question I’m probably making the same choice (OK, that’s true if I don’t have any ethics or scruples).
I mean, the policy announcements the McCain campaign has come out with over the last couple of week’s amount to either nothing or worse than nothing. Just today, the main economic advisor to McCain stated that cutting Medicare and Medicaid would be the way they would want to go in order to give tax credits for health insurance. This goes under the heading of cutting off your nose to spite your face.
Hence, get ready to take out the biggest umbrella you can find. Make sure it is strong enough to withstand all the crap you are about to hear and see. It will be ugly. It will be mean-spirited. It will be classless. But, don’t allow these tactics to sway you. It is too important to remember what is at stake in this election.
Vote for the future, for these tactics are very much about the past.
“Desperation, the world’s worst fragrance”, quoted from the movie “Singles”.
How do you know when a campaign is desperate? They start slinging as much mud as they possibly can and hope something, anything, sticks. From the quote above, the McCain campaign has decided now is the time to find their mud bog and start tossing.
This weekend, the illustrious Gov. Sarah Palin started trying to tie Barack Obama to Bill Ayers. Ayers is a 60’s radical and (maybe) reformed educational activist. Now, when this person’s name first appeared back in February I tried to track down the story. After all, why would I want to support someone who may be close to someone who was clearly nuts? But I found that the connections between Obama and Ayers were so tenuous as to be laughable.
Here’s the stories which I was able to find on the subject for the last 8 months.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Washington Post Fact Checker
There has been a sudden spate of blog items and newspaper articles, mainly in the British press, linking Barack Obama to a former member of the radical Weather Underground Organization that claimed responsibility for a dozen bombings between 1970 and 1974. The former Weatherman, William Ayers, now holds the position of distinguished professor of education at the University of Illinois-Chicago. Although never convicted of any crime, he told the New York Times in September 2001, "I don't regret setting bombs...I feel we didn't do enough."
Both Obama and Ayers were members of the board of an anti-poverty group, the Woods Fund of Chicago, between 1999 and 2002. In addition, Ayers contributed $200 to Obama's re-election fund to the Illinois State Senate in April 2001, as reported here. They lived within a few blocks of each other in the trendy Hyde Park section of Chicago, and moved in the same liberal-progressive circles.
Is there anything here that raises questions about Obama's judgment or is this just another example of guilt by association?
The Facts
The first article in the mainstream press linking Obama to Ayers appeared in the London Daily Mail on February 2. It was written by Peter Hitchens, the right-wing brother of the left-wing firebrand turned Iraq war supporter, Christopher Hitchens. Hitchens cited the Ayers connection to bolster his argument that Obama is "far more radical than he would like us to know."
The Hitchens piece was followed by a Bloomberg article last week pointing to the Ayers connection as support for Hillary Clinton's contention that Obama might not be able to withstand the "Republican attack machine." Larry Johnson, a former counterterrorism official at the CIA and the State Department, predicted that the Republicans would seize on the Ayers case, and other Chicago relationships, to "bludgeon Obama's presidential aspirations into the dust."
The London Sunday Times joined the chorus this weekend by reporting that Republicans were "out to crush Barack by painting him as a left-winger with dubious support".
The only hard facts that have come out so far are the $200 contribution by Ayers to the Obama re-election fund, and their joint membership of the eight-person Woods Fund Board. Ayers did not respond to e-mails and telephone calls requesting clarification of the relationship. Obama spokesman Bill Burton noted in a statement that Ayers was a professor of education at the
University of Illinois and a former aide to Mayor Richard M. Daley, and continued:
Senator Obama strongly condemns the violent actions of the Weathermen group, as he does all acts of violence. But he was an eight-year-old child when Ayers and the Weathermen were active, and any attempt to connect Obama with events of almost forty years ago is ridiculous.
In the short term, the person who has most to gain by speculation about Obama's acquaintance with a former terrorist is Hillary Clinton. The former First Lady likes to present herself as "tested and vetted" after years of exposure to Republican attacks, in contrast to Obama, a relative newcomer to hardscrabble presidential politics. Such arguments resonate with Johnson, the counterterrorism expert, who told me that he is a Clinton supporter, although not involved with the campaign.
But the Obama-Ayers link is a tenuous one. As Newsday pointed out, Clinton has her own, also tenuous, Weatherman connection. Her husband commuted the sentences of a couple of convicted Weather Underground members, Susan Rosenberg and Linda Sue Evans, shortly before leaving office in January 2001. Which is worse: pardoning a convicted terrorist or accepting a campaign contribution from a former Weatherman who was never convicted?
Whatever his past, Ayers is now a respected member of the Chicago intelligentsia, and still a member of the Woods Fund Board. The president of the Woods Fund, Deborah Harrington, said he had been selected for the board because of his solid academic credentials and "passion for social justice."
"This whole connection is a stretch," Harrington told me. "Barack was very well known in Chicago, and a highly respected legislator. It would be difficult to find people round here who never volunteered or contributed money to one of his campaigns."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From the USA Today, 8/2008
How their paths crossed
When Obama was asked about Ayers in an April debate, he said, "the notion that … me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8 years old, somehow reflects on me and my values doesn't make much sense."
After that debate, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley released a statement saying he doesn't condone what Ayers did in the 1960s. "It was a difficult time, but those days are long over," he said.
Ayers and Obama have moved in some of the same circles:
•In 1995, Ayers hosted a brunch for Obama, who was running for the Illinois Senate.
The ad says this meeting launched Obama's political career. Quentin Young, a physician who was there, says it was a typical Hyde Park event and to imply otherwise is "guilt by simultaneously being in the same place."
•In 1997, they were on a juvenile justice panel sponsored by the University of Chicago. They were on a 2002 panel on intellectualism that was co-sponsored by the Chicago Public Library.
•In 1997, the Chicago Tribune published a blurb from Obama about books he was reading. Obama said he was reading Ayers' A Kind and Just Parent: the Children of Juvenile Court.
•From 1999-2002, both men were on the board of the Woods Fund, a Chicago foundation that makes grants to arts and civic groups. Obama left the board in 2002; Ayers remains on it.
Laura Washington, chairwoman of the Woods Fund board, says suggestions of close ties are "an attempt to demonize Bill as a way of damaging Barack Obama."
•Ayers gave $200 to Obama's 2001 state Senate campaign.
--------------------------------------------------------------
FOX News and various media outlets have always said that there were no links between Obama and William Charles “Bill” Ayers who was an American activist in the 1960s and 1970s and is now a professor in the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, holding the honor of Distinguished Professor.
Time: Making An Issue Of Obama’s Relationship With Ayers And Dohrn Is “Absurd.” “Those have been the options in the debate. But the truth is a third option: Ayers and Dohrn are despicable, and yet making an issue of Obama’s relationship with them is absurd.” [Time, 5/29/08 ]
Chicago Sun Times: Obama’s Connection To Ayers Is A “Phony Flap”. The Chicago Sun-Times wrote in an editorial, “But Ayers, it is also true to say, has since followed in the footsteps of the great Chicago social worker Jane Addams, crusading for education and juvenile justice reform. His 1997 book, A Kind and Just Parent: The Children of Juvenile Court, has been praised for exposing how Cook County’s juvenile justice system all but eliminates a child’s chance for redemption. Is Barack Obama consorting with a radical? Hardly. Ayers is nothing more than an aging lefty with a foolish past who is doing good. And while, yes, Obama is friendly with Ayers, it appears to be only in the way of two community activists whose circles overlap. Obama’s middle name is Hussein. That doesn’t make him an Islamic terrorist. He stopped wearing a flag pin. That doesn’t make him unpatriotic. And he’s friendly with UIC Professor William Ayers. That doesn’t make him a bomb thrower. Time to move on to Phony Flap 6,537,204.” [Chicago Sun-Times , 3/3/08]
Noam Scheiber Of TNR: “I Don’t See Evidence Of Any Relationship” Between Obama And Ayers. Noam Scheiber of The New Republic wrote, “Ben says Ayers and Obama were, at best, casual friends. Even that seems to overstate things, though. I don’t see evidence of any relationship. The only concrete connection we know of is the meeting, which was attended by a number of local liberals; their contemporaneous membership on the board of a local organization; and a $200-donation by Ayers to one of Obama’s state senate campaigns. (Obama also once praised something Ayers had written about the juvenile justice system.) I’m not saying they couldn’t have been casual friends; just that there isn’t much evidence for that at this point.” [The New Republic, 2/22/08 ]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When America is faced with a horrible economy, a broken-down government, a healthcare system which is costing everyone more by the day, and a no-holds-barred energy crisis, we get to be entertained with John McCain and Sarah Palin doing the dance of the boogeyman.
We are already seeing ads being aired about Barack Obama not supporting the troops, which according to factcheck.org is at best a misrepresentation of his votes, at worst it’s an out and out lie.
We are going to see more and more stuff, and I fear that some of it will be racially-motivated. Palin already seems to be dancing awfully close to that line in her speeches.
But why not; if I’m the McCain campaign and I have an angry, relatively erratic candidate with a running mate whose qualifications all would call into question I’m probably making the same choice (OK, that’s true if I don’t have any ethics or scruples).
I mean, the policy announcements the McCain campaign has come out with over the last couple of week’s amount to either nothing or worse than nothing. Just today, the main economic advisor to McCain stated that cutting Medicare and Medicaid would be the way they would want to go in order to give tax credits for health insurance. This goes under the heading of cutting off your nose to spite your face.
Hence, get ready to take out the biggest umbrella you can find. Make sure it is strong enough to withstand all the crap you are about to hear and see. It will be ugly. It will be mean-spirited. It will be classless. But, don’t allow these tactics to sway you. It is too important to remember what is at stake in this election.
Vote for the future, for these tactics are very much about the past.
# posted by Kevin @ 4:25 PM 
