Published in TheHill.com on October 7,2008
In the best tradition of Bill Clinton’s famous declaration that the answer to the question of whether or not he was having an affair with Monica depended on “what the definition of ‘is’ is,” Barack Obama was clearly splitting hairs and concealing the truth when he said that William Ayers was “just a guy who lives in my neighborhood.”
The records of the administration of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC), released last week by the University of Illinois, show that the Ayers-Obama connection was, in fact, an intimate collaboration and that it led to the only executive or administrative experience in Obama’s life.
After Walter Annenberg’s foundation offered several hundred million dollars to American public schools in the mid-’90s, William Ayers applied for $50 million for Chicago. The purpose of his application was to secure funds to “raise political consciousness” in Chicago’s public schools. After he won the grant, Ayers’s group chose Barack Obama to distribute the money. Between 1995 and 1999, Obama distributed the $50 million and raised another $60 million from other civic groups to augment it. In doing so, he was following Ayers’s admonition to grant the funds to “external” organizations, like American Community Organizations for Reform
Now (ACORN) to pair with schools and conduct programs to radicalize the students and politicize them.
Reading, math and science achievement tests counted for little in the CAC grants, but the school’s success in preaching a radical political agenda determined how much money they got.
Barack Obama should have run screaming at the sight of William Ayers and his wife, Bernadette Dohrn. Ayers has admitted bombing the U.S. Capitol building and the Pentagon, and his wife was sent to prison for failing to cooperate in solving the robbery of a Brink’s armored car in which two police officers were killed. Far from remorse, Ayers told The New York Times in September 2001 that he “wished he could have done more.”
Ayers only avoided conviction when the evidence against him turned out to be contained in illegally obtained wiretaps by the FBI. He was, in fact, guilty as sin.
That Obama should ally himself with Ayers is almost beyond understanding. The former terrorist had not repented of his views and the education grants he got were expressly designed to further them.
So let’s sum up Obama’s Chicago connections. His chief financial supporter was Tony Rezko, now on his way to federal prison. His spiritual adviser and mentor was the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, of “God damn America” fame. And the guy who got him his only administrative job and put him in charge of doling out $50 million is William Ayers, a terrorist who was a domestic Osama bin Laden in his youth.
Even apart from the details of the Obama/Ayers connection, two key points emerge:
a) Obama lied and misled the American people in his description of his relationship with Ayers as casual and arm’s-length; and
b) Obama was consciously guided by Ayers’s radical philosophy, rooted in the teachings of leftist Saul Alinksy, in his distribution of CAC grant funds.
Since Obama is asking us to let him direct education spending by the federal government and wants us to trust his veracity, these are difficulties he will have to explain in order to get the votes to win.
Now that Obama is comfortably ahead in the polls, attention will understandably shift to him. We will want to know what kind of president he would make. The fact that, within the past 10 years, he participated in a radical program of political education conceptualized by an admitted radical terrorist offers no reassurance.
Why did Obama put up with Ayers? Because he got a big job and $50 million of patronage to distribute to his friends and supporters in Chicago. Why did he hang out with Jeremiah Wright? Because he was new in town, having grown up in Hawaii and Indonesia and having been educated at Columbia and Harvard, and needed all the local introductions he could get to jump-start his political career. Why was he so close to Rezko?
Because he funded Obama’s campaigns and helped him buy a house for $300,000 less than he otherwise would have had to pay.
Not a good recommendation for a president.
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Unleashing the Ayers gambit, just as the Clinton campaign did towards the end of its primary run is not going to save McCain. This strategy didn’t work for Hillary. Negative messages are going to have a lot of trouble getting through the overwhelming media focus on the economic crisis. This might work well for voter suppression but the polls tell us that voters want a problem-solver. They want non-partisan, non-ideological solutions and characteristics. The impact of the Ayers might have had no initial impact, but it eventually grows until it becomes “saturated” and when this happens you can no longer get as much mileage out of it–and preventing that saturation right now is the economic crisis. If you didn’t have an ecomomic criticality, then past associations might matter.
The stock market is down -30% YTD. Major financial institutions have gone belly up. Companies can’t fund their working capital requirements. Major export markets are rolling over. People are losing their jobs, seeing their pensions evaporate and losing their homes.
Do you think anyone cares about this Bill Ayers cr-p! NOT AT ALL.
By the time McCain-Palin wake up and smell the economic coffee they’ll be trying to figure out how they lost in Indiana!
Dick, your political radar is usually pitch perfect. Can’t you feel the political winds blowing away from character attacks and towards dollars and sense?
What is most worrisome about the media coverage of the Ayers-Obama connection is that writers continually carp on the fact that Ayers’ last bomb was dropped more than 40 years ago. What they fail to realize is that Ayers changed his strategy from active anarchy to the insidiousness of “Educational Reform”. Obama’s links to the philosophty and tactics of Saul Alinsky signifies to me that he shares a philosophy of radical socialism with William Ayers.
We should care very deeply about this relationship, otherwise a socialist might be elected President of the United States.
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“Guilt by Association”
Even though its more than that, that should be the mantra, as this is a play out of Obama’s playbook. As he pontificates “another 4 years of Bush with McCain,” which Mr. McCain has a Record of going against the Party and Obama hasn’t. Obama is Guilty by Association with Ayers, Wright and Resko!
McCain needs to outline the Obama’s House Deal with Resko! The housing issue is on the Front page and so is favoritism. This shows he is just as guilty as the senior executives compensation packages. “Executive Privilege” another Mantra for McCain.
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