Some people say that McCain should stop bringing up the issue of past associations of Barack Obama. Hey, he was only a kid when Bill Ayers performed his terrorist duties.
Still, who you choose to associate with says a lot about your character.
Likewise, the people you hang out with shape the character you develop and says a lot about your own character.
The fact that Obama CHOSE to hang out with Ayers, even launched his campaign in his house (when he was an adult), says a lot about the man.
The fact that he stayed in the church of the Reverend Wright after he said such things as "God Damn America" also says a load about his character.
He has still not completely distanced himself from the man.
I think the character of this man is still in question, and this should not be ignored by McCain and Palin between now and the election.
Sure, he should focus 70% of his attention on the issues, but of the remaining 30%, he should devote 30% to reminding the people of this great country of the shady character of the man who is right now leading in the polls.
6 comments:
Obama, responding to questions earlier this year about whatever ties he's had to Ayers, told reporters this acquaintance was "somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8."
Yet you claim Obama hasn't completely distanced himself from this man. What does Obama have to do, hire a hit man to take him out?
Maybe ideology or party preference makes it impossible for you to see the truth here, which is simple and has been made clear several times over.
William Ayers did something wrong 40 years ago, although he was never charged with a crime, much less convicted of one. In the decades since, he put his life on a completely different path, completing his own education and becoming a professor of education — a respected one. Ayers has also worked to make things better for less fortunate people in his community. What he has not done is engage in anything faintly resembling radical or terrorist activities.
I wonder, did you condemn George W. Bush because 30 or 40 years ago he had problems with drinking and other substance abuse? Be honest, did you? Do you now?
Do you have any problem at all with McCain because of his association with Charles Keating two decades ago — a tie which resulted in McCain being censured by the Senate Ethics Committee? And does McCain's closeness with Phil Gramm set off any alarm bells in your head?
Yeah, "who you choose to associate with says a lot about your character." But it would seem you only apply this yardstick to the Democratic presidential candidate, while you give his Republican opponent a pass. How is that fair?
This is from an exhaustive, 2,100-word N.Y. Times investigation of the Obama-Ayers relationship. I urge you to read the rest.
"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. [...]
[T]he 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."
You're comparing drinking with terrorism? I drink. Many Americans drink. Drinking doesn't necessarily correlate to being a bad person. Not all drinkers terrorize.
Ayers was asked about his terrorism act, and he said he wished he would have succeeded. That doesn't sound like a person who's changed.
Likewise, Obama was an adult and he still maintained his associations with the man. Ayers is a bad man. Obama was buddies with Ayers. The question is, how much influence did Ayers have on Obama?
I'm not implying that McCain and Bush were perfect, Clinton sure wasn't perfect, but none of them were associated in any way with terrorism.
Republicans must continue to remind people of who this man really is.
Likewise, it also shows a lot about the character of the democratic party to be defending a known, non-repentent, terrorist.
"You're comparing drinking with terrorism?"
I'm obviously talking about undesirable things in people's past.
Ayers was asked about his terrorism act, and he said he wished he would have succeeded.
When was he asked? What is your source for this?
Obama was an adult and he still maintained his associations with the man. Ayers is a bad man. Obama was buddies with Ayers.
Obama's association with the man, going by Wall Street Journal and N.Y. Times stories, was limited and casual. I think your definition of "buddies" is strongly influenced by your political preference for McCain, or maybe any Republican over any Democrat.
You say Ayers is a bad man, not was a bad man. Should I say the same of Bush, who as far as we know quit drinking alcohol and driving under the influence years ago?
Another question. Do you really think that when Obama met Ayers, when he served on the board of a community neighborhood group, that whoever introduced them said, "Sen. Obama, I'd like you to meet Bill Ayers. He's a former terrorist and was part of the notorious Weathermen"?
Somehow, I doubt it went that way. I expect it went more like this.
"Sen. Obama, I'd like you to meet Prof. Bill Ayers."
Finally, while we're busy sticking terrorist labels on people, how would you classify Bush and Cheney, after they lied us into an unnecessary war that has resulted in the deaths hundreds of thousands, some estimate more than a million, Iraqis? Wasn't all that shock and awe over trumped-up charges a form of terrorism?
I notice we haven't heard the first word of apology for their blunder that has cost so many lives, so much money and that will go down as one of the worst mistakes in U.S. presidential history.
As to your second comment, Freadom, I don't claim to speak for the Democratic Party. I just read the facts and put myself in Obama's place. He meets a guy on a neighborhood-helping group's board who is a professor of education at a major university, and accepts the guy for who and what he is now.
If Ayers had been running around bombing statues and plotting worse in recent years, and if Obama had spent loads of time with him knowing this up front, it would be different. But that's not the case at all.
I think your condemnation of Obama based on this is politically motivated, illogical and smacks of desperation to have something to attack Obama with.
McCain linked to group in Iran-Contra affair
Barack Obama has his William Ayers connection. Now John McCain may have an Iran-Contra connection. In the 1980s, McCain served on the advisory board to the U.S. chapter of an international group linked to ultra-right-wing death squads in Central America.
Death squads.
As you were saying about past associations?
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