Subterranean Obama Blues

Here is another ripple beneath the surface of the Obama campaign - Ben Smith of The Politico reports that Obama is unrepentant about his association with unrepentant Weatherman Bill Ayers. 

For one of the most jarring intersections of date and interview that I have encountered, check this NY Times profile of Bill Ayers from Sept 11 2001.  With the smoke of the World Trade Center visible for forty miles, Times readers could ponder these insights:

September 11, 2001
No Regrets for a Love Of Explosives; In a Memoir of Sorts, a War Protester Talks of Life With the Weathermen

By DINITIA SMITH

''I don't regret setting bombs,'' Bill Ayers said. ''I feel we didn't do enough.'' Mr. Ayers, who spent the 1970's as a fugitive in the Weather Underground, was sitting in the kitchen of his big turn-of-the-19th-century stone house in the Hyde Park district of Chicago. The long curly locks in his Wanted poster are shorn, though he wears earrings. He still has tattooed on his neck the rainbow-and-lightning Weathermen logo that appeared on letters taking responsibility for bombings. And he still has the ebullient, ingratiating manner, the apparently intense interest in other people, that made him a charismatic figure in the radical student movement.

...

Mr. Ayers, who in 1970 was said to have summed up the Weatherman philosophy as: ''Kill all the rich people. Break up their cars and apartments. Bring the revolution home, kill your parents, that's where it's really at,'' is today distinguished professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago. And he says he doesn't actually remember suggesting that rich people be killed or that people kill their parents, but ''it's been quoted so many times I'm beginning to think I did,'' he said. ''It was a joke about the distribution of wealth.''

He went underground in 1970, after his girlfriend, Diana Oughton, and two other people were killed when bombs they were making exploded in a Greenwich Village town house. With him in the Weather Underground was Bernardine Dohrn, who was put on the F.B.I.'s 10 Most Wanted List. J. Edgar Hoover called her ''the most dangerous woman in America'' and ''la Pasionara of the Lunatic Left.'' Mr. Ayers and Ms. Dohrn later married.

In his book Mr. Ayers describes  the Weathermen descending into a ''whirlpool of violence.'' 

''Everything was absolutely ideal on the day I bombed the Pentagon,'' he writes. But then comes a disclaimer: ''Even though I didn't actually bomb the Pentagon -- we bombed it, in the sense that Weathermen organized it and claimed it.'' He goes on to provide details about the manufacture of the bomb and how a woman he calls Anna placed the bomb in a restroom. No one was killed or injured, though damage was extensive.

Just another Friend of Barack.  Ayers and Obama sat on the board of the Woods Fund for a time; Tim Novak of the Sun-Times found a conflict of interest scandal of sorts there.  And one does wonder how Obama managed to rise through the mean streets of Chi-town politics without smudging himself.

 

Comments

[Jane]

And a clearer picture of Obama emerges.

[MayBee]

He's going to unite all of us, including the domestic terrorists. (Not including people who like Bush).

[Appalled Moderate]

This story is as thin as the McCain story. Obama had dealings with a supporter who has a past but is well-regarded in his district. With some effort, I'm sure you could find some bizarre John Birchers in McCain's early years. (Heaven knows, Arizona used to have a lot of them...)

By the way, TM -- your post just below is impressive.

[clarice]

Aren't a number of ex-weathermen teaching at colleges in the Chicago area, including Northwestern University law school? Dang, it's so hard to be a true revolutionary in the USA--everyone greets you with open arms and a good job.

[MayBee]

a past but is well-regarded in his district

That's the interesting part of the story to me.

[RichatUF]

AM-

The McCain story was an anonymously sourced rumor. Obama doesn't deny a relationship-he is going out of his way to distance himself from it [just like he did with his pastor and his mentor]. This really doesn't help RW because of the number of domestic terrorists Pres. Clinton pardoned while in office. It is an interesting character trait BHO has where he can cast aside those that have become "political problems" so easily.

[Appalled Moderate]

MayBee:

I don't disagree with you -- I just find the Obama tie in tenuous. (What politicians do is get the support of as many people as possible. It's not like Obama is on record endorising the guy's Weatherman past...)

[Appalled Moderate]

Rich:

The better politicians (FDR, Reagan, the 90s version of Bill Clinton) have always been good at disposing of inconvenient allies. An unreasonable personal loyalty can cause trouble -- see Hillary Clinton's campaign troubles for a good example of that.

As political attacks go, I think questions about Obama's pastor are probably more fertile. I don't see any links between the ex-weather dude and Obama after the '90s.

[Sue]

I don't disagree with you -- I just find the Obama tie in tenuous.

I personally don't care how tenuous it is. I'm going with the democratic strategist on Fox last night who made the following comment about McCain...where there's smoke there's fire. I see smoke in this story, tenuous or otherwise...

[GMax]

What politicians do is get the support of as many people as possible.

Oh really? So if say David Duke was a strong supporter of John McCain and had long ties and when asked about it McCain refused to distance himself, you and others and the Media would say that is just fine and dandy?

Think before you try to spoon feed us crap.

[Sue]

GMax,

You don't even have to do the hypothetical. We already have guilt by association with Bush and Ken Lay. And Ken Lay wasn't a domestic terrorist. And Bush's justice system went after him. But google Bush + Lay and the stuff you find will appall you, unless you are a moderate.

[anduril]

Mr. Ayers, who in 1970 was said to have summed up the Weatherman philosophy as: ''Kill all the rich people. Break up their cars and apartments. Bring the revolution home, kill your parents, that's where it's really at,'' is today distinguished professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

This is certainly the first time I've ever heard of a "distinguished" professor of education--anyone familiar with education departments would more likely consider that to be a contradiction in terms. Here's from his blog:

William Ayers, Distinguished Professor of Education and Senior University Scholar at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), and founder of both the Small Schools Workshop and the Center for Youth and Society, teaches courses in interpretive and qualitative research, urban school change, and teaching and the modern predicament. [Comment: Pretentious? Moi?] A graduate of the University of Michigan, the Bank Street College of Education, and Teachers College, Columbia University, Ayers has written extensively about social justice, democracy and education, the political and cultural contexts of schooling, and the meaning-making and ethical purposes of students and families and teachers. His articles have appeared in many journals including the Harvard Educational Review, the Journal of Teacher Education, Teachers College Record, Rethinking Schools, the Nation, the New York Times and the Cambridge Journal of Education.

Here's from a review of Ayers' latest book:

Although I cannot speak to the sales figures for Fugitive Days, I can say that Dr. William Ayers, Professor of Education at the University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC), and a former leader of the 1960s-era terrorist group the Weather Underground, has attracted considerable attention. That attention, however, has not been as universally favorable as Publishers' Weekly and Beacon Press had anticipated. For advance publicity stills Ayers had posed with a sorry-looking American flag at his feet. In a glowing author profile by the New York Times Ayers said of his 1972 bombing of the Pentagon--among other such protest activities--that, "I don't regret setting bombs. I feel we didn't do enough."2 The gods of synchronicity must have been looking over Ayers's shoulders. His first New York Times' profile ran September 11-the day horrified Americans watched helplessly as Islamic extremists slammed three commercial airliners into the Pentagon and the World Trade Center towers killing thousands. Several days later, the New York Times carried another glowing story on Ayers-this one written, historian Ronald Radosh noted, "by a writer whose parents were comrades of Ayers in the Weather Underground."3

John Earl Haynes, a distinguished historian of twentieth-century America at the Library of Congress, condemned Ayers for his unrepentant radicalism and sharply rebuked UIC for cheering him on in its official webpage. Author and Vanity Fair contributing editor Sam Tanenhaus, after recalling what the New York Times described as the "daring acts" of resistance undertaken by Ayers's associates, wondered, "how many alumni of the Weather Underground acknowledge today the part they played in fostering a culture of terrorism in which assaults on the U.S. and its citizens are wreathed in the glory of 'daring acts'?"4 New York Post columnist and neo-conservative activist John Podhoretz pulled no punches, calling people like Ayers evil, horrific and deluded, and suggesting the reason he was given sympathetic treatment by the New York Times had to do with opposition to the Vietnam war.5

It appears that those who highly regard him are pretty much a grab bag of the usual leftist activist and academic suspects. We're learning an awful lot about BHO's background a long time before the election.

[anduril]

For advance publicity stills Ayers had posed with a sorry-looking American flag at his feet.

N.B. That's the same flag that BHO won't wear as a pin in his lapel and won't salute with a hand over his heart during the pledge of allegiance. I won't bother researching MO's attitude toward that flag, but I have my suspicions that her attitude will reflect BHO's--or is it the other way around?

None of this will play well across Amerika America.

[clarice]

Yup. In most other places in the world he'd be living on bugs and berries in some jungle or forest hiding from the authorities. But only in America, bless here, does trying to meaninglessly maim and kill fellow citizens lead to a "distinguished" teaching career.(In this case posioning the minds of numbers of yound pedagogues to be and so on to infinity.

[boris]

A guy named Hussain with a demonstrated comfort level involving domestic terrorist who doesn't see anything wrong with bombing the US gov over economic and military ideology.

If other "moderates" find this unremarkable perhaps they are now prepared to abandon the politics of fear for the greener pastures of hope and belief in the future.

Swell

[Appalled Moderate]

GMax:

Sorry to seriously annoy you again. But you are way overstating the degree of connection Obama has to this guy, and the degree of radioactivity of the person at the time of contact. I see a meeting over 10 years ago, and a few minimal donations and contact since then. I'm sorry, but so what? Are you saying that your average Republican has not shaken hands with...say...some Operation Rescue sorts over the years?

[Pofarmer]

None of this will play well across Amerika America.

Yeah, well, just like the Rezko ties, America won't get a chance to see/hear it.

[Rick Ballard]

Odd, I read the piece as BHO having been vetted as acceptable by leftist terroris scum. Once vetted by the Commies who run the show, BHO's low road was clear.

Another small answer to OT's question as to what a "community organizer" doe - first he goes and kisses the ring of the Massa Comrade running the show, then it's off to work, overseeing the plantation.

Massa Comrade Ayers must be very happy.

[Pofarmer]

I wanna make sure I've got the moderate view about right. A lobbiest blabbing that she has "strong ties" to McCain is told to cork it and that's big news. Obama having possible ties to a domestic terrorrist isn't newsworthy at all. Mob lawyers? No big deal either.

Sum it up?

[GMax]

AM

You are being disingenuous and further more you know it, as you are not that dense. He most certainly was not standing behind the rope on a receiving line and managed to touch the robe as the Messiah past.

You would not ask anything of McCain if he had a $10 donation from Duke, other than "When are you going to return it and doesn't this signify your affinity with his positions?

[anduril]

Pofarmer, unless McCain really doesn't want to be Numero Uno--and if you believe that I have a bridge you might be interested in--then we'll hear lots about this.

From Steve Sailer. I think he's right--she keeps bringing up her test scores, whether they're relevant or not. In this exchange, it's a stretch to relate those scores to her husband's standing in the polls. Anyone who checks her public statements will see this comes up repeatedly.

Michelle Obama will never forgive white America for what she had to suffer: being admitted to Princeton and Harvard despite being not terribly smart.

From NewsBusters last November:

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: "The polls are showing your husband is trailing Hillary by 46% to 37% in the African-American community. What's going on here?"

MICHELLE OBAMA: "First of all, I think that that's not going to hold. I'm completely confident: black America will wake up, and get [it]. But what we're dealing with in the black community is just the natural fear of possibility. You know, when I look at my life, the stuff that we're seeing in these polls has played out my whole life. You know, always been told by somebody that I'm not ready, that I can't do something, my scores weren't high enough."

Everybody is asking about her husband; nobody is asking about her life or test scores. But she keeps giving it to us. This is very sad, very self absorbed and resentful.

[anduril]

Sorry, that should have been coded to read:

From Steve Sailer. I think he's right--she keeps bringing up her test scores, whether they're relevant or not. In this exchange, it's a stretch to relate those scores to her husband's standing in the polls. Anyone who checks her public statements will see this comes up repeatedly.

Michelle Obama will never forgive white America for what she had to suffer: being admitted to Princeton and Harvard despite being not terribly smart.

From NewsBusters last November:

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: "The polls are showing your husband is trailing Hillary by 46% to 37% in the African-American community. What's going on here?"

MICHELLE OBAMA: "First of all, I think that that's not going to hold. I'm completely confident: black America will wake up, and get [it]. But what we're dealing with in the black community is just the natural fear of possibility. You know, when I look at my life, the stuff that we're seeing in these polls has played out my whole life. You know, always been told by somebody that I'm not ready, that I can't do something, my scores weren't high enough."

Everybody is asking about her husband; nobody is asking about her life or test scores. But she keeps giving it to us. This is very sad, very self absorbed and resentful.

[GMax]

So what are we to conclude, that Michelle Obama absent affirmative action would never have been admitted to Princeton and Harvard? There is a shock. But the thanks we get for being given a privileged education is a lifetime of attitude? What am I missing? Or am I too white to get it?

[anduril]

GMax, I think you get it. No, none of that is shocking in this day and age, but it won't play well. And I doubt whether someone with her attitude will deal well with pushback. That will impact her husband's campaign. Adversely.

Disclaimer: I also though McCain being a wacko would adversely impact his campaign. (Wacko? Don't ask me, I'm just echoing Michael Medved and his psychologist wife. Medved called McCain "mentally unbalanced/unstable" on air. Now he supports McCain. Go figure.)

[Rick Ballard]

It's rather interesting to have two Alinsky Acolytes on stage at one time. RW was also vetted by the commie lawyer with whom she interned after law school. She had a some association with defending some Black Panthers (speaking of terrorists) during that internship.

We can be certain that RW will pardon commie terrorist scum and I'd say the probability has risen somewhat beyond 50% that BHO the Red will too.

Gramsci would be so proud.

[Appalled Moderate]

GMax:

I see this more as a local politician meeting one of the local power brokers. I expect that some of the other guys Obama met for support had mob connections, or Che posters in the dining room. To secure a seat, you have to appeal to the activists and power brokers, and frequently activists are extreme and the power brokers are corrupt.

If this is someone who was a big booster of Obama back in the day (and a $200 donation does not suggest it), or was someone who had been a big adviser of Obama through the years, I would be concerned and think there is more there there. As it is, I see this as a minor tale on age 32 of "Making of a President, 2008"

[GMax]

In 1995, State Senator Alice Palmer introduced her chosen successor, Barack Obama, to a few of the district’s influential liberals at the home of two well known figures on the local left: William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn.

Sound like shaking hands in the crowd as it flows past to you?

[MayBee]

MayBee:

I don't disagree with you -- I just find the Obama tie in tenuous. (What politicians do is get the support of as many people as possible. It's not like Obama is on record endorising the guy's Weatherman past...)

I agree with this, to a large extent. It doesn't sound like Obama was responsible for the planning of this meeting in any way.
What does bother me, although I was kind of kidding when I said it above, is that the domestic terrorists seem not to get the condemnation that our President does.
I despise the Weather Underground and those ridiculous 60's radicals. I don't despise Bush. Where does that leave me in Obama's unity plan? Who will Obama court, and who will he cast aside?

And although much of it is just the talking topic of the day, I think Michelle's "never been proud of America" coupled with associates like this could be a problem for Obama. Bill Ayers and those like him would hear that line, as is, and approve.

[anduril]

A trifecta on politics and money at the WSJ today, touching the three remaining major candidates. Lets face it folks--this is what politics is all about: MONEY. Money is power, and there wouldn't be politicians if there weren't money in politics. So, read on:

McCain's Real Secret

Their review of more shady money dealings by McCain ends:

We suppose we can't blame Mr. McCain for trying to make the finance rules work for him, but it'd be nice if he finally admitted their embarrassing folly.

Obama's Cash Games

Kimberly Strassel notes that Obama has hit a "No We Can't" moment (very clever--I like that):

Too soft to withstand a Republican assault. Too vague to know how he'd govern. Those two big raps on Barack Obama can now be shelved. The Illinois senator this week provided his first, highly illuminating, example of how he'd operate in the Oval Office. It's clear he's as crafty as Hillary Clinton.

This case study has to do with that great love of good-government types, campaign finance.

And finally the Clintons:

His and Her Finances

Stonewalling and secrecy helped Bill and Hillary Clinton win the White House without a thorough enough vetting in 1992. Now they're trying to do it again, this time by not disclosing either their income tax returns or the donor list for the Clinton Foundation.

All of this has become the target of greater attention since Mrs. Clinton loaned her struggling campaign $5 million last month. She waited until after the crucial Super Tuesday voting to disclose this news, and initially described the loan as "my money." Campaign spokesman Howard Wolfson then clarified that the cash had come from Mrs. Clinton's 50% "share" of the couple's joint resources.

Is America a great country or what? Only seven years ago the Clintons were swimming in legal bills. They've since cashed in on their celebrity to pay off a $2 million mortgage on their Washington D.C. home, and are now able to lend $5 million to Mrs. Clinton's campaign. The Senator has had her own success, earning more than $5 million for her "Living History" memoir. But the real income source has been the former President, who has been giving $450,000 speeches, and in general parlaying his political fame into personal riches.

Mr. Clinton is now trying to unwind a business relationship with billionaire pal Ron Burkle. This deal made him a partner -- along with the ruler of Dubai -- in the Yucaipa Global Fund. How much did Mr. Clinton earn from a partnership with men whose business interests might be affected by the policy actions of a President Hillary Clinton? The Clintons and their accountant know, but the public doesn't.

[Appalled Moderate]

Pofarmer:

For the record, I think the NYT McCain story is pathetic and TM's takedown of it one of the best things I've seen him post.

[anduril]

The thing about BHO is that a definite pattern in his associates emerges as you dig a bit. Yesterday I linked to his communist mentor in Hawaii, and the pattern continues to the present. I believe in patterns.

[clarice]

When the RW blathers about her opponents' ethical lapses one wonders how she avoids looking upward to see whether a wrathful God is sending a bolt of lightening her way. Or even how she says that carp without cackling at the absurdity of it.

[MikeS]

I'm too busy being appalled by what Michelle and Barack say and believe that I don't have time to worry about their supporters.

I'm really proud of what my country has been doing for Michelle and Barack all of their adult lives. Unlike some people, I don't feel a need to also make Barack president and Michelle first lady.

[GMax]

Barack has not been shy about talking about McCain comment about staying 100 years in Iraq. He mentiones it in every single speech that he gives. Why, do you think he really thinks McCain wants to stay there 100 years? NO, but he can use it and it certainly fires up his base of radical leftists.

So McCain who already does not like Obama and has him welch on commitments at least twice and now hears this stuff every day, should start pummeling Obama with the Weather Underground candidate.

I am pretty sure I know how moderate Democrats and true moderate independents will react, the same way many of them reacted to the Winter Soldier.

Its fairly amazing when you think about it, but the Democrat party runs a VVAW Winter soldier and then follows it up with the Weather Underground's hand picked candidate. If there is one organization that has been left out of the radical trifecta, its the Black Panthers. But I have a feeling that some of those connections are just yet to be unearthed.

[Other Tom]

I don't see the Ayers thing as having much impact on the campaign. However, if there are a number of similar associations that come to light in the coming months, perhaps there'll be a cumulative effect.

AM, I doubt you'll find any Arizona John Birchers in McCain's past--he didn't move there until he retired from the Navy in 1981, and the JBS was pretty much overwith by then.

[RichatUF]

anduril-

...she keeps bringing up her test scores, whether they're relevant or not...

With BHO in office he will make sure there are no more standardizied tests so no more students will feel bad if they do poorly.

[clarice]

"They" should have just recognized her specialness and great intelligence without looking at damned foolish tests, man.

[Tom Maguire]

Appalled - thanks for the props on the Times takedown; I actually thought I earned my Right Wing Noise Machine paycheck with that one (although I guess this season we are the Freak Show).

As to the Obama-Weatherman thing, a similar story flickered by a few days ago and I gave it a pass, although I was stunned by the oddity of the Ayers interview on Sept 11.

However! As a Turning of the Media Tide straw in wind, this Politico story reflects the notion that the media is digging for Obaminations, which makes it very intriguing.

[Sue]

TM,

Obama is sure pushing the early voting in Texas. The first thing you see about voting in Texas on his website:

Texas early voting: Now through February 29

In Texas, selecting the Democratic nominee is a two step process, and the first step is underway now.

I find his pushing the early voting intriguing, so maybe our 2 intrigues are connected?

[Appalled Moderate]

GMax and MayBee:

The professorial class -- which is one of Obama's constiuencies -- clearly has an ambivalent relationship with both patriotism and the concept of American exceptionalism. I have a feeling Obama shares some of that ambivalence (and feel like Michele, alas, goes somewhat past ambivalence.) That ambivalence contrasts with McCain's Teddy Roosevelt style patriotism. It's pretty clear this subject is coming up in the campaign, and that the discussion could get interesting.

I would really prefer that this conversation not focus on stuff like flag pins or Obama has a muslim middle name or Obama knew commies in Hawaii and weathermen in Chicago. This is not important, and it allows people to shut off their critical thinking facilities about the things that are important. Obama promises to bring a new way of doing business in Washington. Great. I really cannot stand the way the poitical system has evolved over the past 20 years.

But does he believe that this country is a positive force for good in the world?

I don't know that he does. And that can be a real problem. Because putting such a leader in charge is rather like installing an agnostic as Pope.

[clarice]

Soylent's graduating from military intelligence school today. Let's tip our hats to old Sheikh yer Booty!

[GMax]

Obama promises to bring a new way of doing business in Washington. Great.

Well all politicians campaign on this. Sometimes from the incumbents chair.

Last time I saw someone add up all of his promises, we were 200B + in the hole. And he is just getting started so I am sure a few more promises will roll off that silvery tongue before we get to November. He can not deliver on this promise, and has no demostrated history or even aptitude at bringing about the change in the political discourse that he "promises". His vote history actually says he does not believe his own promise.

Mick Jagger talked once about the man on the tv telling me about how white my shirts can be. Now Obama is telling you how white your shirts can be. You want to believe it, so you are ignoring the both the fact its a pitch and the contraindicators.

[Sue]

Hat tipping.

[Rick Ballard]

"Obama promises to bring a new way of doing business in Washington."

What is this "new way" that the Chicago hack pol promises and what evidence from his short but extremely mediocre political career exists from which a practice of it might be adduced? Your're blowing quite a cloud of smoke there and it's gotta be from wet leaves 'cause there's no other fuel available.

[Pofarmer]

I would really prefer that this conversation not focus on stuff like flag pins or Obama has a muslim middle name or Obama knew commies in Hawaii and weathermen in Chicago. This is not important

I agree about the Muslim middle name.

On the rest of it, I'm starting to doubt your IQ.

[Pofarmer]

GMax

That 200B in the hole would be BEFORE the Global Poverty act bill nailed U.S. taxpayers for about 100B per year through at least 2015.

[RichatUF]

jeez...standardizied->standardized

[Other Tom]

"But does he believe that this country is a positive force for good in the world?"

I believe that if you gave him truth serum, he would acknowledge that he does not. In the absence of the serum, he would go on at length about what a force for good it could be, and will be if he is president.

I also think he has a natural constituency in a very large share of the electorate whose answer to the question would be an unambiguous "no." That constituency wants the US out of Iraq, not to save the lives of soldiers, but because it wants the country to learn a humiliating lesson about the sins of intervention abroad. And it will be happy to see the US suffer that humiliation, since it can be blamed on George Bush. And if the Iraqis must suffer horribly as a result, well, that's a small price to pay for the further demonization of Bush.

These are sentiments that we will not hear expressed, but I think they are very real and widespread.

[Sue]

We've lost a veteran Dallas police officer. He was in Clinton's motorcade. Motorcycle officer. You can read the story and watch video at www.wfaa.com.

[anduril]

Re the new way of doing business in Washington, read the WSJ article on "Obama's Cash Games" (linked above). The only thing new about the "new way" is will be the people in the Oval Office.

The notion that symbols and associations (which are, in their own way, symbolic forms of expression) are meaningless or irrelevant is...truly appalling.