No Yards And A Cloud Of Dust

Scott Shane of the NY Times presents an elegant apologia for Obama's mysterious relationship with unrepentant domestic terrorist Bill Ayers.  Mr. Shane presents the bare bones of many of the allegations made by critics, thereby allowing the Times to defend this piece as fair and two-sided.  However, little or no evidence is presented to support the allegations while the Obama denials and current explanations are presented uncritically.  The net effect will probably be to convince many people that the Times pushed hard but simply could not find a story here.

I am not convinced and will be back with more when time permits.  Meanwhile, do check out Steve Diamond, the dean of this story.  I see that his post title includes the word "Whitewash", so I infer he is not pleased with the Times coverage either.  I won't look at his work until I have finished my own evaluation but you should peek ahead.

HERE WE GO:

This is an example of a bare-bones allegation in the fifth paragraph:

More recently, conservative critics who accuse Mr. Obama of a stealth radical agenda have asserted that he has misleadingly minimized his relationship with Mr. Ayers, whom the candidate has dismissed as “a guy who lives in my neighborhood” and “somebody who worked on education issues in Chicago that I know.”

Why isn't a cover-up worth probing?  There has been a lot more "minimizing" by the Obama campaign then suggested by Mr. Shane.  Some examples include:

Obama's campaign manager David Axelrod told The Politico in February that

"Bill Ayers lives in his neighborhood. Their kids attend the same school," he said. "They're certainly friendly, they know each other, as anyone whose kids go to school together."

Obama told George Stepanopolous during the Democratic debate in Philadelphia that

This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood, who's a professor of English in Chicago, who I know and who I have not received some official endorsement from.  He's not somebody who I exchange ideas from on a regular basis.

And the so-called "Fact Check" at the Obama website does not disclose that Obama and Ayers worked together on a failed education reform project from 1995 to 2001, and had probably first teamed up on education reform in 1987.

That flat lie minimization by campaign manage Axelrod is especially important because a bit later Mr. Shane offers this:

“The suggestion that Ayers was a political adviser to Obama or someone who shaped his political views is patently false,” said Ben LaBolt, a campaign spokesman. Mr. LaBolt said the men first met in 1995 through the education project, the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, and have encountered each other occasionally in public life or in the neighborhood.

Is Mr. LaBolt even a bit less credible given that Obama's campaign manager either lied or was misinformed on the Obama/Ayers relationship last February?  Is he made less credible by the misleading "Fact Check" presented at the candidate's website?  I think so, but Times readers are not in a position to judge.

I believe that Mr. LaBolt is engaging in ongoing "minimization" because there are good reasons to believe that Messrs. Obama and Ayers met in 1988 during an earlier push for school reform.

In 1988 Bill Ayers was the coordinator of the ABCs Coalition which took the lead in pushing school reform.  Barack Obama's group, the Developing Communities Project, was a member of that coalition.  Obama was preparing to leave for Harvard but he wrote in "Dreams of My Father" that he spent his last time in Chicago working on a city-wide push for school reform.

So circumstantial evidence suggests the two men should have met.  Does Mr. Shane present any evidence that he followed up on this possibility?  Does he offer anyone specifically denying it?  No - instead we get another spokesperson who can later claim he was misinformed, just as Axelrod no doubt explained he was misinformed following his February "kids in the same school" howler.

Well, the current Obama story is that the two men met in 1995 and they are sticking to it.  That seeming detail becomes important later in their version of how Obama became chairman of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge.  Here is the faux-coverage from Mr. Shane:

That project was part of a national school reform effort financed with $500 million from Walter H. Annenberg, the billionaire publisher and philanthropist and President Richard M. Nixon’s ambassador to the United Kingdom. Many cities applied for the Annenberg money, and Mr. Ayers joined two other local education activists to lead a broad, citywide effort that won nearly $50 million for Chicago.

In March 1995, Mr. Obama became chairman of the six-member board that oversaw the distribution of grants in Chicago. Some bloggers have recently speculated that Mr. Ayers had engineered that post for him.

"Some bloggers" surely includes Steve Diamond, who detailed the correspondence that preceded the formation of the board and the recruitment of Obama (or my summary).  But what is the basis for the speculation that Ayers backed Obama for the chairmanship?  Mr. Shane offers none, which means that there is no context against which to weigh the current Obama explanation.  But we will let the suspense mount as we press forward with Mr. Shane:

In fact, according to several people involved, Mr. Ayers played no role in Mr. Obama’s appointment. Instead, it was suggested by Deborah Leff, then president of the Joyce Foundation, a Chicago-based group whose board Mr. Obama, a young lawyer, had joined the previous year. At a lunch with two other foundation heads, Patricia A. Graham of the Spencer Foundation and Adele Simmons of the MacArthur Foundation, Ms. Leff suggested that Mr. Obama would make a good board chairman, she said in an interview. Mr. Ayers was not present and had not suggested Mr. Obama, she said.

Ms. Graham said she invited Mr. Obama to dinner at an Italian restaurant in Chicago and was impressed.

“At the end of the dinner I said, ‘I really want you to be chairman.’ He said, ‘I’ll do it if you’ll be vice chairman,’ ” Ms. Graham recalled, and she agreed.

Well, that's the current story.  So what are we being peddled here? As detailed by Steve Diamond, Ms. Leff's board had given money to Bill Ayers prior to 19 and continued to do so afterwards, suggesting there was an ongoing, positive relationship between Mr. Ayers and Ms. Leff.  Furthermore, 1994 correspondence from Ms. Leff acknowledges Bill Ayers as the leader of the effort to found and fund the Chicago Annenberg Challenge.  So we are being asked to believe that Ms. Leff pulled an end-run past the fellow quarterbacking the Challenge effort and tapped a chairman withut seeking Ayers' input, despite their ongoing, positive relationship.  Am I alone in finding that to be implausible?  Well, if my only company is Scott Shane, I guess I'll be lonely.

Of course, a key feature of the current story is that it holds the line on the notion that Ayers and Obama met in 1995.  If Ms. Leff admits that she ran Obama's name past Ayers (as common courtesy would dictate) she would be left to explain Ayers' reaction.  And why in the world would Ayers hand off his big project to a young law school graduate with no background in education that he had never met?  I have no idea.  But I can imagine that if Bill Ayers had been favorably impressed with Obama when they worked together in 1988 that he would endorse Obama as chairman in 1995.  Just a theory!  But its a much more coherent theory than the fogbank on offer from Mr. Shane.

Now, why is the Obama campaign unwilling to admit that Obama and Ayers met in 1988?  Why ask me - how can I opine on the relationship when I don't even know what it is?  Jim Geraghty has kept track of Obama's non-disclosure, so maybe this is just part of that pattern.  Or maybe they have specific reasons to conceal the Obama/Ayers relationship.  Either way, before we dismiss the relatonship as unimportant I would like to know what it is.

Normal reporters in normal times sniff out cover-ups and try to crack them.  In 2008 that rule has been waived for Democratic Presidential candidates not named "Hillary". 

HOW SOON THEY FORGET:  Speaking of Hillarity,the Times presents her today as "Senator Hilary (sic) Rodham Clinton".  C'mon!  She is still your state's Senator, glass ceiling or no.

I AM SO, SO REASSURED:  Mr. Shane closes with various acquaintances of Mr. Obama assuring us that he is not likely to be making bombs in the basement of the White House.  Glad we cleared that up.  Now, how about the question of whether Bill Ayers has a hard-left educational philosophy shared by Barack Obama?  My guess is that soccer moms (and dads) would be interested to learn about that.  But not the soccer moms who read the Times.  Stanley Kurtz is excellent on this:

Nor does Ayers see his education work as a repudiation of his early radicalism. On the contrary, Ayers sees his education work as carrying on his radicalism in a new guise. The point of Ayers’ education theory is that the United States is a fundamentally racist and oppressive nation. Students, Ayers believes, ought to be encouraged to resist this oppression. Obama was funding Ayers’ "small schools" project, built around this philosophy. Ayers’ radicalism isn’t something in the past. It’s something to which Obama gave moral and financial support as an adult. So when Shane says that Obama has never expressed sympathy for Ayers’ radicalism, he’s flat wrong. Obama’s funded it.

SPARKLING DIAMOND:  OK, "some bloggers" did include Steve Diamond.  From his post:

I was interviewed at length by the New York Times for this story - in fact, this was the third Times reporter to interview me about the Ayers/Obama relationship - and I provided the Times with the letters I discuss here. They are not mentioned in the story at all.

It may not have helped that the reporter, Scott Shane, specializes in the FBI and CIA and did not seem well equipped to understand the structure and dynamics of a non profit entity like the Annenberg Challenge, had no apparent understanding of educational policy issues or debates, had no prior experience as far as I could tell with Chicago politics or culture and expressed his own sense of "boredom" with the Annenberg Challenge records he reviewed.

Interesting.  So the "All The News" people are not unaware of the alternative theories, they just don't want to bore their readers with them.  In that case, why not save everyone ink and time by headlining the piece "You're Going To Vote For Obama Anyway So Skip This" and then pivoting to coverage of whether or not Piper Palin sometimes refuses to brush and floss her teeth?

BLISTERING:  The Captain blasts the Times.

HE GETS IT!  Lefty Steve Benen of the Washington Monthly belies his own feigned ignorance:

I'm not even sure what the point of the article is; it simply reinforces what anyone who cares about facts already knows: the reports of Obama's "close ties" to Ayers are absurd.

See, he does know the point of the article.

Comments

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Is everyone else seeing yellow highlighting on Shane's name?

[Elliott]

For Shane, sir!

[clarice]

I am.. I thought TM was decorating for fall.

[Elliott]

Yellow journalism?

[kim]

Yes, I see it too, but not on the Mr., just on the Shane, 5 places.

Obama and Ayers are hiding something shameful, but Obama has acted that way about his whole life history. The dissembling about his whole life would be sad enough if it were just fantasizing a hero, but it's also masqueing a villain.
==================================

[MeTooThen]

Yup, it's yellow.

BTW, and OT, I recently bought and watched the Shane DVD.

Wow.

It holds up very well.

And the commentary portion is excellent.

It would make an excellent stocking stuffer.

Just sayin'.

[MeTooThen]

And of course, the obligatory, and all too familiar, "What if (D) was (R)?"

From Jonah at NRO

Yes, I'm sure that if John McCain had a similar relationship with a former abortion clinic bomber ("most of our bombs were aimed at property!") the Times coverage would be identical.

Heh.

[clarice]

Can you name another point in American history where the media has gone so far as to hide the 13 year relationship between a major party candidate for president and a man who plotted to bomb domestic targets and kill his fellow citizens?

[glasater]

As to the yellow highlight---I blame google.

[MeTooThen]

More disgusting than the news blackout of Obama-Ayers, Obama-Rezko, Obama-G-d Damn Amerikka, and the early Edwards blackout, is the so-called and patently enfeebled Andrew Sullivan and his continued obsession with Trig Palin.

I have said it before, and must do so again: Those who have been in opposition to this president, his party, and administration, have set very dangerous precedents over these last 8 years that they will one day (and hopefully soon) live to regret.

BTW, where are Obama's medical records? Not the one page note from his personal doc.

And where are his Columbia transcripts?

Bar application?

It is my job to ask these questions.

Just sayin'.

[MeTooThen]

Erratum: so-called "conservative"

Thank you.

And G-d Bless.

[hit and run]

Mr. Ayers was not present and had not suggested Mr. Obama, she said.

Yeah, and Valerie didn't suggest Joe.

[clarice]

Interesting parallel,hit. Do you suppose Michelle was with O when he lunched with Shane?

[Topsecretk9]

Ayers and property damage:

And he wasn't singular. As I noted back in April in this article about Obama's motley collection of radical friends, at the Weatherman “War Council” meeting in 1969, Ayers' fellow terrorist and now-wife, Bernadine Dohrn, famously gushed over the barbaric Manson Family murders of the pregnant actress Sharon Tate, coffee heiress Abigail Folger, and three others: “Dig it! First they killed those pigs, then they ate dinner in the same room with them. They even shoved a fork into the victim’s stomach! Wild!” And as Jonah recalled yesterday, "In appreciation, her Weather Underground cell made a threefingered 'fork' gesture its official salute." They weren't talking about scratching up the wall-paper.

LUN

[ex-democrat]

for heaven's sake, does the NYT really think that we can't tell the difference when one potential fact is presented with the construction:
"Some bloggers have recently speculated that ...." and
"In fact, according to several people involved, ...." ?!

also, MeToo, using sullivan's viciously dememnted standards, how can we be sure Obama's views on abortion aren't driven by his perosnal experiences with it? shouldn't the public be entitled to see Michelle Obama's health records in that regard?? (and those of his former girlfriends?)

[narciso]

Why isn't the quote from Leff, and not Graham or Simmons. If you're going to verify a story, shouldn't you get it from the horse's mouth (so to speak).

By the way, McClatchy who missed the West Bank/Gaza and Hezbollah/Syria flubs in their
poor fact check segment, and uses the Obama
TPs, re; his tax increases, says Chuck Hagel??? was the driver behind the Fannie & Freddie Mac financing, and that McCain only signed on as a co-sponsor in 2006. Never mind the fact, that McCain had called attention to it in 2003.
All right, who had the Time Machine last:

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Better?

[bad]

stop

[bgates]

I can understand the desire to cast a jaundiced eye at Mr Shane's reporting, but....

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

My head is spinning.

Alec Baldwin Blames Financial Crisis on Clinton, Dems and Barney Frank

[bgates]

using sullivan's viciously demented standards
Obama was a student at Columbia in the early 80s. He was a young, single man, with a lot of time on his hands and a desire to impress radical black students, during the tail end of the worst crime wave in the history of New York City. There are still hundreds of unsolved murders from the time Obama lived in New York, but he has not released a shred of evidence to prove his innocence of any of them.

Someone alert Andrew to cry havoc and let slip the beagles of investigation.

[bad]

Steve Diamond:

It may not have helped that the reporter, Scott Shane, specializes in the FBI and CIA and did not seem well equipped to understand the structure and dynamics of a non profit entity like the Annenberg Challenge, had no apparent understanding of educational policy issues or debates, had no prior experience as far as I could tell with Chicago politics or culture and expressed his own sense of "boredom" with the Annenberg Challenge records he reviewed.

Instead of relying on the contemporaneous written record that documents Ayers direct personal involvement in the formation of the CAC board, the New York Times relies on the recollection, fourteen years later, of only one named individual, Deborah Leff, as well as a vague reference to "several" other people allegedly involved, who say Ayers was not involved in Obama's recruitment to the board.

However, Leff does not confirm that Ayers was not involved in the decision to appoint Ayers as do the unnamed sources. She only confirms that Ayers did not suggest Obama's name to her and that Ayers was not present at one meeting where Obama was discussed as a possible board member.

In addition, neither of the other two individuals described by the Times as being involved in the selection of Obama, Adele Simmons of the MacArthur Foundation and Patricia Graham, a Harvard professor who was head of the Spencer Foundation and would serve with Obama on the CAC board, confirmed to the Times, at least on the record, that Ayers was not involved.

Ahhh, the ennui inducing assignments one must endure; investigating a presidential candidate who misrepresented a relationship with a former FBI most wanted domestic terrorist on the record.

Scott Shane has a remarkable lack of curiosity. Is he lacking in intellect or merely unqualified to be a reporter due to a lazy nature?

[clarice]

bgates, you keep getting better and better--Maybe you and hit can do a comedy routine.

[Elroy Jetson]

Shoddy reporting and printing the story on a Saturday. That's 2 reasons to suspect the NYT wants to bury it.

[clarice]

Do you suppose the editors held a deaf/dumb and blind contest and assigned the story to the winner?

[PeterUK]

"There are still hundreds of unsolved murders from the time Obama lived in New York, "

Not Barrack the Ripper surely?

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

NYT's Ayers-Obama Whitewash [Stanley Kurtz]

[DrJ]

Stanley Kurtz's response to Shane is here:
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZWI0MjY3NzMyODgxZGM2ZjUwNTE1MmEzOGRiZmFkNWE=">http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZWI0MjY3NzMyODgxZGM2ZjUwNTE1MmEzOGRiZmFkNWE=">http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZWI0MjY3NzMyODgxZGM2ZjUwNTE1MmEzOGRiZmFkNWE=

[matt]

what ever happened to Kurtz's investigations? Shouldn't NR be about ready to release his findings as well?

Sooner or later they have to have some impact on what remains a fair and unbiased media. Is there such a thing left in America today?

[centralcal]

Nope - they (NY Times) have only one motive, to remove Ayers as an issue. Do a not even half-assed cursory review, declare any claims to a close relationship bunk, and then do the ususal "move along, nothing to see here" sheepherding.

[Uncle BigBad]

Sara

And that means. . . Baldwin is losing lots of money, and it's no longer any fun covering up for the real culprits.

[matt]

as Woodward & Bernstein said: "what did he know and when did he know it?"

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

The Ayers "We Were Just Trying To Do Property Damage" Lie

[Jane]

WEll, on a happier note, OJ will probably spend the coming depression in jail. (Think Obama will pardon him?)

[centralcal]

Bingo, Uncle BigBad. Hope all of those Hollywood liberals are losing big time bucks.

[Jim]

How Government Stoked the Mania by Russell Roberts, WSJ.

[bad]

Dr. Kurtz:

Yet earlier in Shane’s article we learn that, according to Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt, Obama and Ayers "have not spoken by phone or exchanged e-mail messages since Mr. Obama began serving in the United States Senate in January 2005." Very interesting. Obama’s own spokesman has just left open the possibility that there has indeed been phone and e-mail contact between the two men between 2002 and 2004, well after Ayers’ infamous conduct on 9/11. Yet instead of pursuing this opening, Shane ignores the findings of his own investigation and covers for Obama.

Texting was left open as an avenue of communication. Scarlett liked this method.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

I'm going to make one statement on OJ and then drop it. I watched the trial, as much as it was televised, which was not much. Although I have no problem with ALL the people involved getting some jail time, if for nothing else, then stupidity, the number and severity of the charges is laughable and should cause everyone pause. The idea that everyone else, but one, including the original thieves who set up this farce are walking free should be cause for pause as well.

The police and FBI have a part too as OJ sought their help on more than one occasion before deciding to try to get his own belongings back and they refused to help.

During the trial nearly every witness stated that they felt they'd been set up by the memorabilia thief and that it was a get OJ scenario from the git go.

I hope smarmy, abusive and phony Goldman is happy and all the OJ haters will be happy, but celebrating this is against everything I believe in as far as fairness goes. Even the Court TV anchors kept saying this case was waaaaaaaaaay overcharged.

[Neo]

The NYT is merely regurgitating the same Kurtz material in the form of a fluff piece. I doubt many Times readers read the WSJ.

The suggestion that Ayers was a political adviser to Obama or someone who shaped his political views is patently false, said Ben LaBolt, a campaign spokesman.

I'm not sure any conservative critics ever thought this was the case. There seems to be plenty of evidence that Obama managed to cover much the same material, that Ayers could have provided, during his time in academia and before.

The question conservative critics have been asking is .. did the Chicago Annenberg Challenge provide an opportunity for "fellow travelers" to work together ? The answer seems to be "yes".

[elizabeth R.]

The NY Times article mentioned how Alice Palmer kindly introduced the novice Obama to Chicago Democrats and suggested him as her successor in the state senate. What the Times did not disclose was the nice screw job Obama did on Palmer when she changed her mind about running. Instead of graciously waiting his turn, Obama and his minions challenged her right to be on the ticket and she wasn't. Obama won. Typical. Friend of Obama. Under the Bus.

[matt]

Sara;

I agree on the OJ case...I have been very concerned with attitudes and powers granted to law enforcement since 9/11....It seems that prosecutorial zeal has been a real issue in too many cases.

As it stands, prosecutors are driven to produce wins, and don't mind taking shortcuts. With a lot of the new tools they have, it has become inquisitorial. The full power of the State has to be limited and utterly neutral in its application of the law. I think it's pretty clear that in this case, there was excessive zeal.

[The Other Ed]

The reason this story never goes anywhere is that people do not think Obama working with a guy 13 years ago on education and local politics necessarily means Obama is in any way involved with crimes that Ayers did 40 years ago.

Are all the Evangelical Christians working with Charles Colson now guilty because of his Watergate crimes years ago? Of course not, there needs to be a closer connection than unrelated involvement decades later to make these types of associations resonate with voters.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

I agree on the OJ case...I have been very concerned with attitudes and powers granted to law enforcement since 9/11....It seems that prosecutorial zeal has been a real issue in too many cases.

Why "since 9/11"? It's easy --- too easy --- to find examples of overzealous, and even mendacious, prosecution before that. Not to mention "prosecutorial discretion" applied to save a powerful figure the trouble and expense of a trial.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Are all the Evangelical Christians working with Charles Colson now guilty because of his Watergate crimes years ago?

The missing distinction here is that Colson both did time and has since expressed remorse. Ayers has not; in fact, he has said many things since he and Obama became acquainted that suggest he feels no remorse.

[ex-democrat]

other ed - do you think people would care if they saw proof positive that Obama has repeatedly lied to the public about his relationship with Ayers?

[Rick Ballard]

You're probably right Ed. I've always thought that it's easier to show Obama's sale of his votes to the felon and long time Obama supporter, Tony Rezko than to firm up his connection with the terrorist. His work for slumlords who specialized in the abuse of Obama's constituents say more about Obama than hanging out with terrorists and attending a racist church.

[Jim Ryan]

Other Ed, I've worked with an unrepentant terrorist for some time now. May I please babysit your kids? Or run your country?

[DebinNC]

Rather than focusing on who hired him, I think Chairman Obama should be forced to explain how $160M (or whatever) went down a black hole with 0 positive results to show for it.

[bad]

In a book titled The Audacity of Hope, Obama neglects to mention Ayers. Ayers seems the perfect subject for reflection on audacity and hope. The lack of intellectual curiosity is interesting. Or maybe it's because Ayers is white.

[StrawmanCometh]

Sara,
OJ haters? OJ is a murderer. You disagree? That a prosecutor found a way to put his murdering ass back behind bars is fine with me.

[DebinNC]

Why has Obama gotten a pass for equating unrepentant terrorist Ayers with pro-life Sen. Coburn? That's shameful, especially when as recently as last week's debate he repeatedly uses Coburn as a shield against the "most liberal Senator" charge.

[boris]

In the VP debate Obiden claims that ideology is a relevant factor in selecting judges and hence a apparently a valid reason to reject conservatives. What is Obama's ideology? One indication is the company he keeps and the degree to which they support him. Ayers, Wright, Michelle and hence Obama seem to share radical ideology.

[PeterUK]

Amazing that Obama sought out leftists at college,but completely missed star leftist William,"Bomber" Ayers. Guy wants to play in a band but misses the rock star living on the block?

[Chris Y]

"The reason this story never goes anywhere is that people do not think Obama working with a guy 13 years ago on education and local politics necessarily means Obama is in any way involved with crimes that Ayers did 40 years ago."

It's not the crimes that he committed 40 years ago, it's what he says about them *today*. When asked if he had any regrets, he said that they didn't use *enough* bombs. When profiled for a magazine just a few years ago, he had no problem being photographed gleefully stomping on the American flag.

And we're talking about more than working with a guy 13 years ago -- remember, Obama launched his State Senate campaign at the home of Billy Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn. He could have chosen any number of locations from which to launch his campaign, but he chose the home of two unrepentant terrorists. The Annenberg Challenge stuff just confuses the issue.

[Jane]

That a prosecutor found a way to put his murdering ass back behind bars is fine with me.

I'm always on the side of the fairness issue - because I think it is the basis of our judicial system. I'm a little less remorseful over any suggested lack of fairness to OJ than I would be to your typical knife slashing murderer. I guess I will rot in hell.

[Jane]

Well well well, the Barracuda, in a closed fun raiser just said - "our opponant is palling around with terrorists".

According to campaign Carl.

Is "palling" a word? Is so, is that how you spell it?

[sparky]

The author said: "Now, how about the question of whether Bill Ayers has a hard-left educational philosophy shared by Barack Obama? My guess is that soccer moms (and dads) would be interested to learn about that. But not the soccer moms who read the Times"

Just because Ayers is employed in the education field (astounding how colleges hire unrepentant terrorists) does not confine his political philosophy to education. This guy is an out and out socialist, if not communist.

It's likely that Obama shares FAR more than JUST an educational philosophy with this clown. Obama is downright scary.

By the way, it's interesting that Obama cannot point to one single Conservative in his past friendly relationships; not even a somewhat conservative Democrat.

Clinton could do that. Even Biden could. Of course, McCain has had many friendly and cordial relationships with many liberals for years. Obama has ONLY very liberal, and some socialist, Dems in his past.

[DebinNC]

per free dictionary online:

intr.v. palled, pal·ling, pals
To associate as friends or chums. Often used with around.

I love that Palin uses normal vernacular.

[mcg]

Here's the AP article. Hmm, my goodness, someone's trying to make news.

[Jane]

I love that Palin uses normal vernacular.

Me too. I just wish I knew how to spell it.

[RichatUF]

bad-

Texting was left open as an avenue of communication.

They could have also met face to face for a kaffe klatch: spoken by phone or exchanged e mails?

[bgates]

Ed, the reason this story hasn't gone far yet is the New York Times shares your blithe disregard for finding out facts if there's a danger they might reflect badly on a Democrat. Charlie Manson committed his crimes more than 40 years ago. If Obama announced he'd appoint Manson as Secretary of Education, would that trouble you? Of course not, you're a blind partisan. Would it trouble middle America? I think it would.

The most important difference between Charlie Manson and Bill Ayers is that Ayers' father was as wealthy and leftist as Pinch Sulzberger's, while Manson's vanished quicker than Obama's.

[GOPGrandma]

Barack Obama - Man of Mystery. No medical records, no transcripts, no legal opinions, no friends (of which he can speak).

[Barney Frank]

"The reason this story never goes anywhere is that people do not think Obama working with a guy 13 years ago on education and local politics necessarily means Obama is in any way involved with crimes that Ayers did 40 years ago."

There are two reasons this story never goes anywhere.
1. Leftists are given more leeway on this kind of association because we expect them to hang around with traitors.
2. It would go somehwhere if the media didn't give them a pass. If the media pushed this story the way they would if McCain was friends and worked with Terry Nichols then Barry wouldn't have gotten out of Chicago.

[PeterUK]

"Barack Obama - Man of Mystery. No medical records, no transcripts, no legal opinions, no friends (of which he can speak)."

Yes,fascinating that some could blithely give Nemo the keys to the nuclear arsenal.You would want to know more about your babysitter.

[Steve]

Great site!

Would you like a Link Exchange with our new blog COMMON CENTS where we blog about the issues of the day??

http://www.commoncts.blogspot.com

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Steve, I suspect you're just clueless, but I've seen that link and the exact same words on several threads on several sites now.

This is called "spam" and isn't going to make you any friends.

[stan]

Tom,

Why don't you call Scott Shane and ask to interview him? Ask him who the other reporters were (that talked to Diamond). Ask him why he left all the good stuff out of the story. Ask how much the editors killed.

I suspect you will get stonewalled, but it would be fun to call out the NY Times for engaging in a coverup. Then you can point out that they are hiding news that is fit to print -- news that voters depend on.

Make the Times the story for a while. It should be fun.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

jeff Goldstein just made an interesting point: could it be that this story coming out now is an indication that the Obama campaign newsletter Times is trying to "soften" a story they know is coming?

[Johann Amedeus Metesky]

Well well well, the Barracuda, in a closed fun raiser just said - "our opponant is palling around with terrorists".

According to campaign Carl.

Is "palling" a word? Is so, is that how you spell it?

First, when getting picayune about other's grammar, it's best to avoid typos and spelling errors. What's a "fun raiser"? Also, I can't seem to find "opponant" in my dictionary. Is that a word? Are you sure it's spelled correctly?

To your point, pal is used in modern English as both a noun and a verb. Palling is the present participle form of the verb and perfectly acceptable. It's spelled with a double L because the vowel A in the word is a soft A.

BTW, when Obama speaks to urban audiences, he tends to drop his Gs to appear more colloquial and authentically black. Do you ever criticize Obama's pronunciation?

Keep thinking that you're intellectually and morally superior to Palin. That will surely encourage the 300 million Americans who didn't go to Harvard or Yale to support your candidate.

[clarice]

It sure could be. Do you suppose it a coincidence that PTA mom Palin just dropped that O was palsies with terrorists today?

[Jim Rhoads aka vnjagvet]

In their comments today on the That Went Well thread at 9:46 and 11:14 AM, Pagar and Rocco may have supplied the missing links to the Ayers caper, and why it is so important for BHO to conceal.

The evidence is mounting that BHO is indeed the Chosen One. Since 1988, he has been selected by the radical wing of the Democrat Party to lead them to the promised land of the White House thereby securing complete control of our National Government.

While the relationships from 1988-1995 are not yet completely clear, their is enough connection between BHO and the likes of Ayers and his weatherman cronies, the black power and black theology strands of Wright's church to infer that he shares their goals. His books are consistent with this inference. His campaign as run by that old leftist Axelrod surely is using the tactics of the radical left's Alinsky and Chomsky. Finally, the Policies of BHO's campaign, as revealed on his website are as close to those espoused by far leftists in this country as any campaign in history.

[mcg]

A longer version of the Palin article. Ouch. If she keeps this up I don't think the Obama campaign is going to be able to ignore it.

But this little paragraph in the article is humorous: Palin cited a New York Times story published Saturday that detailed Obama's relationship with Ayers. In an interview with CBS News earlier in the week, Palin didn't name any newspapers or magazines that had shaped her view of the world.

[clarice]

Notice in this version, AP relies on the NYT article to preemptively debunk Palin's suggestions about Obama and Ayers.

[centralcal]

Chaco: I commented at 1:52 above ..."they (NY Times) have only one motive, to remove Ayers as an issue."

They are trying to take Ayers off the table before McCain/Palin use it in talking (or even debating?) points. I have already today heard dem toadies on T.V. citing the NY Times piece as clearly demonstrating that Obama's ties to Ayers is a big nothing burger.

Never under estimate how far the media is willing to go for Obama. For them, this is WAR until and, maybe, even after the election.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

You disagree?

I do disagree, but that has no bearing on whether this present case was charged and/or prosecuted fairly. It wasn't.

And whereas, I thought the first verdict was exactly right, I do not think that OJ deserved to be let off the hook entirely in this case any more than I think he should have been convicted of charges that should never have been brought as pay back by those who never understood the first case from the git go.

I am not going to discuss OJ anymore, except to say that I was a fact checker and cyber juror on the original OJ trial and was convinced it should be a not guilty at the close of the prosecution case and before the defense put on a single witness as were all but two of the other 173 cyber jurors.

Before the original OJ trial, I was one of the clueless naive ones who thought the police and prosecutors were the good guys and I believed what I read in the press or heard on the TV news. After I saw how biased they were and how dangerous that bias can be when working in concert with law enforcement, I was never the same.

It boggles the mind sometimes how those who complain the loudest now about press spin and outright bias and over zealous prosecutors never take a hard look at how they were totally manipulated by the press and law enforcement in regard to OJ.

[sylvia]

While looking up the name Davis, I saw this:

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?
fa=PAGE.view&pageId=56859

"The mysterious "Frank" cited as a friend and adviser by Democratic president contender Barack Obama while he was growing up in Hawaii has been identified as Frank Marshall Davis, a member of the old Moscow-controlled Communist Party USA."

Are there no end to radicals/commies in BHO's life?

[Jim Rhoads aka vnjagvet]

"there" not "their" is enough connection. Spell check doesn't pick up grammatical errors:>)

[sylvia]

Someone may or not prove any substantial personal link between BHO and Ayers. But do we need to?

Isn't it enough to know that BHO agreed to serve as the Chairman, the top leader, of a foundation that was the brainchild and labor of love of Bill Ayers? If he was someone who had the stuff to be President, he would have politely declined that foundation chair, and gone with another one with cleaner roots. Enough said.

[Rick Ballard]

"The most important difference between Charlie Manson and Bill Ayers is that Ayers' father was as wealthy and leftist as Pinch Sulzberger's, while Manson's vanished quicker than Obama's."

I like the analogy but Manson doesn't speak to the public at the moment as well as Simpson would. Ayers' "free as a bird" makes the analogy a better fit and the fact that the murdering scum appears to be headed to prison gives an added fillip of "justice done". The "unrepentant" angle fits better as well as does the "once a murderer, always a murderer".

[Jim Rhoads aka vnjagvet]

Plus, sylvia, he piddled away 160 million on a leftist experiment that didn't work. That much is documented beyond any doubt.

Even Lanny Davis would have to admit that.

[Jane]

Keep thinking that you're intellectually and morally superior to Palin. That will surely encourage the 300 million Americans who didn't go to Harvard or Yale to support your candidate.

Johann Amedeus Metesky,

Oh I'll leave that thinking to assholes like you.

[Jane]

Did I spell "asshole" right?

[ben]

"Someone may or not prove any substantial personal link between BHO and Ayers. But do we need to?"

Normally you would think so, association of ANY type with a terrorist bomber unless it was prosecuting him, should disqualify a presidential candidate. But this is not a normal election.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Breitbart reported:

Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is accusing Democrat Barack Obama of "palling around with terrorists" for his association with a former 1960s radical.

Palin was referring to Bill Ayers, one of the founders of the group the Weather Underground. The group took credit for bombings, including nonfatal explosions at the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol four decades ago.

In remarks to GOP donors in Englewood, Colo., on Saturday, Palin said Obama seems to see the U.S. as being so imperfect that, in her words, "he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country."

Obama served on a charity board with Ayers in Chicago

[ben]

"The reason this story never goes anywhere is that people do not think Obama working with a guy 13 years ago on education and local politics necessarily means Obama is in any way involved with crimes that Ayers did 40 years ago."

Which brings up the question why did 13 years ago Obama become associated with a unrepentant terrorist bomber who bombed buildings 20 years before. So if Hitler had survived it would have been ok years later to be involved with him in "educational activities"? I guess I am really old school, I don't expect my President to ever have been involved with terrorist bombers, but I guess times have changed.

[sylvia]

So let's recap BHO's life. He grew up citing Frank Marshall Davis, a radical communist member, as an inspiration. He got a job at a small law firm job after Harvard with Allison Davis (a guy by the way) who later went on to become business partners with Tony Rezko, a swindler and convicted felon. Allison introduced BHO to Tony Rezko, who engineered BHO's home purhase through shady means. And Davis got BHO a board position with the Joyce Foundation, and then four months later, BHO became chair of a multi million dollar foundation started by Bill Ayers, bypassing all the other bigwogs on the board there, all while BHO is going to a church led by radical Rev Wright. Did I miss anything?

[StrawmanCometh]

Matt,
So OJ is a victim of the Patriot Act?

Clarice,
Thank you for your support, but "I'm always on the side of the fairness issue" uh, which side? (that's ok, I'm myself already 3 glasses into a great value 2006 Shiraz) Nonetheless, what is truly fair for OJ is, absent execution (I'm not faulting his most recent prosecutor for not finding capital offense), that he spend the rest of his life in the slammer. Although I guess this means we'll never find Nicole's killer.

[ben]

The Palin comments are great, it will bring a strong reaction from Obama's campaign, which will forcibly keep in the news and maybe root out some more information.

[MayBee]

I love it that the Obama campaign admits the accidental meeting in the park. I'm guessing they were afraid someone saw them, so they had to own up to that one.

As I said yesterday, I think it's interesting they chose a guy that didn't claim to hang around with Obama to recount his activities at Harvard. He may have been moderate at HLR, that doesn't mean he wasn't talking about job opportunities with the likes of Rezko and Farrakhan, Jr. Or meeting with communist-leaning friends.

Also remember Ryan Lizza reported that all friends and former colleagues of Obama's have been asked to clear it with the campaign before they talk to the press.

[centralcal]

Over at Politico, Calderone does his part to help Shane debunk Diamond.

LUN

[StrawmanCometh]

Holy crab, I mistook the wise Clarice for Jane. A thousand apologies Clarice. TM, Please don't ban me.
Jane,
So because you got fed some stuff online back in '95 you're an authority? Did the cops use harsh language?

[clarice]

I don't recall responding to you at all, strawman , so I've no idea what you're talking about or who said what you attribute to me.

[bunky]

Does anybody think if Mac or Palin hung with a fu***** bomber we would even be at this point?

There are no consequences for democrats/Libs. Never have been/never will be.

[centralcal]

uh, Jane, I think your fan "deranged digits" (89) is back using a new name.

[sylvia]

Just an interesting fyi. Allison Davis, BHO's former boss, is apparently the son of Allison Davis, a known Chicago black civil rights activist.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/353797,CST-NWS-rezdavis23.article

"Davis has long been an influential member of the Woodlawn community just south of the University of Chicago. His father was the university's first African-American professor. Since 1991, Davis has been a member of the Chicago Plan Commission, appointed by Mayor Daley, a friend."

Although in the pic there he looks white, he must be mixed, like BHO.

[matt]

maybe someone should ask Charlie Manson who he endorses?

[Larry]

I think you're arguing at cross purposes, Strawman. Jane is a Palin supporter.

[MayBee]

Why didn't Obama's campaign just release the "true" story of how Obama met Ayres, rather than try to shut down Kurtz at WGN?

Isn't that odd? For months, they've simply been yelling "that's not true!" loudly at every critic. They've never bothered to directly tell the story, and now are using the NYT to obliquely tell the story.