Sol Stern On Bill Ayers

Sol Stern describes Bill Ayers' educational philosophy in the WSJ.

The WSJ essay appears to be a condensed version of this 2006 Stern look at Ayers' goal of teaching for social justice.

Mr.Stern also penned this on Obama's problem with Ayers.

The mainstream media will be resolute in ignoring this for the next three weeks.  Set aside that most of them rooting for Obama; at this point, any reporter pressing on Ayers is risking the ire of the Obama campaign and may diminish his/her access to the likely next President and his circle.

Comments

[Miracle Max]

Saw the quote below on Fafblog, reminded me of this site. Cheers.

FACT! "Obama" is an ancient Muslim name meaning "He Who Deceives the White Man with his Telegenic Charisma, Angular Good Looks, and Deceptively Conservative Policy Proposals." Coincidence? Or co-bama?

FACT! The previous fact was made up. But doesn't the fact that it was so easily made up prove that a kernel of truth must exist within the lie, and doesn't the existence of that kernel of truth prove that the lie is, in fact, true? Think about it! But not very hard!

[DrJ]

Diamond has a new post that is a response to the Stern story:

Why the Right Won't Get it Right About Ayers and Obama

[bad]

The Chicago Reader has an article from 1990 on Bill Ayers that says Ayers became involved in school reform in late 1987, and within weeks was the "converner" (led the meetings) of the ABC's coalition of which Barack Obama and his Developing Communities Project was a part.

How did Obama avoid meeting Ayers in Chicago in 1987 or 1988 under those circumstances?

The article is long but full of direct Ayers quotes on education. kristen linked this article on another thread. Linked under name (LUN)

[Charlie (Colorado)]

RNC has a new ad up attacking Obama's experience.

[Jack is Back!]

Ayers may not be part of the Obama campaign but I will venture that it is likely probable that he will find himself some how with unlimited access to Obama's Presidency especially as to social and educational policy. That is troubling. Public schools are in a bad way currently and his approach will not improve their status. Too bad that an Obama Presidency will not promote economic growth - more likely stagnant & uncertain fluctuations. There will be little incentive to parents to go private. Instead, their public schools will get more in-doctrinaire much like Ayer's vision.

[kim]

Thanks for that link, DrJ; that explains a contradiction I've been mulling over. Steve really is an excellent teacher, and I'm so glad he can sense the iron fist in the velvet glove.
===========================

[Antimedia]

I think today's Stanley Kurtz article is much more to the point of what the impact of Obama's associations will be. LUN

[clarice]

McCain is so not going to Rev Wright, and if Kurtz can't see that it's probably why he'll never run successfully for public office.
OTOH McCain can and should point out that CAC funded stupid program,s not substantive ones, and understandably achieved nothing except feathering some lefty nests.

[bad]

From the Chicago reader article of 1990:

After the Cleveland summer, Ayers returned to the community school in Ann Arbor. He moved into a small house with his girlfriend Diana Oughton, the daughter of Jim Oughton, a well-to-do farmer-lawyer-legislator from downstate Illinois. They envisioned a school run according to the educational precepts of modern-day progressives like John Holt. There was turmoil. Some parents demanded regularly scheduled reading periods; they wanted reassurance that their children would emerge from CCS on grade level. Ayers and Oughton believed in a spontaneous, unplanned curriculum. There was little room for compromise--both sides thought they knew best. By June of 1968, the school was bankrupt. It never had much money to begin with. Staffers made do on salaries of $20 a week plus room and board (Ayers's parents had cut off his allowance after he dropped out of college). When the school was evicted from its church basement and was denied a federal antipoverty grant, it closed.

I wonder what funds the school operated on when it was a free school according to the article.

Ayers first leadership experience in education went bust in 1967. He followed that up with the failure of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge in 1995-2001. Now he is head of a national curriculum organization. Hopefully he will fail in that endeavor as well.

[bad]

Joravsky makes this observation in the Chicago Reader:

He (Ayers) was always punctual and well organized. After each interview, he would immediately arrange the next one, neatly recording its time and date in the little black date book he kept by his side.

LUN

Where is that little black book now and what other appointmments does it contain?

[Cecil Turner]

Saw the quote below on Fafblog, reminded me of this site. Cheers.

The funny thing about lefty parody is that it's usually self-parody . . . but the lefties just don't get it. The funny thing on Fafblog was this little nugget:

Note to some special, comprehension-challenged, knee-jerk speed-readers:

Don't just glance at the pictures, dummies.

This column is PRO-Obama.

Seems to me it loses a bit when ya have to explain it to the faithful. But at least they correctly noted "Barack" is an Arabic derivation (and not African, as some of his supporters insist . . . though I'm not sure why they think it important).

[Steve Diamond]

Thanks very much to "bad" for the Chicago Reader piece. It makes clear that Ayers was part of the reform effort that began after the 1987 strike but it is a little ambiguous about when he actually started attending the ABC's meetings. ABCs of course was one of many groups working on school reform and Ayers appears to have gone to lots of meetings of various entities at that time.

Since this is an article from 1990 and it already has Ayers as "convenor" for ABCs that predates the 1991 O'Connell book. But it does not quite get Ayers inside the ABCs prior to the fall of 1988 when Obama left to go to Harvard.

The ABCs was formed I believe in late 87 or early 88 and became the central lobbying force for the 1988 School Reform Act that put in place the local school councils. One version of that bill was passed in the spring and then it went through revisions and negotiations with the governor and passed in late 1988. And this essay makes clear the politics of Ayers were consistent with that idea: notice his anti-school board views, etc.

[rhodeymark]

FACT! Facts make Max's head hurt!

Thanks for that nugget Cecil - made my day.

[bad]

Thanks Steve, Kristen found this article and linked it on another thread. As usual, you are very meticulous.

Did you notice the description of Tom Ayers as the genius who brought two sides together and negoitated an agreement allowing both sides to claim victory? Obama is a wannabe Tom Ayers.

[MayBee]

Set aside that most of them rooting for Obama; at this point, any reporter pressing on Ayers is risking the ire of the Obama campaign and may diminish his/her access to the likely next President and his circle.

I was thinking about this yesterday.
Obama has been trying to push back on the idea that he 'launched' his political career in Bill Ayres's living room, and instead points out that he actually did that at a Chicago hotel.
He mentioned it last night, and they've put that information in an ad. Now, I think it is a pedantic point, but the Obamas apparently find it important.

Ironically, this very fact was reported by Ryan Lizza. Unfortunately for Obama, though, he pushed back so hard against the New Yorker and Lizza (not letting take the European trip) that nobody read that article. And he won't point to that article as evidence of his launch party. Even in the ad he made disputing other Ayres facts with citations from news articles, the hotel fact portion had no cite at all.

Obama's gotten himself in a bit of a pickle with that one.

[bad]

Ryan Lizza in the New Yorker article from July: LUN

During the 1992 Presidential campaign, he (Obama) ran a voter-registration drive that placed him at the center of the city’s (Chicago) politics.

Chicago Reader article on Bill Ayers:

He ran with the civil rights crowd--the veterans of voter registration campaigns in the south who were the heart and soul of the fledgling antiwar movement.

A voter registration drive in Chicago in 1992 is a likely meeting place for Obama and Ayers if they are still unacquainted at this stage.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Seems as if someone else bought my theory about the market testing the bottom. Dow's up 214 right now.

[bad]

Publicly, Obama was conciliatory about the awkward political situation, telling the Hyde Park Herald that he understood that some people were upset about the “conflict between old loyalties and new enthusiasms.” Privately, however, he unleashed his operators. With the help of the Dobrys, he was able to remove not just Palmer’s name from the ballot but the name of every other opponent as well. “He ran unopposed, which is a good way to win,” Mikva said, laughing at the recollection. And Palmer said last week, “Anyone who enters Chicago politics and can’t take the rough and tumble shouldn’t be there. Losing the seat was just that—not the end of the world.”

Instead of arriving in Springfield as the consensus candidate of his district, Obama was regarded as a troublemaker. “He had created some enemies,” Emil Jones, who in 2003 became president of the Illinois Senate, said. Burns described the fallout of the Obama-Palmer race this way: “It established a reputation that ‘you’re not going to punk me, you’re not going to roll me over, you’re not going to jam me.’ I think it established him as a threat. You have his independence with Project Vote, you have his refusal to knuckle under during the Alice Palmer thing, and so now you have a series of data points that have some established leaders in the black community feeling disrespected. And so the stage is now set for the comeuppance during the congressional race. That was their payback.”

This could be a reason Obama prefers people not read the Lizza article. Hope and change indeed..

[sylvia]

Obama's aide lied on Hardball yesterday to Chris Mathews. Mathews asked him point blank if it was true about Obama launching his political career in Ayers living room. And the aide said it was not true. I think the aide got out of it though because Mathews said is it true that Obama launched his "Senate career", which the aide could take to mean his "current" Senate run. It was Clintonesque word play. As was BHO's answer last night in the debate when he said "Ayers IS not involved in my campaign". Okay yeah of course not now, because we are on to him. But what about the last 25 years?

[sylvia]

Well funny that the only source we have of Obama's time in his college days is his Pakistani drug addict sometimes homeless roommate. I think his name was Sadik. Isn't it funny that the only guy we knew of who knew Obama then was himself a fringe element, not someone we could check on by asking his friends. Plus he was foreign and had no family ties here. Both were unanchored. How easy woud it be to convince a drug addict now to provide Obama with an alibi for those years? And how convenient as who could check on whether Sadik was lying or not now?

I speculate that Ayers got Obama to write his memoirs then because he wanted to give Obama an alibi for those years that he knew would bring up questions.

[sylvia]

Another thing I wondered about is how did Obama end up in Chicago after college, working for a "community group". I would imagine that a Columbia grad would be able to get a cushy job. Especiallly a mixed race person as companies are always looking to up their quotas with blacks with good degrees. Or, he could have taken community work in NYC. It sure needed it at that time. Yet somehow, he ended up in Chicago, right away working for a tiny, not well paying group that had ties to Tom Ayers. Strange huh?

[JBean]

Maybee --

Regarding Lizza, I think there's a much larger problem.

Most, if not all,  of Obama's "fight the smears" refutations are quotes from the media. The same media that is and has been in the tank for him.

Without getting into Corsi's credibility, the 40+ page refutation that Obama's campaign put out on his book went even further, by citing media articles written after the book was released. A number of the cites were quotations from Obama himself, in media articles.

McCain can refute the Keating 5 smear by referring to the unbiased congressional record. He can cite the same source for his appeal for reform of Fannie/Freddie in 2006. Even Kerry felt compelled to release some of his military records (but never all) in response to the Swift Boat Vets.

And Obama? Media articles. And few in the media have a problem with this "sourcing," because they are the (biased) source.

[sylvia]

And also, kind of rude for Obama to name this guy as a drug addict in his book. The guy does have a famiy somewhere you know who probably doesn't need to read about that. I think that was on purpose. If Sadik ever blabbed about what he knew, then Obama could say, "oh well, the guy was on drugs. He doesn't know what he was talking about."

[sylvia]

And another thing I thought was funny. that prob has nothing to do with anything, is that BHO's father in Kenya was supposed to have lost both legs in a car accident before he died. Then he died in a car accident. How was the guy driving if he had no legs? Just wondering.

[clarice]

Actually, his job after graduating from Columbia was a normal one for someone with such a degree and no particular academic distinction.

[MayBee]

And Obama? Media articles. And few in the media have a problem with this "sourcing," because they are the (biased) source.

Very true.
And it has happened that Obama's fact checking website has gone back and revised their fact checks after new reports have come out.
For example, I believe the fact check used to say that Obama and Ayres met at the 1995 get together at the Ayres house which Alice Palmer convened. They quoted an attendee who said there was no "evidence" the two men were friendly.
That's been altered, but it was the story at the time the Lizza article was released, so Lizza had to be taken down.

It is absurd that they act as if press releases are their only source of information, when they have Obama right there to answer the true facts of the matter.

It is difficult to remember that nobody in the press, nor Obama, spoke of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge until just a few weeks ago. That was a completely hidden fact about Obama for months.

[Rocco]

From the Chicago DSA webpage

Our mission is to establish democratic socialism as a political force in the United States and around the world by training and mobilizing socialist activists to participate in a vibrant and diverse socialist organization at both the local and the national level. DSA both educates the public about democratic socialist values and policies and builds progressive coalitions to win victories that move the U.S. and the world toward social democracy. In the near term, democratic socialists struggle for reforms that shift power and resources away from corporate elites and put them in the hands of ordinary citizens. In the long term, democratic socialists fight for a world in which all people share equally in the governing of the economic, political and cultural institutions and relationships that shape their lives.

If you click on the "New Ground" link at the top of that page and scroll to New Ground 42, Chicago New Party Update. Note the date, September - October 1995. This is around the same time of the infamous meet and greet. Earlier in March, Obama and Ayers had already sat on the CAC board.

From the Chicago New Party Update

About 50 activists attended the Chicago New Party membership meeting in July. The purpose of the meeting was to update members on local activities and to hear appeals for NP support from four potential political candidates. Blah, blah, blah, Once approved, candidates must sign a contract with the NP. The contract mandates that they must have a visible and active relationship with the NP. Blah, blah, The political entourage included, Barack Obama, chief of staff for State Sen. Alice Palmer. Obama is running for Palmer's vacant seat. Blah, Although ACORN and SEIU Local 880 were the harbingers of the NP there was a strong presence of CoC and DSA (15% DSA). The NP is strategically organizing via house parties and tactically entering only elections that they can win. Furthermore they are organizing a campaign on the "Living Wage Ordinance" in the Chicago City Council.

Maybe I'm thick, no, I know I'm thick, but if Steve Diamond's contention is that CAC's motive was to reign in power from the teachers union, how does that fit with a socialist agenda which is usually pro union?

[sylvia]

Here is the video of Obama's aide talking about Ayers on HArdball. I couldn't find a transcript. LUN

[sylvia]

And then I also thought it was strange that all the Dem commentators said yesterday in serious tones, "Oh, McCain shouldn't have gone negative on things like Ayers. It backfired." Please. First of all, Obama brought up Ayers. And then McCain just said one thing like, 'we need to get to the bottom of that relationship'. That was it. Hardly 'going negative'. So any mildly strong statement to Obama is going negative. I hate to see how the press treats him the next 4 years. Probably sweet as pie.

[Neo]

I am Spartacus Joe the Plumber

[J Verner]

Rocco, there are unions, and then there are unions. Look at the history of the Labor movement in the US and you will understand.

Obviously, most teacher's unions are not run by Ayer's brand of radicals. Independant labor unions have long been the bane of those with a totalitarian mindset, cause they can't control them.

[J Verner]

MayBee, the fact that Obama's fact check site has had to change it's story so many times should be telling a few folks something...huh, ya think?

I can't decide if we're dealing with a memory hole, or a rabbit hole--maybe both.

[Lesley]

Rocco -

Perhaps the Ayer's agenda was a mole operation to make darn sure that nothing happened to rein in the power of the teacher's unions and funnel the money to fellow travelers.

[Steve Diamond]

The thing to understand about unions is that they have their own internal political process that produces a leadership. People like Ayers and many in the New Left were frustrated by what they saw as the conservatism of labor in the 60s and 70s. They had no interest in real jobs that would lead them into union leadership - it would take many years to achieve this. Thus they tried to set up organizations they could control. Community organizing was one such route.

[JBean]

Maybee --

It is absurd that they act as if press releases are their only source of information, when they have Obama right there to answer the true facts of the matter.

Well, the point is, Obama is not a credible source on Obama.

Consider the example of the Saddleback forum (independent of opinions on the issue).

Immediately following Saddleback, (a fail for Obama), he appeared with a sympathic reporter on cbn.com, and accused people of "lying" about his position on the born alive infant protection act:

"And I hate to say that people are lying, but here's a situation where folks are lying. I have said repeatedly that I would have been completely in, fully in support of the federal bill that everybody supported - which was to say --that you should provide assistance to any infant that was born - even if it was as a consequence of an induced abortion."

That statement  was repeated in the media, which hadn't done a damn thing to verify it.

Very soon, the National Right to Life Committee presented original documents showing that the Illinois bill was amended (in committee) to include a clause that echoed the federal bill, and that Obama voted to kill it anyway. The NRLC unearthed the docs that the media didn't.

He then "amended" his response --  never, of course, apologizing for the "liar" slam.

[Elliott]

JBean,

I really, really appreciate how diligent you are in your researches and I want to thank you for sharing so much of what you have found with us here.

[sylvia]

I think McCain needs to go on Larry King Live and bust open the Ayers info. Enough pussyfooting around. He needs to educate voters on who Ayers is, talk about his terrorist past and then talk about his communist connections and writings. Ask why Obama accepted a chairmanship position for a charity which was founded on the principles of an unrepentant terrorist. And then McCain should say I would have declined such a position. Maybe talk about some of the lefty groups Obama gave to as CAC chair. McCain needs to make the point that, like he said not that he cares about Ayers now, but he wants to know what kind of person Obama really is. Does Obama really believe what he is saying about being in the mainstream, or is he covering up his true opinions because he thinks they would not be accepted. McCain should talk about it is easy to camoflauge your true intent in an election, but one of our best ways of knowing aout a person is who he associatioed with. I think the people need to know about this, and the only way they will is if McCain explains it live on TV.

[sylvia]

To add on, the way McCain left it, the voters don't know who Ayers is, they only know that "McCain is going negative". So McCain got the damage without any of the benefit. If he educates the voters on this issue, maybe they will then understand why McCain brought this up, and not hold it against him and instead start questions Obama.

[JBean]

Elliott --

Thanks.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Did anyone else see the FBI agent who worked on the original Ayers investigation on Fox this afternoon. He minced no words about what a very bad guy Ayers was then and still is now. He went so far as to suggest that the State of Illinois should launch an investigation into how this guy is allowed to teach in their university and influence young minds. Very very tough on Ayers.

[clarice]

I saw it. I wouldn't hold my breath on any Ill investigation though. Mr "Kill your parents" has a father who's well-connected and highly indulgent.

[Antimedia]

The voters have to educate the voters. McCain isn't capable of articulating the Ayers issue, doesn't really understand it that well and won't be given the time to explain it anyway.

[Rocco]

Thank you J Verner, Leslie and Steve. I just couldn't fathom anyone on the left busting a union. Perhaps my mistake was thinking the whole public school agenda was as far left as Obama's. I've had some personal experience with that agenda in our local high school. Not only do I know this student personally, my eldest witnessed the teacher as she ripped down the posters. He told me she looked like a rabid dog running down the halls tearing them down. He also told me she had a Kerry for President bumper sticker on her blackboard in class. My first thought was how my daughter was taken on a field trip to see Michael Moore's "Bowling for Columbine" and it was ok to show those students lying in pools of blood, but god forbid they see a beheading. What's the difference? The day after Bush was elected to his second term, the Gay Alliance teacher told some students he feared for his life because Bush was elected. He was made to appologize, he should have been fired. My wife and I had to attend a class project one night sponsored by Oxfam America. Some were given steak to eat, and some were given rice. Now it's a noble cause to want to feed the world's poorest, but they have an agenda also and it's a global tax imposed on all of us...socialism! I sat through my son's graduation speech by the Superintendant and listened to him preach social justice and global warming and thinking thank god my three kids are done with this school!

It's comforting to know there are teachers like you. You're a stand up guy Steve!

[JBean]

I saw it. I wouldn't hold my breath on any Ill investigation though. Mr "Kill your parents" has a father who's well-connected and highly indulgent.

Though dead.

[badjoe]

JBean

He managed to get Bill and Bernardine firmly entrenched in polite Chicago society before he passed away. Mayor Daley's recent remarks of family friendships btween the Ayers and the Daleys imply political protection as well.

[clarice]

I didn't realize his father had died but as bad notes, his largesse and influence survives him.

[Investors]

Tehran (ANTARA News/afp - Iranian leaders say the world financial crisis indicates the end of capitalism, the failure of liberal democracy and divine punishment -- marking the superiority of the Islamic republic's political model.

Punishment of virtue, Harvard, Ayers can do what he wants, Plame/informants, Obama and his markets 'punishment.' Everyone else pays when it's dems/lucifer. They want America to pay and so does Obama. Divinity isn't lucifer.

[clarice]

More evidence that Ayers is the true author of O's autobiographies:
http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/10/evidence_mounts_ayers_cowrote.html

[clarice]

http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/10/evidence_mounts_ayers_cowrote.html>Hagiopgra[hy by Ayers

[badjoe]

That piece at AT is fascinating, Clarice.

[Jane]

Amazing!

[Captain Hate]

McCain isn't capable of articulating the Ayers issue, doesn't really understand it that well and won't be given the time to explain it anyway.

McCain was in the Hanoi Hilton while Billy Bombthrower and the rest of his verminous ilk were siding with his captors.

[badjoe]

I think there is a book waiting to be written about Bill Ayers and his failed attempts at independence from his father. He has the appearance of wanting to be a self-made man like his dad while at the same time resenting Tom Ayers for accomplishing so much that Bill resorts to extreme behavior and notoriety as the only means to top him. Yet, everytime Bill's life goes off the rails, Dad fixes it for him. Conversations between Obama and Ayers regarding their daddy issues must be riveting.

[ben]

New York Post

"While he was at a meeting at the Waldorf-Astoria at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Michelle Obama called room service and ordered lobster hors d'oeuvres, two whole steamed lobsters, Iranian caviar and champagne, a tipster told Page Six."

Let the Joe Plumbers eat cake, says Michelle Antoinette.

[Jane]

Ben,

Can you link that?

[ben]

http://www.nypost.com/seven/10172008/gossip/pagesix/obamas_fancy_snack_133922.htm

[ben]

WaPo's ringing endorsement of Barack Obama...

"Yes, we have reservations and concerns, almost inevitably, given Mr. Obama's relatively brief experience in national politics. But we also have enormous hopes."

[badjoe]

But we also have enormous hopes.

There's medication for that nowadays...

[badjoe]

Jane LUN for the snack item

[badjoe]

I asked a friend, who teaches education at at the college level, if she uses any Ayers or Dohrn literature and she was repulsed by the idea.

[clarice]

bad,jane--that's the second story on this Cashill's written. Be sure to read the first as well. This sort of thing is probably impossible to prove without some confession but I think Cashill's case keeps getting stronger.

[badjoe]

I read the first one as well and was intriqued by the idea. Now the arguement is compelling.

[badjoe]

Obama is boring except for his compulsion to hide his past life. Ayers, on the other hand, is such a study in contradictions and predictability...

[badjoe]

Cashill's theory puts a new spin on Obama's inability to speak fluently off-teleprompter. He's not just searching for words, he's searching for Bill Ayers' words.

[clarice]

Did Dohrn do his law school work for him? Someone did. He has never correctly responded to any question about legal matters, including the constitution.

[badjoe]

He don't need no law learnin', he's gonna be president.

[sylvia]

"My suspicion is that Ayers saw the potential in Obama, and chose to mold it. "

Well didn't we read earlier here how Ayers was always on top of the cool trends? He discovered Hendrix before anyone else did, etc. That's part of what made him popular with the kids. Well part of that keen ability to spot trends must have made him spot the potential in Obama before anyone else did.

My personal theory is he saw Obama speak in LA at his Occidental College about South African causes. Ayers was probably floored with BHO's speaking skills, just like the country was at the Dem convention a few years ago. I think Obama transferred to Columbia at Ayers inspiration. Probably with the promise from Ayers that BHO would get to see much action and fighting for change as soon as he got there.

[sylvia]

And Dohrn probaby did help him with his law work. Possibly other lawyers at the Sidey Austin firm too. That's why BHO went to work with her there over the summers, and why she quit there right after BHO graduated.

[sylvia]

And that further makes me think that Sadik, Obama's only known contact in his Columbia years, and mentioned in the memoir as a Pakistani drug addict, was also an Ayers construct, used as an alibi. I cannot see Obama being rude or daring enough to talk about someone else's drug addiction in his own memoir.

[sophy]

I do not know how to use the flyff gold ; my friend tells me how to use.