The Obama-Ayers Connection - Follow The Bouncing Ball

What is the history and extent of the relationship between unrepentant domestic terrorist Bill Ayers and Barack Obama?  Good question, and one that has stumped the Obama campaign since they delivered their first misinformation about it last February. In a different political environment this level of deceit and evasiveness would spark press coverage of an obvious cover-up, but you go to elections with the media you have.

As part of the prep for tonight's debate let's reprise their shifting evasions explanations:

In February of 2008 the theme was "nothing to see".  Here is Ben Smith of The Politico:

I didn't get to ask Obama about his relationship with Bill Ayers today, but did ask his chief strategist (and reigning expert on Chicago's political tribes), David Axelrod, about the two men.

"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."

That barely survived the day; from an UPDATE:

UPDATE: There's been a bit of confusion about Axelrod's line on the kids, who -- as the Guardian's Daniel Nasaw noted -- aren't the same age. Obama's kids went go the the University of Chicago Lab Schools, where Ayers kids, who are much older, had gone. However, Bernardine Dohrn is still active at the school, and an Obama aide said that was the connection.

Ahh, kids in the same school.  That story held up for a little while.  In April George Stepanopolous asked Obama directly during the Democratic debate in Philadelphia. Hillary Clinton seemed to know more about the relationship than either George or Obama, who gave this reply:

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.

Bill Ayers is a professor of education, as Obama had excellent reason to know since in 1995 and for several years thereafter he had worked with Ayers on education reform as part of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge.  Hillary joined in, noting their association as board members on the Woods Fund of Chicago.

Following that debate the Obama campaign put out a "Fact Check" to clarify the Obama-Ayers relationship.  No mention was made of the years the two men spent working together on the Chicago Annenberg Challenge.  Puzzling.

Obama had a slightly clearer memory when asked about Ayers during a Fox News interview a bit later in April:

OBAMA:  ...Now, Mr. Ayres [sic] is a 60 plus year old individual who lives in my neighborhood, who did something that I deplore 40 years ago when I was six or seven years old. By the time I met him, he was a professor of education at the University of Illinois.

We served on a board together that had Republicans, bankers, lawyers, focused on education, who worked for Mayor Daley. Mayor Daley, the same Mayor Daley probably who when he was a state attorney prosecuted Mr. Ayres’s wife for those activities, I (INAUDIBLE) the point is that to somehow suggest that in any way I endorse his deplorable acts 40 years ago, because I serve on a board with him.

One might guess that Obama is referring to the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, which focused on education reform.  However, although Bill Ayers was deeply involved in founding and working with the Challenge, he was never on the board. However, Obama sat on a successor board with Ayer's father.

In May the NY Times took a turn (my emphasis):

Mr. Obama also fit in at Hyde Park’s fringes, among university faculty members like Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, unrepentant members of the radical Weather Underground that bombed the United States Capitol and the Pentagon to protest the Vietnam War. Mr. Obama was introduced to the couple in 1995 at a meet-and-greet they held for him at their home, aides said.

Can't trust those aides!  This response came before the mainstream press was reporting on the Challenge, although bloggers were discussing it.  The first board meeting of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge was in March of 1995, with Bill Ayers and Barack Obama in attendance.  The Politico has reported that the 1995 meet-and-greet was in the second half of 1995.

So let's see - as of May David Axelrod had lied to or misled Ben Smith of the Politico, "aides" had misled the NY Times, Obama had misled the nation and the Obama "Fact Check" was fact-free.  Credibility, where art thou?

Recently we have had a min-breakthrough.  Following Stanley Kurtz' well-publicized attempt to make sense of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge archives in August the Obama campaign has admitted the bare minimum  - Obama did in fact work with on the Challenge (as Obama spokesperson Ben LaBolt conceded to the Times).  Their current contention is that this is when the two men met; per David Axelrod (him again!) Obama was unaware of Ayers' terrorist past.

Obama himself joined in with a similar interpretation:

"The gentleman in question, Bill Ayers, is a college professor, teaches education at the University of Illinois," he said. "That's how i met him -- working on a school reform project that was funded by an ambassador and very close friend of Ronald Reagan's" along with "a bunch of conservative businessmen and civic leaders."

"Ultimately, I ended up learning about the fact that he had engaged in this reprehensible act 40 years ago, but I was eight years old at the time and I assumed that he had been rehabilitated," Obama said.

What does "Ultimately, I ended up learning about the fact..." mean?  It reads to me as if Obama only learned later about Ayers' past.  How odd.  Let me toss in a widely-overlooked fact - in the famous 1981 Brinks robbery in which two policemen and a security guard were killed, members of the Weather Underground had partnered up with members of the Black Liberation Army.  And why did they need the money?  Well, they were making bombs and protesting against South Africa.

This should have been a big deal at Columbia, where young Barack was newly enrolled, since a major demonstration was at JFK Airport (protesting the departure of South Africa's Springboks rugby team, on a world "goodwill" tour.)  The Brinks robbery was in New York and well-covered by the NY Times.  Beyond that, Obama (per Dreams From My Father) had a special interest in the South African divestiture issue.  So how did this politically attuned young campus activist manage to never get a glimmer of the Weather Underground's involvement in criminal activity in 1981, long after Obama was eight years old?  Doesn't he read the Times?

Well, the Obama camp's current story is that Obama knew nothing about that and that the two men met in 1995.  How firm is that date?  Well, there was a city-wide push for school reform in 1988.  Obama was about to leave for Harvard but...

"The months passed at a breathless pace, with constant reminders of all the things left undone.  We worked with a citywide coalition in support of school reform."

Obama's Developing Communities Project ended up in a the ABCs coalition coordinated by Bill Ayers.  Odd that they did not meet.

DEVELOPING...

Comments

[Pofarmer]

Well, this is nice.

What does Obama read

LUN

[BobS]

All this is well and good, TM. (And heaven knows my little bit o' blog has posted the like). But McCain is gonna have to start buying some TV ads. Obama is buying like crazy in the republican stronghold I live. Its to suppress the vote and depress conservative voters.More and more of what we know to be truthful isn't going to help if McCain-Palin is unable to return fire on TV.

[ex-democrat]

Schieffer: "Senator McCain, good evening."
McCain: "Thankyou Bob, and may I add that one reason it's a good evening is because it gives me an opportunity to inform the American people that throughout the past year Senator Obama has been lying to them by covering up his long-standing relationship with an unrepentant domestic terrorist."

[sylvia]

I asked a blogger in Europe who stays very politically informed on the US election what he thought about Bill Ayers. He said he never really heard anything about him. Enough said.

[Antimedia]

A blogger who claims not to know about Ayers is either not a blogger or is a liberal.

[badcal]

word

[kim]

Supercalaspergerfragile.

And thanks, Leo, for not pissing in the punchbowl.
==================

[kim]

Oops, wrong thread. Oh well, it makes about as much sense here as anywhere.
=============

[Elliott]

TM,

I'm not sure that the article you linked showing that DCP belonged to the ABCs coalition proves Ayers was working for ABCs in 1988. It only indicates he was the person to contact for ABCs Coalition at the time the article was published, which I believe was 1991.

[r m flanagan]

I'm not Fonda Ayers.

[sylvia]

A blogger who claims not to know about Ayers is either not a blogger or is a liberal"

He's not a liberal. And he is a blogger. But the media blackout is almost complete in Europe on this topic.

[sylvia]

"ABCs Coalition at the time the article was published, which I believe was 1991."

It states 'June 1988' in the scanned shot.

[Elliott]

I raised the same question in the "Airing out Ayers" thread and I now see that Steve Diamond responded. I would advise everyone interested to read his comment.

Diamond states he has not been able to pin down when Ayers first affiliated himself with the ABCs coalition, but that he was involved in the 1988 reform efforts. Thanks again, Professor, for your response.

[sylvia]

Well that scan says that Ayers was a professor at UC already. When did he become one? I think 1989. Either way, Ayers graduated and moved to Chicago in 1987 or 1988. There was a major education reform in 1988. Hard to believe that Tom Ayers did not put his boy Bill in charge of it to keep him busy when he got to Chicago.

[clarice]

Sol Stern makes hash of the Ayers as school reformer spin:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122411943821339043.html?mod=djemEditorialPage>Reformer my eye

[clarice]

"A review of publicly available IRS 990 forms for the years 1998 through 2002, shows that Annenberg grants went to 94 different projects during that period. The CAC grants required a 2-1 match, with the other two parts coming from other public and private sources, so a total of $147 million in grants were made as consequence of the CAC program over its 6-year lifespan, although only $49.2 million was issued directly by the CAC to grant recipients.

Through the course of Obama’s political career, 91 people who served at some time as staff or a board member for one of the groups that received CAC money also contributed money at some time to one of Obama’s political campaigns, which include his runs for the state Senate, the U.S. Congress, the U.S. Senate and the presidency. "

http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=37589

[Pagar]

Clarice, that was a good find on the Sol Stern article. There really is a tremendous amount of good stuff written. A shame that more of it doesn't get into what many consider the MSM.

Also, I wanted to say earlier and forgot. That was a super note you put into a post. The one where you commented on your son finding your Daughter in law.

[clarice]

Thanks,Pagar.
My husband and I love our d-i-l with all our hearts. She is a family treasure.

[fdcol63]

It's simple:

A man who will lie and dissemble about his past to get elected will have no aversion to lying and dissembling to protect himself once he's in office.

[rhodeymark]

Please help clear me up on this. I've read a little about Sidley & Austin, and Dohrn being there with one or both of the Obama's. Is that correct? What is that time frame?

[fdcol63]

Quite frankly, I think the connection between Dohrn and the Obamas at Sidley Austin is enough to cast doubt on the notion that Obama didn't know Ayers until the coffee at their house in 1995.

[fdcol63]

rhodeymark,

My previous response about Sidley Austin is caught in the SPAM filter for moderation. Maybe it will show up later.

[sbw]

Michelle Robertson, not yet married to Obama, worked at Sidley-Austin as an intern in the summer of 1987. She came back full time later in 1988. I believe that Dohrn work there until summer of 1988. Check Diamond or Kurtz. You can google this site and the appropriate words for links.

[bad]

Thanks for the CNS News link Clarice.

CNS News is doing great work here but continue to get it wrong regarding Chicago Public Education Fund. The total to this group from CAC is nearly $4 million.

The Chicago Annenberg Challenge dissolved in 2002, and gave its remaining money, $1,418, to the Chicago Public Education Fund, which calls itself a “venture philanthropy” organization. The CPEF was also the largest Annenberg Foundation grant recipient, according to the IRS forms, getting $2.2 million from 1998 through 2002.

The $1.6 million missing from the total was not given as a grant. It was given as a distribution of assets as referenced in CAC's 1999 tax return. page 2 and 17 in Link Under Name.

[bad]

Greta is supposed to have an FBI (former?) person on this evening with new connections between Obama and ACORN.

[kim]

And McCain got in two connections between Obama and ACORN last night. He came armed. One of those connections was a counterpunch. I'll bet he has more.
============================

[Kristen]

https://securesite.chireader.com/cgi-bin/Archive/abridged2.bat?path=1990/901109/AYERS1&search=%22bill%20ayers%22

From that article in the November, 1990, article by Ben Jarovsky:

“McFerren and others invited Ayers to meetings of the Alliance for Better Chicago Schools, a coalition that includes members of Hispanic, business, black, and civic organizations. He started attending the group's monthly meetings, held over breakfasts of eggs, sausage, rolls, fruit, and coffee in a conference room on the 57th floor of First National Bank's downtown headquarters.

In many ways, Ayers's philosophy was ideal for ABCs. The targets of his criticism--central office bureaucrats and ineffective classroom teachers--were not members of the coalition. For ABCs' members he had almost nothing but praise.

Within a few weeks, the group named Ayers convener, which means he runs their meetings."

[bad]

Andy McCarthy has a good assessment of Ayers' views and Obama's involvement with him that should be read if you haven't already.

Linked Under Name (LUN)

[Kristen]

From Russo’s 1999 evaluation report of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge…
http://www.sonatabio.com/CAC/Russo-1999.pdf
Key quotes….

A second entity, the newly-created Chicago School Reform Collaborative (Ayers-Hallett, et al), was also established. Its twenty-plus members were elected from the group of educators and advocates who had helped shape the grant proposal. Initially, at least, this offshoot of the working group functioned as the operations arm of the Chicago Challenge. However, this situation created procedural and ethical concerns and in time the Collaborative was transformed into an advisory body. (they’d gotten much of the money for their own projects).

It is not known what, if any, pressure was exerted on the Challenge to fund members of the working group, but it is easy to magine that the group exercised influence on expanding the number of grants awarded to different networks. For perhaps the first year, the working group—now called the Collaborative—was highly involved in key
activities and decisions. For example, the original sessions outlining how the application process would work were conducted by the Collaborative, according to Bill McKersie. “The Collaborative was very much running the show,” said McKersie of the three community meetings he attended in 1995. “They were way out in front of the staff,” he said. In fact, the working group was responsible for reviewing the first round of applications from organizations in Chicago that wished to be funded.

[bad]

Kristen

That Chicago Reader article from 1990 on Bill Ayers was an incredible read thanks for the info.

Few members of the school reform movement can say for certain when it was that they first met Ayers. It was as though one day they looked and he was there. That would have been late 1987, in the aftermath of a debilitating 21-day teacher strike that enraged parents and inspired them to demand immediate change. By then Ayers had moved to Hyde Park and was working at UIC. "I arrived just as the movement was picking up," says Ayers. "I was immediately intrigued. I started attending different meetings. I couldn't stay away."

TM You may need to adjust your time frame of when Obama and Ayers started working together in Chicago. Could have been 1987. The Chicago Reader Article is Linked Under Name. (LUN)

[Barney Frank]

the newly-created Chicago School Reform Collaborative

I'm trying to remember if any organization with the word 'collaborative' in it has ever done anything but make mischief and am not having any success.

[bad]

barney

I heard a talking head refer to the "collaborative" as "the collective" one time. It really cracked me up.

[bad]

More from the Chicago Reader article:

During the summer, Tom Ayers got Bill a job with the Leo Burnett advertising agency. Most people figured Bill had found his path on the corporate track. "Leo Burnett liked Bill," says John Ayers. "He called my dad and said, 'Tom, your son is unbelievable. He could be the greatest ad man who ever lived.' We all believed Bill would be great at whatever he did. Even at the height of Bill's protest days, I used to joke to my dad, 'Hey, don't take it bad, he rose to the top of his field

--------------------------------------------

His life-style upset his parents, but his younger brother was transfixed. To John and his friends, Bill was a hip, young radical in denim and shades (like Bill's hero Bob Dylan), riding the crest of a powerful wave.
"Bill was on top of everything--the right music, books, and politics," says John Ayers. "He knew about Aretha Franklin before she crossed over. He used to take me to south-side music clubs, where we saw groups like the Four Tops. He exposed me to a different world. I'd spend a weekend with him in Ann Arbor and I'd come home with a Jimi Hendrix album. No one had ever heard of Hendrix in Glen Ellyn; suddenly I was a big deal.

Bill Ayers is the epitomy of hip and cool and on top of all the latest stuff. He has the ability to quickly become the leader of any group he inhabits and is considered capable of being the greatest ad man (con man) the world has ever seen. Obama would have been drawn like a moth to the flame. Was he drawn in Chicago or back in New York?

[JBean]

Kristen, bad --

That Chicago Reader is definitely a great find. Thanks, Kristen.

He appears to have made some revisions/deletions by the time he wrote "Fugitive Days" in 2001. The bankruptcy of his and Oughton's school isn't mentioned in the book, for one thing, or the fact that she had dumped him the year before the explosion.

In other ways, though, he was somewhat more emboldened to talk about his past in 2001 -- such as the fact that they survived on stolen purses and credit cards while on the run -- just struggling to make the world a better place through crime, I guess. In between bombings.

He also brags extensively in the book about their skill in stealing identities -- which is exactly how poor, innocent Saint Bernardine was implicated in the Brinks robberies. A true martyr to the oppressive system.

And poor Bill didn't take Horowitz's criticism very well, did he? A sociopath never does.

Grrrr.

[Kristen]

You're welcome, bad.

[fdcol63]

So far as I can tell, if Obama didn't actually meet Bill Ayers in NYC at Columbia sometime in the very early '80s, then there was AMPLE opportunity (and most likely) that they met around the 1987 time frame due to all the connections at Sidley Austin between John Ayers, Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, Michelle Obama, and Barack Obama.

If Obama did not meet Ayers on his own in NY or in Chicago, then it appears likely that Michelle may have introduced Barack to him, via Dohrn, when he interned at Sidley Austin.

Most of us suspect that Michelle is and has been the driving force behind much of Barack's ambition and connections in Chicago. She influenced him to attend Rev. Wright's church ... it's highly probable that she led him to Ayers and Dohrn as well.

Whatever happened, it's hard to imagine that they DID NOT know each other before they agreed to host a "coffee" or fundraiser or whatever, in their own home, to kick off Obama's political career.

[bad]

JBean

Bill is quite a guy. Demon driven to behave really badly, call for the death of parents and rich people, but lacking the principles and fortitude to get on with his life without the influence and wealth of his parents. He'd like to believe he is still fighting the revolution but he knows he's a sellout.

[RichatUF]

fixed

[Forbes]

In one of Obama's responses about his relationship with Ayers, he says this:

"We served on a board together that had Republicans, bankers, lawyers, focused on education, who worked for Mayor Daley."

Name the Republican.

[Bob]

Proof of the Ayers / Obama living room meeting
http://tinyurl.com/57da5d

[clarice]

I don't think that meeting is in question. What people are seeking evidence of, contacts while Obama was in NYC livingnear Oayers and of a closer personal relationship in Hyde Park--i.e., Ayers babysitting for the Obamas.

[torabora]

How do you get "rehabilitated" from blowing up bombs that might have killed total strangers that were your fellow citizens?

I say about life without parole is about right for rehabilitative purposes.

[scott]

RE: Forbes
"We served on a board together that had Republicans, bankers, lawyers, focused on education, who worked for Mayor Daley."

Name the Republican.

Walter Annenberg, for one. He is a life long republican and McCain supporter.
Another member of the board, from 1995-99, was Arnold Weber, former Assistant Secretary of Labor under Nixon. Weber is another McCain supporter and donor. I don't see McCain returning any of these guys campaign contributions, so, perhaps, this level of association with Ayers is acceptable after all.