Pedestrian Observer GB: Barack Obama's guilt by association with Bill Ayers

The lies and innuendos just kept on coming in the direction of Obama being misquoted as saying that Ayers was just “someone in the neighborhood.” Although Obama never said Ayers was just “someone in the neighborhood” highly partisan die hard conservatives are still mouthing Obama's "questionable" character in the mold of Sarah Palin's mendacity that was exposed as an outright lie according to FactCheck’s account delving on this subject more accurately than the spin meisters and the gullibles:

Who's Misleading?

McCain is not accurate when he says – as he does in the Web ad – "When their relationship became an issue, Obama just responded, 'This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood.' " McCain is using the same line in personal appearances, too. He said on Oct. 9 at a campaign rally in Waukesha, Wis.:

McCain: Look, we don't care about an old washed-up terrorist and his wife, who still, at least on Sept. 11, 2001, said he still wanted to bomb more. ... The point is, Senator Obama said he was just a guy in the neighborhood. We need to know that's not true.

Obama never said Ayers was "just" a guy in the neighborhood. The quote is from a Democratic primary debate on April 16 in Philadelphia, and Obama actually was more forthcoming than McCain lets on. Obama specifically acknowledged working together with Ayers on a charitable board, and didn't deny getting some early political support from him. Here's the exchange:
ABC News' George Stephanopoulos, April 16: An early organizing meeting for your state senate campaign was held at his house, and your campaign has said you are friendly. Can you explain that relationship for the voters, and explain to Democrats why it won't be a problem?

Obama: George, but this is an example of what I'm talking about.

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 notion that somehow as a consequence of me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago when I was 8 years old, somehow reflects on me and my values, doesn't make much sense, George.
Sen. Hillary Clinton then said, "I also believe that Senator Obama served on a board with Mr. Ayers for a period of time, the Woods Foundation," and predicted that "this is an issue that certainly Republicans will be raising."

Obama responded, "President Clinton pardoned or commuted the sentences of two members of the Weather Underground, which I think is a slightly more significant act than me ... serving on a board with somebody for actions that he did 40 years ago."
We wrote back then that Clinton had gone too far by suggesting that "people died" as a result of Ayers' actions. And nothing Obama said then has since been shown to be false. It is true that he did not bring up his work with Ayers on a second project, the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, where Obama was board chairman and Ayers was an early organizer, and where the two were together for half a dozen or so meetings. But neither Clinton nor Stephanopoulos asked him about that project. McCain could fairly accuse Obama of not volunteering the information, but it is false to claim he "lied."

It is the height of irresponsibility to demonize a person for his past instilling fear and agitating the crowd that I suspect was the reason why people are shouting “kill Obama,” “terrorist,” “Arab” typical of a lynch mob. The McCain-Palin underlings should refrain from baseless innuendos stressing his Hussein middle name as he was born with it and thus no say on how he is named by his parents. No wonder they are losing in the polls badly, exposing their racist mindset as if being an Arab even though Obama is not with a terrorist is just downright low. Here is FactCheck’s account on Ayers the one alluded to by Sarah Palin as Obama’s “palling around”:

We find McCain's accusation that Obama "lied" to be groundless. It is true that recently released records show half a dozen or so more meetings between the two men than were previously known, but Obama never denied working with Ayers.

Other claims are seriously misleading. The education project described in the Web ad, far from being "radical," had the support of the Republican governor and was run by a board that included prominent local leaders, including one Republican who has donated $1,500 to McCain's campaign this year. The project is described by Education Week as reflecting "mainstream thinking" about school reform.

Despite the newly released records, there's still no evidence of a deep or strong "friendship" with Ayers, a former radical anti-war protester whose actions in the 1960s and '70s Obama has called "detestable" and "despicable."

Even the description of Ayers as a "terrorist" is a matter of interpretation. Setting off bombs can fairly be described as terrorism even when they are intended to cause only property damage, which is what Ayers has admitted doing in his youth. But for nearly three decades since, Ayers has lived the relatively quiet life of an educator. It would be correct to call him a "former terrorist," and an "unapologetic" one at that. But if McCain means the word "terrorist" to invoke images of 9/11, he's being misleading; Ayers is no Osama bin Laden now, and never was.

Since the line of argument is based on guilt by association one should then be consistent with their logic even though it is badly flawed that the Annenbergs’ are not just guilty of association but of “coddling.” How come the Annenbergs are not accused and demonized like Ayers? Well for one the Annenbergs are strong Republican supporters and donors so the Argument then of bad judgment is faulty at best and hypocritical when Obama is falsely accused of guilt by association which should also apply to the Republicans and McCain in particular for accepting donations and endorsement from L. Annenberg. If that is the case why did they not return or accept the campaign contribution?

Mr. Bill Ayers has been the subject of hate mail from the time some wacko Faux News errr Fox News demonize him and to think that he is a well respected educator in Chicago who now is unfairly labeled as if he was of the same 9/11 terrorist in the new millennium at that is a step back towards ugly American lynch mob mentality of the past.

Linda Lenz article way back on the 30th of August aptly covers the facts on Ayers and Obama “guilt by association” in this article titled “There is nothing to condemn about Ayers’ leadership over the past 20 years”:

The issue of Obama’s role arose when a blogger for National Review raised questions about his relationship with Ayers, a favorite election-year target of conservatives. The blogger felt quite sure that the pair were much closer than Obama intimated when he said he knew Ayers “from the neighborhood” where both live. The blogger hinted darkly that the pair were really ideological soul mates and that Obama was aligned “with Ayers’s radical views on education issues.”

When the appointed hour arrived for release of the documents, reporters, camera operators and bloggers descended on the hapless university library staff to pore over hundreds of files of grant proposals, meeting minutes and reports — a “media frenzy,” the Tribune called it.

And what did the muckrakers find? Horrors, Obama had attended meetings and retreats with the author of The Good Preschool Teacher and To Teach: The Journey of a Teacher. He had actually rubbed shoulders — can you believe it? — with a distinguished professor of education who holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in early childhood education and a doctorate in curriculum and instruction. He had probably even shared a cup of coffee, as only a co-conspirator would, with this professor, whose writings describe good schools as places that are “organized around and powered by a set of core values” and “effectively meet students where they are and find ways to nurture and challenge them to learn.”

In other words, Obama does, indeed, know Bill Ayers as more than just a guy from the neighborhood. So do a host of civic leaders in Chicago. For example, the Chicago Annenberg Challenge board included Susan Crown of the General Dynamics Corp. family; Patricia Graham, former dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and Arnold Weber, past president of Northwestern University and of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago. Indeed, just about everyone active in Chicago school reform in the early days saw Ayers as a colleague. No one ever accused them of being radical because of their association with Bill Ayers.

Whatever one thinks of Ayers’ actions 40 years ago, there is nothing to condemn, and much to admire, about his leadership and commitment over the past 20 years in making schools better places to teach and learn. And there is nothing to condemn, and much to applaud, in Obama’s close association with those efforts.

Some of the reporters assigned to dig into the Annenberg archives felt a little silly about it all, I’m told. Their editors should too.

Speaking of “Palling around with a terrorist” that Sarah Palin seems to relish what do you call one who is being blessed by a domestic terrorist? Was it the anointed one? Here is one hilarious video by Keith Olbermann…..

To think that some people spreading and fomenting this bile malicious politics of fear yet “seriously” considering themselves as "Christians" are unnecessarily exposing their target victim to gullible bigots and wackos…….. They must have loss their conscience in their desperation to win at all cost since they are not at the receiving end of the agitated lynch mob that they unwittingly created.

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October 15th 2008 is Blog Action Day to raise Awareness on Poverty, since I have posted entries about poverty a couple of times instead of posting a new entry let me just go back to this particular entry....... Children of Poverty in the Philippines.
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2 Speak Out:

atto aryo said...: Desperate people do say despicable things. McCain senses now that the only way for him to stall the Obama train to the White House is to throw him mud. I just hope the American people will prove to the world that they are way more decent than McCain and his handlers and make Obama their new President.; 10/15/08, 8:14 PM
Unknown said...: @r-yo, in their lame attempt at making an issue out of Obama instead of what matters most to the electorate could be a hint of desperation on their part.; 10/16/08, 3:34 PM