NYT & AP Get Obama Ayres Connection Wrong

Republican VP Candidate Sarah Palin has attacked the judgment of Democrat Presidential Candidate Barack Obama because of his connection to a Domestic Terrorist, William Ayers. Mr. Ayers is one of the founding members of the Weathermen. The Weathermen were anti-Vietnam War militants who conducted violent attacks on the Pentagon and United States Capitol. Mr. Ayers is unrepentant about being a Domestic Terrorist, and in fact claims that the Weathermen did not do enough.

Both the New York Times [Obama and ’60s Bomber: A Look Into Crossed Paths] and the AP [Analysis: Palin's words carry racial tinge] have recently whitewashed and brushed aside the significance of this connection. But in fact, the connection is very important. It is important because it shows the lack of judgment on the part of Senator Obama. And because Senator Obama has not been completely truthful about his relationship with an unrepentant Domestic Terrorist, William Ayers.

NYT's Ayers-Obama Whitewash by Stanley Kurtz reveals the importance and the extent of the Obama-Ayers connection.

As others have noted, today’s New York Times carries a story on the relationship between Barack Obama and unrepentant Weather Underground terrorist, Bill Ayers. The piece serves as a platform for the Obama campaign and Obama’s friends and allies. Obama’s spokesman and supporters’ names are named and their versions of events are presented in detail, with quotes. Yet the article makes no serious attempt to present the views of Obama critics who have worked to uncover the true nature of the relationship. That makes this piece irresponsible journalism, and an obvious effort by the former paper of record to protect Obama from the coming McCain onslaught. [Emphasis mine]

How close a relationship Obama has with Ayers is presented as the result of the work of Mr. Kurtz.

The title of the article when it first appeared on the web last night was, "Obama Had Met Ayers, but the Two Are Not Close." That was quickly changed to, "Obama and the ‘60's Bomber: A Look Into Crossed Paths." Perhaps the first headline made the paper’s agenda a bit too obvious. Even so, the new title simply parrots the line of Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt that the two first met through an early "education project" and since have simply "encountered each other occasionally in public life or in the neighborhood." Or, as New York Times reporter Scott Shane puts it at the head of his article, since an initial lunchtime meeting in 1995, "their paths have crossed sporadically...at a coffee Mr. Ayers hosted for Mr. Obama’s first run for office, on the schools project (i.e. the Chicago Annenberg Challenge) and a charitable board, and in casual encounters as Hyde Park neighbors."

So when Senator Obama claims in reference to his relationship with Ayers ... he's just some guy from the neighborhood is Senator Obama being Truthful? No, he is not. Senator Obama is really misleading all of us. Senator Obama and his campaign have the Mainstream Media like the New York Times and the AP to thank for attempting legitimize and mislead the public - US. Here is what Mr. Kurtz has to say about the Senator's and Ayers friendship.

There is nothing "sporadic" about Barack Obama delivering hundreds of thousands of dollars over a period of many years to fund Bill Ayers’ radical education projects, not to mention many millions more to benefit Ayers’ radical education allies. We are talking about a substantial and lengthy working relationship here, one that does not depend on the quality of personal friendship or number of hours spent in the same room together (although the article greatly underestimates that as well).

The Obama-Ayers connection, and others of questionable merit, definitely reflect on Senator Obama's Judgment and fitness for the Presidency of the United States.

Shane’s article buys the spin on Ayers’ supposed rehabilitation offered by the Obama campaign and Ayers’ supporters in Chicago. In this view, whatever Ayers did in the 1960's has somehow been redeemed by Ayers’ later turn to education work. As the Times quotes Mayor Daley saying, "People make mistakes. You judge a person by his whole life." The trouble with this is that Ayers doesn’t view his terrorism as a mistake. How can he be forgiven when he’s not repentant? 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. [Emphasis mine]

Nor can it be said that Senator Obama did not know about Mr. Ayers radical views.

Obama was perfectly aware of Ayers’ radical views, since he read and publically endorsed, without qualification, Ayers’ book on juvenile crime. That book is quite radical, expressing doubts about whether we ought to have a prison system at all, comparing America to South Africa’s apartheid system, and contemptuously dismissing the idea of the United States as a kind or just country. [Emphasis mine]

The fact that there is little evidence that Senator Obama shares these radical views, does not change the reason for questioning Senator Obama's judgment. Since Senator Obama has a tolerance for radical views of the United States and juvenile crime, we have the right to question Senator Obama's judgment and temperament to hold the office of the United States President.