Dems should re-label Ayers as "war protester" not "terrorist".

[Waiting For Everyman]

Pushing that hard might do more on that problem than anything else could.

[H2O Man]

1. Respectfully disagree.

There is no benefit in the democratic party attempting to justify Ayers' actions from the 1960s. There are many negatives associated with doing so.

[Democat]

2. Wrong!

The guy was involved in blowing things up. That is not a "protest" as most people understand it!

Best to distance from Ayers and connect McCain to real terrorists like mentioned in this Yahoo News front page article:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x7341934

[Enrique]

3. is Ayers running for office? n/t

[IamyourTVandIownyou]

4. Sean Hannity is an "Ayershead"

.

[endthewar]

5. Agree with you in theory, but in practice this won't work.

Yes, it would be more helpful if Ayers wasn't called a terrorist by the media, whether or not his actions describe him as such. However, it is too late in the game to try to change the way he is characterized. Plus, attempting to do so would backfire spectacularly. McCain would just point this out as an indication that Obama sympathizes with Ayers.

[Perky]

6. No they shouldn't

If they say anythins they should call the acts despicable and cowardly.

[cali]

7. bzzzt. really bad idea.

yeah, someone who was on the FBI's top most wanted list is going to just sooo easy to frame as merely a war protestor. Someone who's girlfriend blew herself into bits making a bomb.

[Waiting For Everyman]

8. Wow, I'm kind of shocked.

I'm not saying to make an issue of it - that's been done by McC. But surrogates and even just people like us, have to respond to it somehow. What's so hard about referring to Ayers as a war protester, when doing so?

Why leave the vocabulary the way the Repubs want it. It's true. He WAS a war protester and not a terrorist.

It looks to me like that's a real abandonment of most of the '60s era Dems.

Or are we just content with a blanket rewrite of history? No wonder Dems are afraid to even be called "liberal". That's truly sad.

Our founders told us to stand up for the Constitution when it was being trampled. Ayers did that in his way, which maybe was misguided, but leaving a bunch of young people to stop a war - it could've been much more misguided than that.

Most people were not "terrified" by the Weathermen. I guarantee you that.

Who's next for abandonment, the Chicago 7?

[H2O Man]

9. It is a stretch

to compare the Weather Underground to the Chicago 7. One need look no further than pages 249-250 of Abbie Hoffman's book "Soon to be a Major Motion Picture" to find that he called the WU members "terrorists," and rejected their methods.

[Democat]

10. I know this opinion pisses of a lot of DU members, but...

I want to win the election. If we have to "talk around" a few issues to get there, then so be it.

Republicans are good at saying what moderate voters want to hear during an election and then doing whatever they originally planned to do after they are elected.

Our side needs to learn to pick our battles and win elections. Our battle right now, in the next 30 days, is not defending the 1960's or even defending gay marriage (sorry!) in the media. Our battle right now is to win the election and that is all. Once we win the election, then we have a lot more power to defend gay marriage or anything other issue you want to name.

If we lose this election, then all of the "truth to power" talk in the world is worth nothing because Republicans will appoint the next two or three Supreme Court justices.

That's the way I see it. Fire away! :)

[Waiting For Everyman]

16. No, I agree with you on the focus for now.

If anything, in a practical sense, using the term I suggested is in the time-honored tradition of "putting the best spin on it", isn't it?

So why not, then? Why not use terms of our choosing rather than the Repubs'?

[kennetha]

17. Don't defend Ayers in any way

Ayers is completely unrepentant. His only regret is that they did not do enough. Why should Obama or anybody on Obama's side wade into this. Denouncing Ayers past acts and disowning his more radical ideas is the only way for Obama and his camp and his surrogates and his supporters to deal with this. Even that may not be quite enough -- since Obama at first sought to minimize Ayers as just "a guy who lives in my neighborhood." That wasn't good.

[regnaD kciN]

11. I would go with "Revolutionary"...

...because, after all, the Weathermen were trying to overthrow the government.

Whatever they may have done that was destructive or harmful, they were not terrorists. Terrorism is the act of trying to bully a state or people into doing what you want by threatening them with indiscriminate death or injury. From a terrorist point of view, the more casualties you can create, the better -- and that explicitly includes innocent non-combatants, since that will force the remainder of the population, now seeing themselves as targets, to demand that their representatives give in to protect their own lives.

By contrast, the Weathermen attempted to prevent civilian casualties, bombing buildings after they had closed, or notifying the authorities to evacuate the premises. And their bombs were designed more to "gum up the works," making it impossible for "the system" to continue, rather than to inflict maximum damage or spread terror among the populace.

I'm not saying Ayers and his cohort were right, or anything but destructive, criminal, and stupid. But, if anything, they were a lot more like Palin's A.I.P. run amok than a terrorist group like al-Qaeda or Islamic Jihad.

[voteearlyvoteoften]

12. Does McWhatever vet all his associates?

Does anyone? He didn't even know his campaign managers business was taking money from Freddie/Fannie. That was current events as opposed to ancient history.

[theothersnippywshrub]

13. McCain would love that. Obama has denounced the things Ayres did.

Flip flopping or equivocating now would be disastrous.

[emulatorloo]

14. Pointless dead end - if anything they should label him as College Professor of Education at UICC

Because that's the Ayers Obama knew,

[Essene]

15. WRONG. Call him a 60's Anarchist... if you must