What, if anything, should Obama say now about Ayers?

[kennetha]

Obviously, the McCain campaign thinks they are onto something with this Ayers stuff. I'm not sure.

On the one hand, part of me thinks that Obama should just stay focused on the big issues. He can keep hitting McCain on his own associations perhaps. But he shouldn't dignify this stuff by offering any explanations or defense other than what he has already done -- which is to say that Ayers actions were way before he, Obama, was an adult, that Ayers has done some good things in Chicago, and that Ayers is no friend or close ally, and that he finds what Ayers did way back then totally unacceptable.

What else is there to say, really?

Mostly nothing, I think. But a little part of me does think that maybe he does need to find something else to say. Bear with me a little bit as I explain why I'm a little tempted by that thought.

Having Ayers host the fundraiser at his house probably was no big deal at the time. But in 2001 Ayers claimed himself unrepentant about his acts of terrorism. He even says, as I recall, that he thinks they didn't do enough to stop the war. Especially coming when it did in 2001, this is pretty ugly stuff. Of course, those views have nothing whatsoever to do with Obama. And anyone, like Palin, who suggests they do is being a disingenuous demagogue.

But just suppose that McCain's first political fund raiser way back when was put on by a former KKK. And suppose Mr. KKK had by then become a respectable guy in Republican circles in Arizona.

But now suppose that years after the event Mr KKK writes in his autobiography that he doesn't regret his role in bombing of black churches in the South way back when and that he still feels that they didn't do enough to stop what he then regarded as the Black Scourge -- or some such nonsense.

Wouldn't look to good for McCain. If nothing else, you'd wonder about his judgment about people.

Is there a parallel with Obama and Ayers? Superficially, maybe yes. And that's the one thing that maybe he could address somehow.

But even that's not a completely settled thought. Because I'm not completely sure the supposed parallel holds up on deeper scrutiny. The social turmoil surrounding Vietnam made lots of people do crazy things. But since the whole world was going crazy, maybe everybody who lived though that gets a pass. And those who didn't live through it, who have no particular stake in deciding who was right and who was wrong, get to just move on and not obsess about that stuff that the other guys did way back when.

This would mark an important the difference between Mr KKK and Mr Ayers. Mr KKK by being unrepentant would be taking a stand that had continuing implications for our current social life because if he really thought that he and his brethren didn't do enough back then, that would be a way of saying that he still harbored those kinds of feelings and thoughts.

Again, I don't know what this adds up to.

What do you think? Does Obama need to address this Ayers thing in stronger terms? Or just repeat the kinds of things he's already said? Or just ignore it?

[anonymous171]

1. Focus on the fact that Obama was 8 years old when Ayers was off being crazy.

Just say that over and over again.

[Johonny]

14. Yeah I WAS 8 YEARS OLD

Many of us voters weren't alive and give not a crap about Ayers and the 60s that McCain wants to relive forever.

[phleshdef]

2. Bring up the fact that people shouldn't make an issue over McCain and G. Gordon Liddy...

...because sometimes you have to work/and or deal with people that did some really bad things in their past, things that have nothing to do with you, especially if you were 8 years old at the time.

[UnrepentantUnitarian]

9. That should work.

Obama wouldn't say it, but I'd be tempted to say that the GOP's VP candidate "associates" rather intimately with a known enemy of our nation every night, and has for years.

[Pattib]

10. Oh, now that is good!

[Overseas]

3. Gee, I don't know. Let me consult the 20 other threads.... //nt

[CakeGrrl]

4. For one, Obama can re-release the ad he put out in August:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mjhVsUosn8

If McCain is stupid or desperate enough to bring it up at the Town Hall debate tomorrow, Obama has a great public forum to denounce it further.

[treestar]

6. That ad covers it

complete with pic of 8 year old Obama!

[AspenRose]

11. AGREE

Just start showing it again.

[rubberducky]

5. I think Obama should ignore it. They should get Ayers to make an ad.

[Democat]

7. Obama should bring a picture of himself at 8 years old to the debate!

If the question comes up, Obama should hold up the photo of his cute 8 year old self and say something like:

"Mr. McCain, this is an actual photo of me during the time that Ayers was involved in those despicable activities - bank in the 1960's. Now that we have put that issue behind us, in fact nearly 40 years behind us, let's stop wasting our time on smears and get back to talking about the issues that Americans care about, like the economy and health care."

[EndElectoral]

8. I think Liddy is really an Achilles heel if he brings up Ayers.Liddy actually went to jail, and his

remarks are repugnant.

[Zenmaster]

12. Who did their bombs kill?

Weren't these bombs really acts of vandalism, rather than terrorism?

I've never heard of anything being called terrorism that didn't actually injure or kill innocent people?

Perhaps I'm wrong on the specifics, as it was well before my time, but my understanding is that they never actually bombed any people.

[goodgd_yall]

16. They never aimed to kill any one

In this day and age, the "post 9/11 world" vandalism DOES seem to count for terrorism. Although, I think blowing up a building is more than mere vandalism. But, the whole "terrorism" moniker was not used to the nauseating excess it is now.

[KamaAina]

20. They tried to avoid injuries to humans, unlike, say, Tim McVeigh

The bombs planted by Weather and other '60s radicals were generally timed to go off in the middle of the night, when no one was supposed to be around. Unfortunately, a professor at Wisconsin's math lab 9?) wandered in in the middle of the night and got blown to bits.

Contrast with avowed terrorists such as McVeigh, who timed his truck bomb to go off a few minutes after 9 AM, to make sure that all the small children were in the federal building's day care center. :grr: :banghead:

[goodgd_yall]

13. He needn't say anything different from what he has said

Just reiterate the minimal contact he's had with Ayers.

The parallel between Ayers activities and an imaginary ex-KKK member doesn't hold up. The context of the times, and if you lived during it, which I did, didn't make the Weather Underground activities that horrendous. As you mention, we had the Vietnam War going on, we had a black civil rights movement that evolved into a more militant one. The FBI was actively suppressing anyone shaking up the establishment. With so many assassinations and attempted assassinations at the time, violence as a means to an end almost seemed normal.

WIthout having lived through those times, anyone listening to the rightwing blather about Ayers's personal history, I suppose, can see him as a really dangerous person. And even the little contact Obama has had with Ayers may seem bad, but I'm hoping people will realize guilt by association doesn't hold water. How many of us may have rubbed shoulders with a former drug dealer?

[kennetha]

19. I think I pretty much agree with you

Vietnam era was the world gone mad. Nice thing about Obama is that he isn't part of that. So we aging boomers and our aged parents can fight over who did and said what back then, but it's pretty irrelevant to everybody else. THis is the last election in which that stuff could even matter as subtext.

[Life Long Dem]

15. McSame hasn't made one good move during this campaign

and he for sure isn't starting now! :rofl:

[LynnTheDem]

17. OMG he lives on the SAME STREET as Ayers, a US UNIVERSITY PROF!!!

OMG he was on the same charity board as Ayers, a US UNIVERSITY PROF!!!

Ayers, a US university professor who was never convicted. Of anything.

Obama needs to point out -again, for the 24% deeply stupid MFers, that PROFESSOR Ayers lives on the same street, along with many other families, and worked on the same charity board (along with several others).

PERIOD.

Facts are facts, and the above are facts.

Rightwingnuttery's DESPERATE beyond fucking belief!

[damntexdem]

18. The following: the GOP has destroyed the economy, our nation's international reputation, ...

and attacked our basic rights. And the McPain campaign wants to talk about this crap? No way!

[Hekate]

21. Show adorable photos of "Barry" riding a tricycle, starting kindergarten, & other anti-American...

... activities of the 1960s.

The problem with the Ayers "connection" is that it is the Right Wing of this country that does not want to let go of the 1960s and the idea that the Baby Boomers remain forever 20 years old and dumb. The fact that all Republicans between the ages of 50 and 64 are themselves Boomers always escapes their notice. It's a time-warp thing, or really interesting mental gymnastics, something like that.

The fact that Barack Obama is not in that demographic doesn't stop the RW from smearing him with every stereotype that crosses their minds: next they'll "discover" that he palled around with Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael.

Hekate

[kennetha]

22. Yeah but the

Repugnant boomers are the ones who weren't cool, who weren't getting high, who wanted to make war rather than love. Now they want their revenge because they didn't have any fun when there was fun to be had by all.