According to those who vote Democrat, associations do not matter. Although they have made huge deals out of Bush’s links to “Big Oil” and the House of Saud. They have inferred that Bush must be a Nazi because of his grandfather Prescott Bush. But, associations do not matter if it is a Democrat, particularly the Chosen One. ‘Memba this?
At a Democratic debate this year when the association between Obama and Ayers was raised, Obama said: “This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood. . . . He’s not somebody who I exchange ideas from on a regular basis.” Obama called Ayers’ past radical acts detestable.
And,
Obama has said he ‘‘deplored’’ what Ayers did in the 1960s and that ‘‘by the time I met him, he is a professor of education at the University of Illinois. We served on a board together that had Republicans, bankers, lawyers, focused on education.’’
But (back to first link)
The UIC records show that Obama and Ayers attended board meetings, retreats and at least one news conference together as the education program got under way. The two continued to attend meetings together during the 1995-2001 operation of the program, records show.
…critics note that Obama visited Ayers’ home for a meeting at the start of his first state Senate bid in the mid-’90s.
We should not make too much of the issue of Obama’s connection with Ayers. It doesn’t make Obama a terrorist, or even sympathetic to Ayers’ cause. But, along with all the other “radicals” Obama associates and associated with, it shows a pattern, which, at the least, shows a disregard for the backgrounds of people who have a hatred of the United States (much like his wife’s attitude, till she was yanked off the campaign trail, then spoon-fed a Betty Crocker speech).
But, if Obama deplored Ayers actions, why work with him? Ayers is unrepentant. In 2004 interview with Fox News
that he still believed he was “on the side of justice†years after the group’s wave of attacks.
In the interview, conducted three years after the September 11 attacks, Ayers argued the U.S. government had carried out “many other acts of terror … even recently, that are comparable,†and claimed he and his bomb-planting comrades were “restrained†in their actions.
Ayers claimed the Weathermen were driven by “hope and love,†not despair, and said he did not think the group’s violent acts, targeting federal officials and local law enforcement officers, were “a big deal.â€
Much like Obama and so much of the Left, Ayers considers “Amerika” to be the cause of so much of the problems in the world.
So, yeah, associations matter. If you hang with a person who attempted murder multiple times 30 years ago and has shown no remorse, and, in fact, they thought they did the right thing, what does that say about you?
Even more, what does it say about the state of education that someone like Ayers has a job teaching?
As a sidenote, the Grey Ladymentions this issue as a sidebar to their quiet cheer-leading for Obama in Obama vs. the 1st Amendment.
Just a bit more, in fairness to Obama, maybe Barry learned something that turned him against some of the more radical elements in his past. Sometimes, we learn something from our associations. I did.
Way back in grad school, a bunch of us were renting a house in Greenville, NC. It was on a pretty darned busy corner, too. Lots of ladies walked, drove, and rode their bikes by it, many of them friends and acquaintances, among others.
Well, one of our roomates was turning lush. But, not a fun drinker. He used to stand in the huge picture window staring at the ladies. He would do the same when they came to our house, and when we went to parties and bars. Soon, the ladies stopped coming over and going past our corner. It was embarrassing.
The upshot was, I stopped drinking that much. I was never that bad, and certainly not an embarrassment like that. But, it made a mark on my life for the positive. We also moved out on him one day, having had quite enough.
Maybe Barry learned something himself. Oh, wait, he hung with Ayers and his other associations for a long, long time, only thowing them under the bus when it became politically inconvenient.
