Thread: prof. bill ayers speaks

In his first interview since he became an issue in the 2008 presidential campaign, Bill Ayers, the former Weather Underground leader, said Tuesday that he had a distant relationship with Barack Obama and that Obama's opponents had turned him into 'a cartoon character.' Ayers, now an education professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago, said he thought the accusation by Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin that Obama had been 'palling around with terrorists' was absurd. 'Pal around together? What does that mean? Share a milkshake with two straws?' Ayers said. 'I think my relationship with Obama was probably like thousands of others in Chicago. And, like millions and millions of others, I wish I knew him better.'

On Obama's big day, Bill Ayers speaks - Washington Post

^
Yeah, & I believe in the Tooth Fairy , Santa Claus etc.

Wonder if BO will appoint this unrepentant bomber to a Cabinet Level post, eh?

the ayers 'issue' fired up the particularly dim-witted mccain supporters, but i can't imagine it influenced more than a handful of independents.

Originally Posted by Milkman

Originally Posted by raycarey

In his first interview since he became an issue in the 2008 presidential campaign, Bill Ayers, the former Weather Underground leader, said Tuesday that he had a distant relationship with Barack Obama and that Obama's opponents had turned him into 'a cartoon character.' Ayers, now an education professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago, said he thought the accusation by Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin that Obama had been 'palling around with terrorists' was absurd. 'Pal around together? What does that mean? Share a milkshake with two straws?' Ayers said. 'I think my relationship with Obama was probably like thousands of others in Chicago. And, like millions and millions of others, I wish I knew him better.'

On Obama's big day, Bill Ayers speaks - Washington Post

Thanks for the find, Ray.

I was wondering and hoping that Ayers who speak and express himself and he definitely kept quiet during the campaign, which was probably a good strategy.

Yes, when I first heard the Ayers story, I thought the McCain campaign was not only pulling a childish cheap shot but was also hurting.

Still doesn't answer any of the questions regarding their relationship as fellow board members.

^^I think the Independents went to Obama for a couple reasons.

Ayers cheap shot. "Pall around with terrorist." And Palin being the surprise pick to appease to the Xtian right.

^ Norton: A superficial relationship. He may discuss it more. But the head of the Annenberg foundation endorsed McCain.

^ exactly. they were appointed to the same board by one of the most conservative people in the US....walter annenberg (served as an amabssador in the reagan administration). my understanding is that the president of the university of illinois and the mayor of chicago also served on the board.

^yep clearly Ayers and Obama aren't being very candid.

Anyone with a nose knows something stinks about this story.

so after a 21 month campaign in which the clintons and mccain couldn't find anything on this, earl 'smells' something.

Originally Posted by Mr Earl

Anyone with a nose knows something stinks about this story.

re something stinks: see above

Originally Posted by Mr Earl

Anyone with a nose knows something stinks about this story.

Heh...no shit.

Like Ayers is a non-issue. Move along folks; nothing to see here.

Originally Posted by Mr Earl

fellow board members.

Obama was a Board member with the Annenberg challenge, Ayers was not.
They were fellow members of a sub committee.

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWN.

I think that the current GOP mentality is so far out of touch with the 21st century that I honestly don't care, except for the fact that I feel some sort of government opposition is required in a democratic system.

The GOP is painting itself into utter obscurity, and I just can't raise a Damn.

What about the present Presidents ties with the Bin Laden family? You don't find that a little more worrying?

The actual Bill Ayers interview was with New Yorker magazine, heres the Link:-

Online Only: The New Yorker

Some excerpts, for posterity:-

In fact, Ayers said that he knew Obama only slightly: “I think my relationship with Obama was probably like that of thousands of others in Chicago and, like millions and millions of others, I wished I knew him better.”

“It’s all guilt by association,” Ayers said. “They made me into a cartoon character—they threw me up onstage just to pummel me. I felt from the beginning that the Obama campaign had to run the Obama campaign and I have to run my life.” Ayers said that once his name became part of the campaign maelstrom he never had any contact with the Obama circle. “That’s not my world,” he said.

Ayers said he felt “a lot of sympathy” for the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, “who was treated grotesquely and unfairly” by the media.


It's all history now I guess, but with the Republican Right hammering the Ayers non-issue in preference to actually saying something substantive- in the midst of the greatest financial crisis since the 1930's- is it any wonder that they lost so convincingly?

Thats what you call losing the plot.

A little off-topic sorry (but still related to the whole Ayers thing), I had to laugh when I read this earlier today:

"That's cruel. It's mean-spirited. It's immature. It's unprofessional and those guys are jerks if they came away with it, taking things out of context, and then tried to spread something on national news. It's not fair and it's not right."

Sarah Palin a little upset at the shoe being on the other foot and someone else having a go at her 'Obama is pals with terrorists' style.

Originally Posted by pickel

What about the present Presidents ties with the Bin Laden family? You don't find that a little more worrying?

Apparently not. Remember that Bush allowed the Bin Ladens to leave the country after 9/11 when all other travel was shut down. Will President Obama extend a presidential pardon in the same way Gerald Ford did to Nixon ?

THE AYERS/OBAMA TIMELINE: (Version 1.0; a work in progress; dates are approximate)

1987 William Ayers meets Barack Obama

1988 Ayers solicits Khalid Al-Mansour to raise money for Obama's Harvard law School education

1989 Tom Ayers and William Ayers get Obama a summer job at Sidley & Austin (where he meets Michelle Obama); Ayers' wife Bernadine Dohrn also worked at Sidley at about the same time as Barack and Michelle.

1993 Ayers places Obama on Woods Foundation

1995 Ayers makes Obama Chairman of Annenberg Challenge

1995 Ayers hosts a coffee klatch for Obama's political debut (Obama falsely claims this is when he met Ayers)

2007-2008 The structure of Obama's presidential campaign increasingly comes to resemble an Ayers-designed national "community organizer matrix" straight out of Maoist theory. This is not merely a presidential "campaign." Obama's organization is the first installment of an ongoing movement being paid for with tax-exempt contributions to his campaign, approaching half a billion dollars.

2008 Obama In response to ABC News, Obama tells a national TV audience he was "six years old" when Ayers bombed federal buildings, and they are only casual neighborhood acquaintances. A lie.

this isn't going to disappear

^
As well it should not.

Look up definition of Manchurian Candidate in the dictionary and who's picture do you see, eh?

Originally Posted by Mr Earl

THE AYERS/OBAMA TIMELINE: (Version 1.0; a work in progress; dates are approximate)

1987 William Ayers meets Barack Obama

1988 Ayers solicits Khalid Al-Mansour to raise money for Obama's Harvard law School education

1989 Tom Ayers and William Ayers get Obama a summer job at Sidley & Austin (where he meets Michelle Obama); Ayers' wife Bernadine Dohrn also worked at Sidley at about the same time as Barack and Michelle.

1993 Ayers places Obama on Woods Foundation

1995 Ayers makes Obama Chairman of Annenberg Challenge

1995 Ayers hosts a coffee klatch for Obama's political debut (Obama falsely claims this is when he met Ayers)

2007-2008 The structure of Obama's presidential campaign increasingly comes to resemble an Ayers-designed national "community organizer matrix" straight out of Maoist theory. This is not merely a presidential "campaign." Obama's organization is the first installment of an ongoing movement being paid for with tax-exempt contributions to his campaign, approaching half a billion dollars.

2008 Obama In response to ABC News, Obama tells a national TV audience he was "six years old" when Ayers bombed federal buildings, and they are only casual neighborhood acquaintances. A lie.

this isn't going to disappear

too bad the clinton and mccain campaigns didn't have the good fortune to come across such reputable website with that kind of damning 'evidence'. you're quite the desperado, earl.

^I can't believe how totally unpatriotic he's being, slandering the next President of the US of A like that.

Originally Posted by AntRobertson

^I can't believe how totally unpatriotic he's being, slandering the next President of the US of A like that.

The last vestige of a scoundrel is to cry Patriotism!

rediff.com US edition: Bush's bin Laden link thwarted FBI probe: Report


A BBC programme made a startling revelation that Federal Bureau of Investigation agents probing relatives of the Saudi-born terrorist Osama bin Laden were told to go slow soon after George W Bush became the president of the United States.
The BBC's Newsnight said Bush at one point had a number of connections with Saudi Arabia's prominent bin Laden family.


The programme hinted that US interests in the huge Saudi oil reserves blunted the probe into the terrorist connections of several individuals.


Newsnight quoting from several purportedly secret documents said the FBI probe into the September 11 terror attacks unearthed terrorist links of at least two member of the bin Laden family.


The programme said it had obtained evidence that the FBI was on the trail of bin Laden family members living in United States before, as well as after, the terrorist attacks.


Newsnight said Bush made his first million 20 years ago with an oil company partly funded by the chief US representative of Salem Bin Laden, Osama's brother.