What can anybody tell me about William Ayers and his relationship to Obama?

[Ytzak]

This is not meant as a hit on Obama. This was asked by an un-friend.
Links would be nice. And I mean to links other than those to right wing blogs and hit sites.

Your help is appreciated.

[ruggerson]

1. this is a dumb guilt by association story

What Ayers did was decades ago. Long before Obama had any minor political involvement with him.

A dumb smear. That's all you have to tell them.

[scheming daemons]

2. When Obama was 8 yrs old, Ayers did some bad things..25 years later, they said hello to each other..

...that's the bottom line.

[woolldog]

5. How about some links or background on the story?

I've been asked about it too, and have to give a good response.

[stillcool]

9. here's some stuff...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5451010

[Ytzak]

16. Thanks

The information is there.

[Ytzak]

3. Thank you. I have now been able to formulate an initial reply.

It seems that if Obama is guilty of anything, the G. W. Bush is also guilty, by association, with the attacks on 9/11.

[KittyWampus]

6. Um, NO. Obama simply occupies the same city and political landscape as Ayers

there is NO comparison to Bush & his association with NeoCons.

[stillcool]

7. George W. Bush..

as President of the United States, is responsible for what happened to this country on 9/11 and all the days that have followed. He is guilty of a lot of crimes, signed by his own hand...none of them by association.

[2rth2pwr]

4. Kill all the rich people. Break up their cars and apartments. Bring the revolution home,

"Kill all the rich people. Break up their cars and apartments. Bring the revolution home, kill your parents, that's where it's really at,"
http://www.nypost.com/seven/02272008/postopinion/opedcolumnists/terrorists_who_never__have_to_say_sorry_99506.htm?page=0

'I don't regret setting bombs,'' Bill Ayers said. ''I feel we didn't do enough.'' published in the NY Time Sept !!th,2001
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F02E1DE1438F932A2575AC0A9679C8B63&scp=1&sq=weathermen

“Everything was absolutely ideal on the day I bombed the Pentagon. The sky was blue. The birds were singing. And the bastards were finally going to get what was coming to them.”

In 1967 he met Ms. Dohrn in Ann Arbor, Mich. She had a law degree from the University of Chicago and was a magnetic speaker who often wore thigh-high boots and miniskirts. In 1969, after the Manson family murders in Beverly Hills, Ms. Dohrn told an S.D.S. audience: ''Dig it! Manson killed those pigs, then they ate dinner in the same room with them, then they shoved a fork into a victim's stomach.''

During his fugitive years, Mr. Ayers said, he lived in 15 states, taking names of dead babies in cemeteries who were born in the same year as he.

[murielm99]

8. Billy was rich himself.

His daddy was the CEO of Commonwealth Edison.

Bernardine and Billy turned themselves in and were not prosecuted. There were allegations of government misconduct. I think it helped that daddy was rich and could afford good lawyers.

Bernardine is a law professor at Northwestern, and Billy is an education professor at the University of Chicago. I wonder how he puts up with the neocons there. Both of them have a great interest in children's issues, especially the children of those who are imprisoned. They adopted the child of someone in the Black Liberation Army after she was imprisoned. I remember reading about it in the Nation.

I don't much care how Obama knows them. Why wouldn't he know them, or at least have met them? They are well known Chicago area people with colorful pasts. They have gone on to raise two children and lead productive lives. The right wing can stomp their feet and howl all they want. Not all of us are horrified by aging sixties radicals. If we examine some of the things they said about our society, we might just discover that they were right all along.

[murielm99]

10. I was wrong about the foster child.

He is a son.

Don't go to any right-wing sources about them. I am pretty sure Ayers and Obama met because of their interest in children's issues and the juvenile justice system. This really is not a big deal.

[madrchsod]

14. i meant her at the sds office in chicago-she was hot!

but in retrospect she was a dumb ass. the weathermen were dumb asses...

[solinvictus]

11. From what I've gathered...

..Ayers introduced Obama around Illinois circles and assisted with his rise in the state government.

[madrchsod]

13. no...he did`t help in rise in state government

[jackson_dem]

12. It is Willie Horton times ten, a bs issue that would be nonetheless devasating in the general elect.

[bhikkhu]

15. They both live in Chicago. And that is good enough for Hannity.

I don't think there is any story, outside of what the RW nutjobs have to say.