Does anyone really care about Bill Ayers?

[Frank Booth]

Put aside the fact that Obama's connection to this guy is more tenuous than his connection to his own postman.

Does anyone really think that voters care about some old hippie who did some crazy stuff back in the '60s and '70s? I just don't get it. Yeah, I know most people don't make bombs. But it was the '60s. Everyone was crazy back then! Bill Ayers is about as scary as David Crosby.

And I know I shouldn't underestimate the stupidity of voters, but Obama's response that he was only 8 years when Ayers was doing bad stuff is so true and obvious that I think even the most dense of Americans can understand it.

[DJ13]

1. No. I believe a person can redeem himself through positive acts later in life

All the apparent good he and his wife have been doing the last 20 years should be more than enough to offset his radical ties in his youth.

[AngryAmish]

4. ...and the good he had done?

He has worked to improve education in this country. The proof that he has improved 3education? None. He is a moral and professional failure.

[leftofcool]

19. Even when he says he didn't bomb enough buildings?

Ayers was an asshole in the sixties when those of us who were "real" protesters were trying to make a difference. He is an asshole now and there are millions of us who remember how he damaged our causes by his violent actions. He didn't just have radical ties, he was violent and mean.

[keith the dem]

2. unfortunately, Yes, for the same reasons people vote against

their own interests.

They listen to the idiots on talk radio and cable news which tells them what they should think is important.

Whoever wins this primary will have to campaign against McAncient and the media.

[AngryAmish]

3. I do

There is no way he should be allowed in polite society. I have had the honor of knowing Richard Elrod for many years, a man permanently paralyzed during the Days of Rage -- which were organized by Ayers. He has devoted his life to public service, despite his injuries. His daily struggle (into his late 70s) to help people only highlights what an unapologetic piece of shit Ayers is.

[DesertFlower]

5. but do you hold knowing him against obama?

[AngryAmish]

7. No, I'm an Obama man

But Ayers is garbage.

[ProSense]

11. "what an unapologetic piece of shit Ayers is" Really? Do you have a problem with the unapologetic

pieces "of shit" who were convicted (unlike Ayers who was not) and pardoned by Bill Clinton?

[AngryAmish]

14. Yes. There was no way they should have been pardoned.

Ever notice how all this human debris came from the upper class and how working class folks were always the victims?

on edit:

Knowing that this is GDP one could probably assume I am a Hillary supporter and am using the Ayers thing as a cudgel against Barack. I support Barack. I just think Ayers should be in jail for the rest of his life - or should be if the prosecutors did not screw up his case.

[Frank Booth]

18. Just to clarify my point, I'm not suggesting that what Ayers did was in any way right

or acceptable. And I agree with you that when he was building bombs and playing trust-fund revolutionary he was a piece of shit. But he's a (relatively) old man now, and hasn't been involved with any of that for decades. And from a political standpoint, I just don't think that most Americans consider elderly hippies all that scary.

[AngryAmish]

25. On politics we agree -- but what ever happened to a sense of shame?

Shouldn't Ayers realize his crimes and ever try to amend for them? Shouldn't he? Or that would take a sense of shame that people of his class cannot muster.

Again, Ayers is trash.

[ProSense]

6. Hillary is really concerned about Ayers and the fact that Obama knows him. n/t

[rucky]

8. sorry...had to be done:

[DesertFlower]

15. sorry, i don't know who the guy is. nt

[rucky]

16. Are all you Obama supporters gen-Y whipper-snappers?

David Crosby of CSN(Y). (Not scary at all)

[DesertFlower]

21. sorry, i should have known. i'm 66.

:hide:

[rucky]

22. You're welcome.

;)

[DesertFlower]

24. it was a "senior moment".

:cry:

[tokenlib]

9. He should take the offense on the guilt by association crap...

Today he mentioned how he believes in forgiveness and redemption. Ayers has done a lot of good since his the 70's. It should not be a crime to have been on a charity board with him--or to have had some contact with him--as is done by others in Chicago society.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

10. About as much as I care about flag pins, flag burning, and flouride in the water.

Not to mention what color shorts Obama or Hilly wears.

[goletian]

12. ayers didnt kill anyone, hillary voted for a war that killed over 4000 us and countless iraqis

i think ill take obamas flimsy connection to ayers over clintons damning connection to herself.

[uponit7771]

13. Nope, this is all they got. They are ballooing Wright and Ayers in NC and if that doesn't work Iran

...is next...trust.

With Dean and Obama the neo-clowns and their well oiled machine become irrelevant for a generation or two

[leftofcool]

17. It's the perception that counts

And yes, lots of people care deeply about this

[Yossariant]

20. "Anyone" posting at DU? Or actual, real voters. Big difference.

:shrug:

[danielet]

23. Neocon slanderer Krauthammer tried in WashPo today and fell flat!

It is ironic that when similar things as said about Obama by Krauthammer were said by critics of Lieberman's hopeless presidential bid during the 2004 Democrat primaries, many neocons shouted "anti-Semitism" (The Jerusalem Post considered Lieberman's defeat as proof that America is STILL anti-sEmitic). Yet, the sub-text "whites-only" type race case that began with the Wright affair-- and when it didn't cause a big bang moved to all sorts of sheep's skin disguises-- failed to gain traction, the neocons who bankrolled and supported Hillary in any way they could (I can understand why they go for her, but why would she get into bed those shysters?)she still could do no better than a couple of points extra from the White types that can't imagine a BLACK in the WHITE House!

But in fact, even where the Republicans helped out Hillary by donning on Democrat skins to vote in the primaries, as in Texas and Pennsylvania, her victory margin was slim, more than compensated for by the white and black younger members of the next generation of Americans that will inherit the mess that the Hillary-like 60-somethings and McCain-like 70-somethings will have left behind after the colossal catastrophes Bill Clinton and GW Bush left behind, both then enjoying a neocon cheering squad. The idea that now a younger black gets to be president and that this "uppity Swartza" will not allow World War IV to proceed as started by 70-something Rumsfeld, instead cutting back the military-industrial complex's share of the tax pie, causes these high-price influence peddlers for the war industries severe agida and it shows in how close they come to calling Obama an upidy Schwartza. Krauthammer-- who took to calling the neocon's stooge, Fukuyama an "anti-Semite" for questioning perpetual war in the Mideast, as expected is one of the first over the top...then Krystol in the NY Times, Podhoretz in Commentary.... on and on down the neocon slander line. Alas, all those people who said in the 60s that you can't trust anyone over 30 are now replaced by youngsters who say you can't trust anyone over 60 (Hillary 60, Obama 40, McCain 70). All in all, Krauthammer's spewing venom not withstanding, Obama *IS* the choice of the next generation and all of Bill the King's horses and all his neocon men will not put the 60-something generation in power again. The kids will be out in force bringing down Hillary and then McCain so that power will be in the hands of an Americans closer to their age, even if he is black, who will all suffer the burden of the weak America our older generation of boomers created. Krauthammer, to quote his old nemesis, Nikita Khrushchev, is baying at the moon. No one under 60 is reading him.

[NJSecularist]

26. It doesn't matter what the netroots thinks of William Ayers.

They are already reliably Democratic voters.

It matters what the swing voters in states such as Pennsylvania and Ohio think about these accusations - many of whom don't follow these stories every day like we do.

[Frank Booth]

27. I wasn't limiting it to netroots folk.

I'll admit that the scary black pastor has some political effect on swing voters.

I just don't think the same applies to the elderly reformed radical hippie. Especially since I'm willing to give the swing voters in Pennsylvania and Ohio the benefit of the doubt in being able to recognize that Obama was 8 years old when this guy was doing bad stuff (not to mention that Obama has hardly any connection to the guy).

It seems like the Hillary camp is really grasping at straws in trying to push this story, but I guess straws are all they have left anyway.

[crankychatter]

28. Nope... but I care about Mario Savio

hmmmm... oh, and Gypsy Boots, that Mr. Natural guy that used to appear on the Steve Allen, Tonight show? that guy?

whew, if Obama had connections to HIM... I'd be impressed.

get to work on that will ya?