Saturday, September 20, 2008
Coaching from the bleachers: Go after Ayers instead of Wright
The McCain campaign is reportedly about to bring up Barack Obama's connections with Jeremiah Wright. For my money, Obama's relationship with Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn is more troubling, and a more legitimate basis for attacking Obama. The background of this couple and their politics were well-known in Chicago. That background either disqualified them as friends and associates, or it did not. In Barack Obama's case, it did not. Not surprisingly, the campaign has been going to great lengths to stifle public discussion of that very question. The McCain campaign should not let them, and it start by licensing this video and turning it into an ad.
16 Comments:
By 
Who Struck John, at
Sat Sep 20, 06:08:00 PM:
It's a matter of timing. This is a knock-down, drag-out election; there's something to be said for leaving the best haymaker for last.
By 
, at
Sat Sep 20, 06:15:00 PM:
OODA Loop in action
McCain launched 5 ads, each on a different subject last week.
Now he says he will attack Obama's relationship with Rev. Wright.
How does Obama respond?
Ayers and Raines (Fannie Mae CEO) are stored in the wings for use by McCain.
"If your opponent is quick to anger, seek to annoy him."
By Escort81, at
Sat Sep 20, 06:19:00 PM:
Interesting idea.
From an advertising standpoint, the Wright video loop is much better known and already part of the fabric of the 2008 election cycle. In a way, it's an old "brand," and the good reverend has been dwelling under the bus for some time now. McCain may not be helped by running that, although a 527 may well do that anyway.
Obama said in his O'Reilly interview that Mayor Daley introduced Ayers to Obama through some sort of education related organization, and Obama figured if Daley (no friend to domestic terrorists) was cool with Ayers, then maybe the guy wasn't so toxic. That's worth fact checking, but it strikes me as a bit lame anyway, even if true.
Can you imagine if it came out that Palin dated Timothy McVeigh 25years ago while she was in college (and not with Todd)? Associations with left-wing terorists get more of a pass, because of the perception that what they were fighting for was right, even if their tactics were wrong, but the "right-wing terrorists" are wrong on both counts. Obviously, anyone in a democracy using violence against fellow citizens for political ends has more than just a little attitude problem.
By , at
Sat Sep 20, 06:46:00 PM:
He served on a board with Ayers, along with 7 other business people for three years in early 2000. Ayers contributed $200 to Obama's 2001 senate campaign. That hardly constitutes a "friendship," and it hardly makes Obama a bomb throwing communist (particularly since they met 30 years after Ayers' bomb throwing days). If you label him as a comrade in arms you'd have to do the same with all the students who attend Professor Ayers' classes at the University of Chicago, the other 7 directors who sat on the board, and Mayor Daly who asked Obama to serve on the board with Ayers.
It fails the pinocchio test. Besides, Hillary already went down this path, and we know how well that worked out.
Escort is right. Stick with Wright. After the financial meltdown, and McCain's recent performance, it's the best chance you've got to scare some more voters to his side.
By Dawnfire82, at
Sat Sep 20, 07:15:00 PM:
"That hardly constitutes a "friendship,"
Mayor Daley on Obama's relationships with Ayers: "They're friends. So what? People do make mistakes in the past."
From the horse's mouth, man... and their association was for much longer than you just mentioned. He was introduced to the 'Hyde Park' community jointly by Dohrn and Ayers in 1995.
Mistakes... I like that choice of words. Mistakes like posing for a magazine dancing on the American flag? With a quote above it that says, "Guilty as hell, free as a bird?" Those mistakes? I wonder.
http://www.christopherestep.com/content/binary/WindowsLiveWriter/WhereareVetsforObamaWhenYouNeedEm_7F1A/ayers_on_flag_annotated_3.jpg
'I helped murder people and got away with it, and here's how sorry I am! *stomp stomp stomp*'
Show that picture on national television and see how many stomachs churn.
"it hardly makes Obama a bomb throwing communist "
Straw man. No one I've ever spoken to thinks that's true. But one of Obama's big talking points is his 'superior judgment.' Who needs experience if you have good judgment?
The idea of Obama hanging out with criminals like Ayers and Dohrn, not to mention Wright, sort of sinks that ship.
And Dohrn, who isn't mentioned much, is worth bonus points! In reference to the Manson Family's murder of Sharon Tate, "Dig it! First they killed those pigs, then they ate dinner in the same room with them. They even shoved a fork into the victim's stomach! Wild!"
But in 2008 (surprise) Ayers says, 'oh she wasn't serious. She was being *ironic.*'
Too bad in 2001 David Horowitz, a former radical turned conservative, wrote in reference to the same speech: "In 1980, I taped interviews with thirty members of the Weather Underground who were present at the Flint War Council, including most of its leadership. Not one of them thought Dohrn was anything but deadly serious."
If the McCain campaign can figure out how to cram this into concise and effective ads, they should do so. I would probably advise the viral approach, however.
By , at
Sat Sep 20, 08:37:00 PM:
It's absurd. Next stop G. Gordon Liddy.
An eye for an eye, here, will end up making the whole world cynical.
It seems like intelligent people, involved in their communities with various other people without scrubbing their bona fides, would actually understand the true nature of the relationship of Obama with Ayers. And use better judgment in casting stones.
(You, TH, have already expressed your thoughts on how this could be true of Obama's interactions with Rev. Wright.)
What, now we want candidates who sit home navel gazing lest they should be sullied by their casual contacts with others? Not so much.
By , at
Sat Sep 20, 09:22:00 PM:
I wish people would stop slandering the University of Chicago by implying that it would permit Bill Ayers to teach there. He teaches at the University of Illinois at Chicago - the satellite campus of the University of Illinois. Not exactly in the same league as the University of Chicago.
By buck smith, at
Sat Sep 20, 09:24:00 PM:
That video on ayers and dohrn is pulled from youtube. Anyone know why?
By Miss Ladybug, at
Sat Sep 20, 09:29:00 PM:
Try it again, Buck. I've got it playing right now. I embedded it on my blog, so I wanted to make sure it was still working...
By clint, at
Sat Sep 20, 10:22:00 PM:
Re: OODA, etc.
Remember the announcement of Sarah Palin? Remember how there was not a single leak?
Remember the "leak" that McCain was putting out a big ad buy the night of Obama's speech at the Convention?
If the McCain camp has "leaked" that they're going to put out a Wright ad... my guess is that it's either to pull the media or Obama off balance for what he's *actually* going to do, or perhaps it's just to see if he can get them talking about the issue first.
For that matter, if you look at the actual quotations from Mark Salter... it's possible he was referring to the two ads about the Fannie/Fredie CEOs...
By TigerHawk, at
Sat Sep 20, 10:29:00 PM:
Clint, good point.
F&M, I admit that I am less troubled by the association with Jeremiah Wright than I am with Ayers and Dohrn, but to each his own. As I wrote in the earlier post to which you are referring, I think there are a lot of reasons to go to a church. I have never agreed with the politics of the preacher in my church, so I am not sure that even longstanding association with Wright's church says so much about Barack Obama other than that he was a black politician on the South Side of Chicago. But the Ayers and Dohrn thing is a bit different. That implies a casual willingness to associate with, accept, and legitimize unrepentant radicals who did a lot of damage in their day. They would not have hung with him and he would not have associated with them if they did not tolerate each other politically. The fact that Obama was willing to work with Ayers and Dohrn (and vice versa) strongly suggests that his political and cultural values are at least compatible with theirs, no matter how much you dress it up with rhetorical moderation. That is troubling to me to a far greater degree than the Rev. Wright business.
By Miss Ladybug, at
Sat Sep 20, 10:51:00 PM:
TH~
WRT you comment about longstanding church attendance. Many people just show up every week, sit in the pew for the service, then leave, never speaking to their preacher, except for maybe a passing greeting after the service. Obama, on the other hand, calls Wright his spiritual mentor, and they had a relationship beyond just that of a casual churchgoer. So, that has to be taken into account when judging Obama's association with Wright...
By , at
Sun Sep 21, 01:06:00 AM:
In the words of Michael Kinsley (in Time 5/29/08):
"If Obama's relationship with Ayers, however tangential, exposes Obama as a radical himself, or at least as a man with terrible judgment, he shares that radicalism or terrible judgment with a comically respectable list of Chicagoans and others--including Republicans and conservatives--who have embraced Ayers and Dohrn as good company, good citizens, even experts on children's issues."
Again, I'm not sure how we get from all being active in community activities Chicago (i.e., moving in the same circles) to "hanging" with each other, no matter how much we want to dress it up with rhetorical chumminess.
By davod, at
Sun Sep 21, 07:30:00 AM:
I agree with TH. Start with Ayers then finish with Wright later in the campaign.
Ayers is not just an unreformed terrorist. He plays a role in molding the people who educate our children.
Ayers uses his role to spread his marxist message, some of which is included in the blog entry at McClatchy Watch
"Let those of us who are gathered here today read this poem as “The Teacher’s Obligation.” We, too, must move in and out of windows, we, too, must build a project of radical imagination and fundamental change. Venezuela is poised to offer the world a new model ofeducation– a humanizing and revolutionary model whose twin missions are enlightenment and liberation. This World Education Forum provides us a unique opportunity to develop and share the lessons and challenges of this profound educational project that is the Bolivarian Revolution."
Commenting on the US.
"Empire resurrected, and unapologetic, war without end. An undefined enemy that is supposed to be a rallying point for a new kind of energized jingoistic patriotism. Unprecedent and unapologetic military expansion. White supremcy changing its form, but essentially in tact. Attacks on women and girls --violent attacks. Growing surveillance in every sphere of our lives. On and on and on. The taregting of gay and lesbian people as a kind of a scapegoating gesture, to keep our minds off of what is really happening."
More on the US government:
"Terrorism—according to both official U.S. policy and the U.N.—is the use or threat of random violence to intimidate, frighten, or coerce a population toward some political end. This means, of course, that terrorism is not the exclusive province of a cult, a religious sect, or a group of fanatics. It can be any of these, but it can also be—and often is—executed by governments and states. A bombing in a café in Israel is terrorism, and an Israeli assault on a neighborhood in Gaza is terrorism; the September 11 attacks were acts of terrorism, and the U.S. bombings in Viet Nam for a decade were acts of terrorism. Terrorism is never justifiable, even in a just cause—the Union fight in the 1860’s was just, for example, but Shernan’s [sic] March to the Sea was indefensible terror. I’ve never advocated terrorism, never participated in it, never defended it. The U.S. government, by contrast, does it routinely and defends the use of it in its own cause consistently."
Note the last paragraph " I’ve never advocated terrorism, never participated in it, never defended it."
The Weather Underground must not have been terorists.
By Miss Ladybug, at
Sun Sep 21, 11:49:00 AM:
On reason I decided to go back to school and earn my teaching degree was that I refuse to abandon that field of battle to the left. I may be one teacher in one classroom (once I get that first teaching job), but I plan to do my part. I think more on the Right are needed. In my classes - full of non-tradional students (it was a M.Ed. program) had plenty of people who openly espoused leftist ideas. There were those of us who didn't agree, and would say so, but I think that had more to do with the fact that we weren't students in college the first time straight out of high school...
By , at
Sun Sep 21, 07:11:00 PM:
Agree on the indicator of Obama's judgment rather than politics, however he and Ayers must be at least sympatico, especially considering that Ayers and Dohrn held a fundraiser in their house for Obama in 1995.
Ayers is about revolution through education: the gradualist approach that has been commented on a couple times today on TH's blog. You want to know how Ayers thinks, look no further than his own site at billayers.org. Particularly a lovely speech to Venezuelan educators in 2006. He loves him some Chavez big time, that's for sure.
