Obama's Connections

Although it has been news for months on end, the NYT has decided to look into the relationship between Obama and former Weather Underground member Bill Ayers, but it concludes they weren't all that close.

After all, the NYT is going to do its damnedest to make sure Obama gets elected, either by hook or by crook.

In the stark presentation of a 30-second ad or TV soundbite, Mr. Obama’s connections with a man who once bombed buildings and who is unapologetic about it may seem puzzling. But in Chicago, Mr. Ayers has been largely rehabilitated.

Federal riot and bombing conspiracy charges against him were dropped in 1974 because of illegal wiretaps and other prosecutorial misconduct, and he was welcomed back after years in hiding by his large and prominent family. His father, Thomas G. Ayers, had served as C.E.O of Commonwealth Edison, the local power company.

Since earning a doctorate in education at Columbia in 1987, Mr. Ayers has been a professor of education at the University of Illinois, author or editor of 15 books, and advocate of school reform.

“He’s done a lot of good in this city and nationally,” Mayor Richard M. Daley said in an interview this week, explaining that he has long consulted Mr. Ayers on school issues. Mr. Daley, whose father was Chicago mayor during the street violence accompanying the 1968 Democratic Convention and the so-called Days of Rage the following year, said he saw the bombings of that time in the context of a polarized and turbulent era.

“This is 2008,” Mr. Daley said. “People make mistakes. You judge a person by his whole life.”

The trouble is Ayers isn't a bit sorry for what he did. That doesn't mean Obama subscribes to Ayers' beliefs or is soft on terrorism.

I'd be far more worried about Obama's Chicago School connections.