Bill Ayers, Barack Obama, and the Race Card

Here we go again...

It seems whenever Barack Obama or his allies detect a potential serious problem, they whip out the race card.

Analysis: Palin's words carry racial tinge

By claiming that Democrat Barack Obama is "palling around with terrorists" and doesn't see the U.S. like other Americans, vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin targeted key goals for a faltering campaign.

And though she may have scored a political hit each time, her attack was unsubstantiated and carried a racially tinged subtext that John McCain himself may come to regret.

...Her reference to Obama's relationship with William Ayers, a member of the Vietnam-era Weather Underground, was exaggerated at best if not outright false. No evidence shows they were "pals" or even close when they worked on community boards years ago and Ayers hosted a political event for Obama early in his career.

Obama, who was a child when the Weathermen were planting bombs, has denounced Ayers' radical views and actions.

This "analysis" by AP writer Douglass K. Daniel comes right off of Barack Obama's website. I think Daniel should be charged with plagiarism.

Talk about reciting the Obama party line!

The truth is, in February 2008, David Axelrod, Obama's chief strategist, told Ben Smith of Politico:

Bill Ayers lives in his (Obama's) neighborhood. Their kids attend the same school.

They're certainly friendly, they know each other, as anyone whose kids go to school together.

Axelrod was more than a little confused about the Ayers and Obama children attending school together.

UPDATE: There's been a bit of confusion about Axelrod's line on the kids, who -- as the Guardian's Daniel Nasaw noted -- aren't the same age. Obama's kids went go the the University of Chicago Lab Schools, where Ayers kids, who are much older, had gone. However, Bernardine Dohrn is still active at the school, and an Obama aide said that was the connection.

In any event, it was Axelrod who said that Obama is "friendly" with Ayers.

To this day, Ayers stands by his acts of terrorism against America. Nonetheless, Obama is/was friendly with him.

Why?

Ayers' acts were so extreme and his statements continue to be so radical that it's not enough for Obama to simply denounce him to ease my mind.

Obama wants to be president of the United States and he counts (or counted) this anti-American terrorist among the people with which he's friendly.

That's extremely troubling. It speaks to Obama's judgment and it's not good.

Equally disturbing, Obama is using all avenues possible, including the United States Department of Justice and Missouri Law Enforcement, to attempt to silence those daring to speak of his very real connection to Ayers.

William Ayers isn't some composite character pieced together for the purposes of scoring political points and sliming Obama.

He has a place in American history. Ayers co-founded the radical Leftist group the Weathermen, later called the Weather Underground Organization.

As far as Obama being a child when the Weathermen were planting bombs, that's totally irrelevant.

Obama, as a man, knows about Ayer's crimes. That's what matters, not that he was eight at the time Ayers was in a hot war with America.

Obama wasn't eight when on September 11, 2001, in a New York Times article, Ayers said, "I don’t regret setting bombs. I feel we didn't do enough."

To this day, Ayers stands by his acts of terrorism against America. Obama knows about Ayers' efforts to subvert the U.S. government, yet he worked with Ayers.

From the Wall Street Journal:

[D]ocuments in the [Chicago Annenberg Challenge] archives make clear that Mr. Ayers and Mr. Obama were partners in the CAC.

The CAC's basic functioning has long been known, because its annual reports, evaluations and some board minutes were public. But the Daley archive contains additional board minutes, the Collaborative minutes, and documentation on the groups that CAC funded and rejected. The Daley archives show that Mr. Obama and Mr. Ayers worked as a team to advance the CAC agenda.

And yet the AP claims there's no evidence.

As I said, Daniel's "analysis" was lifted off Obama's website, pure spin.

But it's the race card stuff that I find most telling that Team Obama is concerned about the Ayers connection.

...Palin's words avoid repulsing voters with overt racism. But is there another subtext for creating the false image of a black presidential nominee "palling around" with terrorists while assuring a predominantly white audience that he doesn't see their America?

In a post-Sept. 11 America, terrorists are envisioned as dark-skinned radical Muslims, not the homegrown anarchists of Ayers' day 40 years ago. With Obama a relative unknown when he began his campaign, the Internet hummed with false e-mails about ties to radical Islam of a foreign-born candidate.

Whether intended or not by the McCain campaign, portraying Obama as "not like us" is another potential appeal to racism. It suggests that the Hawaiian-born Christian is, at heart, un-American.

Most troubling, however, is how allowing racism to creep into the discussion serves McCain's purpose so well. As the fallout from Wright's sermons showed earlier this year, forcing Obama to abandon issues to talk about race leads to unresolved arguments about America's promise to treat all people equally.

John McCain occasionally looks back on decisions with regret. He has apologized for opposing a holiday to honor Martin Luther King Jr. He has apologized for refusing to call for the removal of a Confederate flag from South Carolina's Capitol.

When the 2008 campaign is over McCain might regret appeals such as Palin's perhaps more so if he wins.

What a load!

There is no subtext. Ayers is a terrorist and proud of it. Obama has a significant relationship with Ayers.

There's nothing racial there.

When Palin says that Obama is "not like us," she's not talking about skin color. She's talking about Obama working with one of the founders of the Weather Underground.

Obama's campaign and its Associated Press wing cannot rewrite history.

Playing the race card shows their worry. It's the surest sign that there's something there. It's a desperate attempt to shut people up.

Gwen Ifill did the same thing when she was caught submerged in the tank for Obama. She played the race card.

It's a method of deflection. It's particularly sleazy because it's an attempt to prevent the truth from being aired.

In Daniel's "analysis," he even suggests that McCain has a racist past, bringing up his apologies for his stance on the MLK holiday and the Confederate flag.

Playing the race card is a cheap way to attack the messenger.

Obama did it in the primaries, slamming Bill Clinton. He's done it as the Dems' nominee.

Sleazy, desperate, and unfortunately, effective to some degree.

I hope McCain and Palin stand their ground and don't back away from telling the truth.
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Note: Daniel steers clear of the racially tinged remarks of Obama's running mate, Joe Biden.

--"You don't know my state. My state was a slave state. My state is a border state. My state is the eighth largest black population in the country. My state is anything from a northeast liberal state."

--"You cannot go into a Dunkin Donuts or a 7-Eleven unless you have a slight Indian accent. I'm not joking."

--"I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that's a storybook, man."