OK, Bill Ayers, so what?

Bill Ayers was one of the founders of the radical Weather Underground Organization that claimed responsibility for about 12 bombing in the early 70's.  The terrorist group was socialist/communist in nature.  There were deaths associated  with the denotation of these bombs.  Two deaths were Ayers's girl friend and another 'Weatherman'.  They died while trying to build a bomb that blew up in their faces.  Ayers eventually turned himself in.  He was never convicted of any crime.  The prosecution screwed it up.  He admitted that he set the bombs.  He has said that he didn't regret setting the bombs and that he still feels that he didn't do enough.

Bill Ayers is now a professor of Education at the University of Illinois, an author of 15 books, and an advocate for educational reform.

The problem here is that Obama knows Bill Ayers.  The acquaintance of the two is currently being touted by the McCain campaign as evidence that Barack Obama, at best, shows bad judgment in his choice of acquaintances and at worst,  he sympathizes with terrorists and is not the type of American the rest of us are (Sarah Palin yesterday).   Barack for his party has attempted to minimize the acquaintance by stating that Bill Ayers was "a guy who lives in my neighborhood" and "somebody who worked on education that I know."   Republicans are currently claiming that Ayers was (is) Obama's mentor, that Obama consorted with Ayers.

These words are carefully chosen to establish and maximize guilt.  

Here are some facts:

Obama was eight years old when Ayers set the bombs.

Obama met him for the first time 26 years later at a luncheon meeting about school reform.

Obama became chairman of a board that oversaw the distribution of educational funds coming from the Anneberg school initiatives.  Bill Ayers happened to be on that board.   

Obama was a guest in Ayers home.  The occasion was a fund-raiser for Barack Obama for his first run to the Illinois Senate in 2001.  The retiring senator whom Obama was to replace introduced Obama to donors.    Ayers contributed $200 to the Obama campaign.  Similar coffee table fund-raisers were held in the neighborhood.  

Obama later also served on the board of the Woods Fund, a Chicago charity for two years only. Bills Ayers was on that board as well and continues to serve on it to this day. 

The notion of Obama being 'mentored' by Ayers is a right wing distortion of the acquaintance these two men share.  The use by Bill Krystal FOX News contributor of the word 'consort' is an semantical effort to smear.  

Since 2002, there is little evidence of their relationship.  No board members on either board the two men worked on together will back up the idea that they were close, that there was a relationship of the magnitude that right wingers would like to have us believe.  They did work on projects together.  

A quote from Bradford Berenson who worked on the Harvard Law Review with Obama and served as associated White House counsel for President Bush:  "I saw no evidence of a radical streak, either overt or covert, when we were together at Harvard Law School."  And "{Obama was} a pragmatic liberal whose moderation frustrated others at the law review whose views were much further to the left."  

Judge for yourselves.  Do some research if you want.  But I believe that this is a ploy by a desperate campaign and uncontrolled bloggers trying to make a mountain out of a molehill. 

There just isn't enough there to warrant the charges.  Anyone who serves on boards, and I have served on a bunch, you can't avoid working with people that are very different from you.   And many of them were on the board when you were elected to it.  And yet, you have to work with them on committees.