“Bill Ayers lives in his neighborhood. Their kids attend the same school,” he said. “They’re certainly friendly, they know each other, as anyone whose kids go to school together.” He called Ayers current defense of his 1960s bombings “objectionable, and I think Barack would also say that was objectionable. I don’t think he’s ever had an in-depth discussion [with Ayers] about them.” And he cast the whole subject in the context of Obama’s broader message. “We can relitiigate again and again these 40-year-old battles,” he said. “He thinks what was done then was wrong and outrageous, and he believes that you can’t defend the indefensible – but he’s looking forward, he’s not looking back.”
April 16, 2008: When asked at Democratic primary debate hosted by ABC about Ayers, Obama downplayed the relationship, calling him a “guy who lives in my neighborhood.”
STEPHANOPOULOS: A gentleman named William Ayers, he was part of the Weather Underground in the 1970s. They bombed the Pentagon, the Capitol and other buildings. He’s never apologized for that. And in fact, on 9/11 he was quoted in The New York Times saying, “I don’t regret setting bombs; I feel we didn’t do enough.” An early organizing meeting for your state senate campaign was held at his house, and your campaign has said you are friendly. Can you explain that relationship for the voters, and explain to Democrats why it won’t be a problem? SEN. OBAMA: George, but this is an example of what I’m talking about. This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood, who’s a professor of English in Chicago, who I know and who I have not received some official endorsement from. He’s not somebody who I exchange ideas from on a regular basis. And the notion that somehow as a consequence of me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago when I was 8 years old, somehow reflects on me and my values, doesn’t make much sense, George.
He then made an inartful comparison of his disagreements with Ayers’ beliefs and violent acts to his disagreements with conservative Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.)
The fact is, is that I’m also friendly with Tom Coburn, one of the most conservative Republicans in the United States Senate, who during his campaign once said that it might be appropriate to apply the death penalty to those who carried out abortions. Do I need to apologize for Mr. Coburn’s statements? Because I certainly don’t agree with those either. So this kind of game, in which anybody who I know, regardless of how flimsy the relationship is, is somehow — somehow their ideas could be attributed to me — I think the American people are smarter than that. They’re not going to suggest somehow that that is reflective of my views, because it obviously isn’t.
He later called Coburn to discuss that comparison, which he claimed some were misconstruing. Coburn didn’t comment on it at the time, but later referenced being “thrown under the bus” during a May interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News. When Clinton pushed him on the subject during the debate, he brought Bill into the picture:
SENATOR OBAMA: I’m going to have to respond to this just really quickly, but by Senator Clinton’s own vetting standards, I don’t think she would make it, since President Clinton pardoned or commuted the sentences of two members of the Weather Underground, which I think is a slightly more significant act than me –than me serving on a board with somebody for actions that he did 40 years ago.
Asked by host George Stephanopoulos whether he has any doubt that Obama shares his sense of patriotism, McCain brought the subject up. “I’m sure he’s very patriotic. But his relationship with Mr. Ayers is open to question,” McCain said. “He became friends with him and spent time with him while the guy was unrepentant over his activities as a member of a terrorist organization, the Weathermen,” McCain said. “Does he condemn them? Would he condemn someone who says they’re unrepentant and wished that they had bombed more?”
Obama campaign spokesperson Bill Burton called it “smear politics:”
“Unable to sell his out-of-touch ideas on the economy and Iraq, John McCain has stooped to the same smear politics and low road that he denounced in 2000,” Burton said. “The American people can’t afford a third term of President Bush’s failed policies and divisive tactics.”
Later that week, in a Newsweek article, the Obama campaign vowed not to be “Swiftboated” by allusions to such associations, and repeated that Obama disdained Ayers’ acts:
“Obama is aware of the acts Ayers committed when he was 8 years old and has called them ‘detestable’,” says spokesman Ben LaBolt, adding that Obama occasionally bumps into Ayers in his neighborhood “but has not seen him for months.” At a recent dinner party, according to one guest who asked not to be identified discussing a private gathering, Ayers “ridiculed” the notion that Obama shared his left-wing views: “He thought the idea that there was a political connection between them was absurd.”
April 30, 2008: John M. Murtagh first enters the debate. The son of a judge the Weather Underground tried to kill in 1970 was concerned about Obama’s “startling lack of judgment in his choice of mentors, associates, and friends.” Murtagh would later show up as a McCain surrogate speaking about the frightening experience of his family and casting doubt on Obama’s judgment. May 5, 2008: Reports begin to surface of a photo showing Bill Ayers defiling an American flag. Taken in 2001, the photo appeared in Chicago Magazine along with the Ayers quote, “guilty as sin, free as a bird. It’s a great country.” In 2001, Obama and Ayers were serving together on the Woods Fund board and Ayers contributed $200 to Obama’s state senate campaign. May 18,. 2008: In response to an attack on lobbyists affiliated with the McCain campaign, Tucker Bounds says campaign looks “forward to the debate about Senator Obama’s associations and what they say about his judgment and readiness to be commander in chief,” raising the Ayers association. June 15, 2008: RNC Chairman Mike Duncan says on C-SPAN that “associations are fair game,” citing Ayers and Rezko, but says he won’t be talking about Wright. July 29, 2008: The McCain campaign launches a faux Barack Obama Facebook page, both as a Facebook application, and at BarackBook.com. It lists Bill Ayers as one of Barack’s “Friends,” along with Tony Rezko, Rashid Khalidi, and others. August 18, 2008: Stanley Kurtz goes after the documents of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, the school reform organization Obama headed for Ayers, but is rebuffed briefly by the Richard J. Daley Library at the University of Chicago. August 21, 2008: The newly launched conservative 501 (c) 4, the American Issues Project, releases an ad attacking Obama for his ties to Ayers, and asking, “do you know enough to elect Barack Obama?”
“The fact that John McCain dispatched his paid consultant to launch this despicable ad from a so-called ‘independent’ committee shows how desperate he is to change the subject from his shocking disconnect with the economic struggles of the American people,” said Vietor. “He knows that Barack Obama has denounced the detestable crimes that Bill Ayers committed forty years ago.”
August 25, 2008: The Obama campaign releases a response ad to the AIP’s Ayers ad, which runs in Ohio. It employs the same defense as the Vietor statement:
“The fact that Barack Obama chose to launch his political career at the home of an unrepentant terrorist raises more questions about his judgment than any ad ever could. And the fact that he’s launching his own convention by defending his long association with a man who says he didn’t bomb enough U.S. targets tells us more about Barack Obama than any of tonight’s speeches will.”
SEN. OBAMA: Here’s the bottom line. This guy did something despicable 40 years ago…I haven’t seen the guy in a year and a half…Here’s a guy who does something despicable when I’m 8-years old…All right. I come to Chicago, he’s working with Mayor Richard Daley, not known to be a radical. So he and I know each other as a consequence of work he’s doing on education. That is not an endorsement of his views. That’s not me –…
O’Reilly mentions that the two supported a youth crime bill together in the Illinois Senate:
OBAMA: That’s pretty flimsy. Here’s the point, right. This guy is not part of my campaign. He’s not some adviser of mine. He is somebody who worked on education issues in Chicago that I know. The problem that your viewers, your guys, your folks, the folks you champion, the problem you’re going through, the problems they’re going through with trying to pay their bills, trying to keep their job, trying to move up in this world, their problem isn’t Bill Ayers. It was Bill Ayers 40 years ago when he was blowing stuff up.
“Recently there has been a lot of interest in what I read lately. Well I was reading today a copy of the New York Times, and I was really interested to read in there about Barack Obama’s friends from Chicago. Turns out one of his earliest supporters is a man who according to the New York Times, was a domestic terrorist and part of the group, part of the group that quote launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and the US Capitol…No, this is not a man who sees America as you and I see America. We see America, as a force for good in this world.(applause) We see an America of exceptional-ism -Yes USA! USA! -our opponent is someone who sees America as imperfect enough to pal around with terrorists who target their own country.”
The Obama campaign responds once again with the three-pronged deflection of denouncing Ayers’ acts, denying a close connection, and calling it a distraction:
Governor Palin’s comments, while offensive, are not surprising, given the McCain campaign’s statement this morning that they would be launching Swift boat-like attacks in hopes of deflecting attention from the nation’s economic ills. In fact, the very newspaper story Governor Palin cited in hurling her shameless attack made clear that Senator Obama is not close to Bill Ayers, much less “pals,” and that he has strongly condemned the despicable acts Ayers committed 40 years ago, when Obama was eight. What’s clear is that John McCain and Sarah Palin would rather spend their time tearing down Barack Obama than laying out a plan to build up our economy.
“Turns out, one of his earliest supporters is a man named Bill Ayers. And according to The New York Times, he was a domestic terrorist and part of a group that, quote, ‘launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol,'” She said. “Wow. And there’s even more to the story. Barack Obama said Ayers was just someone in the neighborhood. But that’s less than truthful. His own top advisor said they were, quote, ‘certainly friendly.’ These are the same guys who think “patriotism” is paying higher taxes. (Remember what his running mate Joe Biden said!) This is not a man who sees America as you and I do – as the greatest force for good in the world. This is someone who sees America as “imperfect enough” to work with a former domestic terrorist who targeted his own country.
October 7, 2008: Neither McCain nor moderator nor townhall participants raise the specter of Ayers in the most boring debate in modern history. October 9, 2008: The McCain campaign releases a 1:40-long ad questions Obama’s ties to Bill Ayers, offering a primer on the violence of the radical and his wife, saying “this is about Barack Obama’s judgment and character.”
