Commentary: Barack Obama And Bill Ayers “Palling Around?” Give Us A Break McCain / Palin! Your “Wooden Arrows” Not Accurate!

It is simply amazing the lengths folks will go to cover their own behinds! I truly have not seen this much fumbling and blustering since the 2000-2001 season of the Detroit Lions. Okay. The 1997-2007 seasons. The Detroit Lions have McCain and Palin beat, but you get the idea.

With the bottom of the economy seriously disintegrating rapidly, the ‘not so dynamic duo’ of Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin are scrambling to keep afloat in a race that has Sen. Barack Obama in a national lead. In order to deflect the glaring attention placed upon the Republican Party regarding the hard to swallow $700…no, $850B “rescue bailout” to the crooks and swindlers on Wall Street, McCain insiders openly admit that the smut and lies portion of the campaign has begun. As Gov. Palin said Monday, the “heels are on and the gloves are off!” The “fear and smear campaign” is what McCain insiders are quoted telling the “Washington Post.” Should we all be frightened?

Gov. Sarah Palin told a rally of supporters that Obama “began his politcal career in the living room of a known domestic terrorist.” She also said that Obama is “palling around with a domestic terrorist.” This ‘terrorist’ is Bill Ayers, former radical and member of the 1960′s anti-war group, “Weather Underground.” This radical leftist organization was against the Vietnam War and subscribed to whatever means possible to make that stand known. The Weather Underground are responsible for the bombing of the New York City Police Headquarters(1970), the U.S Capital Bldg.(1971) and the Pentagon(1972).

Ayers, now a respectable university professor, wrote about his association with the Weather Underground in a memoir, “Fugitive Days,” in September 2001. The New York Times article that Gov. Palin has been waving around like a flag, erroneously stated that Ayers felt “no regret setting bombs” and that he “feels we didn’t do enough.” Ayers then wrote a scathing response to the article in which he accused the writer of the New York Times article of “deliberate distortion.” The actual context was that Ayers felt that his efforts to stop the U.S in  Vietnam were not enough.

Flash forward to Chicago 1995. The Chicago Annenberg Project was awarded a grant for $49.2M. The Project need someone dedicated and trustworthy to oversee the distribution of these funds. Barack Obama was selected for this post. Bill Ayers was on the board of this group. As a community organizer for anti-poverty in Chicago, Obama sat on this charity board alongside Ayers. In all, both attended twelve board meetings. Neither one has claimed a friendship.

So, is it accurate to state that Obama was “palling around with a known terrorist?” No. Why? It doesn’t make sense. I once served on a board that organized middle school parents to participate in Saturday academic activities. One of my fellow board members was an exotic dancer. A stripper. Does my association with this person while carrying out board business mean that I am a “stripper?” Because I showed up for the parent meetings on Saturday, like the stripper and everybody else, does this make me a “stripper” too? Or a believer in the stripper philosophy of ‘get money?’

How about this: one year, my neighborhood got together and held a block party. Everyone in the neighborhood came out. Senior citizens, children, the neighborhood drunk, the easy girl, married couples and the round the way drug dealer. Does the fact that we all ate and laughed and had a good time mean that we approve of the girl who is an easy lay, that we support our friendly neighborhood drunk in his endeavors, and that we are in love with the dopeman?

Hardly. This block gathering happened once a year and the purpose of it was to unite the neighborhood and make it a better place. But have Gov. Palin tell it, we “were palling around,” instead of working for the greater good of the neighborhood. If the McCain campaign could describe that day, they would probably say that all of us were partying and getting drunk and high with the crack dealer “in his living room.” This would include the senior citizens that attended, too!

It is just too ridiculous and way too pathetic to watch the McCain / Palin campaign scramble to get votes. McCain once said that he would run a clean, moral campaign. I guess he added the fine print to that quote that flashed quickly before we could read it with a microscope. I hate to only think what the McCain /Palin ‘not so dynamic duo’ come out with next.