Barack Obama pals around with terrorists who hate America, meaning he must hate America, and if you vote for him, you hate America.

…so I’ve been told.

The John McCain campaign recently had their newly anointed moose poop slinger, Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska, take the gloves off and portray Obama as a terrorist sympathizer due to his relationship with former Weather Underground leader William Ayers (Figure 1):

“This is not a man who sees America as you see it and how I see America. We see America as the greatest force for good in this world….Our opponent though, is someone who sees America it seems as being so imperfect that he’s palling around with terrorists who would target their own country.”

It is my guess that Palin has been given this honor because she’s thus far failed at slinging policy, plans, or the names of newspapers or magazines she reads. I would also venture to guess that John McCain wants to raise questions in voters’ minds about Obama and his connections, seeing as though Obama is gaining significantly in the polls. Despite whatever motive may lie behind this, I’m not here to analyze that. I’m also not here to unleash attacks on Senator McCain or Governor Palin for any questionable associations they may have had. If that’s what you’re looking for, look here. I feel that every voter should educate themselves if they want the real story, so I’ll err on the side of caution, and do more than just take anyone at their word here. Are these political tactics, or is the golf buddy of a domestic terrorist running for President of the United States of America?

Bill Ayers, Anti-War Wolverine

William Ayers earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in American Studies from the University of Michigan in 1968. It was during his studies there, in 1965 that Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) President Paul Potter spoke during a Teach-In against the Vietnam War. Ayers later wrote in his memoir, Fugitive Days, about the experience:

“You could not be a moral person with the means to act, and stand still. [...] To stand still was to choose indifference. Indifference was the opposite of moral.”

Like many finding their place on the far left in the Sixties, Bill Ayers found himself not only in the middle of the movement against the Vietnam War, but in the Civil Rights Movement as well. In 1965, Ayers joined in picketing a pizzeria in Ann Arbor, Michigan that was refusing to serve African Americans. The fugitive pizza terrorist, the Domino’s “Noid,” was not yet created, so this does indeed check out as an act of denying service based on race and not one of pizza ruining antics for the sake of mischief. His first arrest came after participating at a sit-in at a local draft board.

Such events were not uncommon in the Sixties, as this was a much different time. Sure, we have an unpopular war, rock music, and marijuana in 2008. Also take the time, however, to consider that the draft was still active in the Sixties, the Civil Rights Movement was taking shape, and in 1968 well over 10,000 American troops were killed in Vietnam, compared to about 1,000 a year today in Iraq. In addition, Vietnam saw a high number of civilian casualties in the way of massacres and, by definition, acts of terrorism. One may understand then how Ayers, or anyone for that matter, might have found it necessary to stand up for their convictions. Though his intentions in retrospect were sound, it was in 1969 that the implementation of Bill Ayers’ ideals became radical, and not Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles radical, mind you.

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“You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows”

In 1969, Ayers and 11 others fragmented the SDS and formed the Weathermen, claiming themselves as the real leaders of the SDS, and rain for the weekend forecast. These individuals felt that peaceful approaches to protesting the war were not effective enough, and something more dramatic was required, like holding impromptu performances of Fiddler On the Roof in public places. Okay, well, not that kind of dramatic. The Weathermen felt dramatic, militant actions were necessary to interfere with the United States Military and intelligence agencies enough to make an impact in their opposition to the Vietnam War. Ayers participated in bombings of New York City Police Headquarters in 1970, the United States Capitol building in 1971, and The Pentagon in 1972. The bombing of the Pentagon resulted in the halting of aerial bombardments in Vietnam for several days. The bomb in the Capitol was placed in its barber shop, and the Pentagon’s bomb in a women’s bathroom. Nobody was killed in these blasts, though haircuts and tampon changes were put off for days. Despite this, the Weathermen had used such radical methods for promoting their political agenda and they were labeled domestic terrorists by the FBI. Ayers later said about the Pentagon bombing:

“Although the bomb that rocked the Pentagon was itsy-bitsy - weighing close to two pounds - it caused ‘tens of thousands of dollars’ of damage. The operation cost under $500, and no one was killed or even hurt.”

Either way, Ayers had participated in an attack on United States governmental buildings with the Weathermen and was indeed a domestic terrorist.

Is Barack Obama a Weatherman?

When Bill Ayers helped set the bomb at the Pentagon in 1972, Barack Obama was ten years old (Figure 2).

Granted, I was blowing shit up at 10 years old, but not to protest war, and my target was not government buildings. I just wanted to see what an M-80 would do to an anthill. So while Barack Obama was playing with Tonka Trucks, Bill Ayers and the Weather Underground were protesting the Vietnam War with a small bomb at the Pentagon. Taking the time line and Barack Obama’s choice of study in college into consideration, I think it’s fair to say that Obama was never directly involved with the Weathermen domestic terrorists, or any form of meteorology (Figure 3). So what exactly does “palling around with terrorists” mean then? Bill Ayers, after years spent as a fugitive, turned himself in to authorities in 1980. Federal charges against him, however, had been dropped in the late 1970s due to improper surveillance. After leaving the Weathermen underground, he spent much of the eighties furthering his education, culminating in an Ed.D from Teachers College, Columbia University in Curriculum and Instruction in 1987.

Still No Pallin’, Palin…

William Ayers met Barack Obama at a luncheon for school reform in Chicago in 1995. Both had led charges for education reform and assisting the impoverished in the Chicago area. Later that year, Ayers hosted a coffee sitdown for Obama’s first run at the Illinois Senate. Ayers and Obama also served together on a board for the Woods Fund of Chicago, an anti-poverty group through 2002. The board met four times a year. Donuts were served. William Ayers and Barack Obama also met on the board of the Annenberg Challenge Project:

“The Annenberg Foundation gave the project a $50 million grant to match local private funds to improve schools, and Ayers fought to bring the grant to Chicago, according to participants and project records.”

In 2001, Bill Ayers contributed $200 to Obama’s re-election fund for the Illinois State Senate. One could read more into this, but I could also go and get blitzed on coke, kill some hookers, and donate $200 to a candidate myself. That doesn’t mean that the aforementioned candidate does coke and doesn’t love hookers, now does it? William Ayers and Obama also live in the same Hyde Park neighborhood. There is a distinct possibility that both of them cheer for the Chicago White Sox. Lastly, anagrams of “William Ayers” and “Barack Obama” translate to “a slimy wailer” and “aback a Rambo” respectively.

The Verdict

Bill Ayers’ participation in domestic terrorist acts with the Weather Underground is deplorable. What would also be deplorable would be to link Obama to these acts in the interest of character assassination. After researching the subject like Sean Hannity tells us “great Americans” to, I can honestly say that Barack Obama is not “palling around with terrorists,” and the associations between Ayers and Obama are innocent.

A direct link from Obama to the Weathermen attacks of the 1970s is, as Obama spokesman Bill Burton put it, “ridiculous” given that Obama was eight years old when those attacks began. In his memoir Fugitive Days, published in 2001, Ayers said the following:

“I don’t regret setting bombs. I feel we didn’t do enough.”

Figure 3 - "Thursday, the midwest will experience a front of smears as the latest campaign from Arizona heats the nation."

Ayers later maintained (even in his own blog) that the two statements were not meant to insist that he had wished they set more bombs, but rather that he did not feel that they had done enough as they did not stop the war. When asked in 2004 about his feelings about what he and the Weathermen had done, Ayers said this:

“I’ve thought about this a lot. Being almost 60, it’s impossible to not have lots and lots of regrets about lots and lots of things, but the question of did we do something that was horrendous, awful?… I don’t think so. I think what we did was to respond to a situation that was unconscionable.

“Two thousand people a day were being murdered in Vietnam in a terrorist war, an official terrorist war… This was what was going on in our names. So we tried to resist it, tried to fight it. Built a huge mass movement, built a huge organization, and still the war went on and escalated. And every day we didn’t stop the war, two thousand people would be killed. I don’t think what we did was extreme…. We didn’t cross lines that were completely unacceptable. I don’t think so. We destroyed property in a fairly restrained level, given what we were up against.”

This is where the analysis of William Ayers comes full circle. In an interview ironically published on September 11, 2001 in The New York Times–you betcha, you read it right–Ayers gave a personal interpretation of terrorism:

“Mr. Ayers pointed to Bob Kerrey, former Democratic Senator from Nebraska, who has admitted leading a raid in 1969 in which Vietnamese women and children were killed. ‘He committed an act of terrorism,’ Mr. Ayers said. ‘I didn’t kill innocent people.’“

The modern definition of terrorism in a post 9/11 world is one that is not defined simply as the use of violence to intimidate, especially for political purposes, as it was when William Ayers was labeled as a perpetrator of such a crime. The modern definition of terrorism has been shaped by intent and action of those involved in 9/11 and similar crimes. A terrorist act is a horrific crime against humanity, at the expense of innocents, to disrupt their very way of life. In a 2001 letter to the editor of the Chicago Tribune, Ayers stated:

“Today we are witnessing crimes against humanity on our own shores on an unthinkable scale, and I fear that we may soon see more innocent people in other parts of the world dying in response.”

By the modern definition of terrorism, William Ayers was fighting terrorism, not participating in it. His methods for carrying out his ideals are not condoned, but his intent is understood. That intent, the desire to help others, is expressed in his previously mentioned blog post, where Ayers also addresses the matter of those asking for an apology for his actions:

“…the apology is never enough—to be effective it must be enacted every day, its sincerity proved by ongoing symbolic purges, no one of which is ever adequate.”

After 1980, Ayers had abandoned his radical, militant methods for invoking change and adopted a more diplomatic approach. He finished his education, became an community activist for education and poverty in Chicago, and became a distinguished professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. It was during this time when William Ayers knew Barack Obama. Ayers was most certainly trying to leave behind a past of misguided methods for doing what he thought was right. Regardless, these men crossed paths on their individual pursuits of peaceful change.

As I’ve said before, “if a voter wishes to educate them self, they must do their own, unbiased research”. I would agree with the classification of the acts of William Ayers and the Weather Underground as “domestic terrorism”, but to associate these acts with the concept of terrorism today or Barack Obama is, in my opinion, a political tactic designed to distract and inflict fear. The reprehensible acts of the Weathermen bear no association to Barack Obama in my mind and to make the assertion that his previously described relationship with William Ayers is “palling around with terrorists” is absurd.

Not only is this assertion absurd, but it is irresponsible and dangerous. Recently at Palin and McCain rallies, certain audience members have been overheard shouting “terrorist” and “kill him!” in reference to Senator Barack Obama. Senator McCain, Governor Palin, and those in the right wing media like Sean Hannity (Figure 4) need to understand that some people are listening to them. Their words are putting someone who could be our president on January 20, 2009 at serious risk, and that is not putting “Country First”.

In closing, I have one question for John McCain and Sarah Palin. With that out of the way, could you please go back to telling me how you were going to fix the economy?

UPDATE: Much needed rain over the next few days for much of the nation, with most of it clearing out just in time for the weekend. Highs anywhere from 45 to 100 degrees, depending on where you live.

UPDATE (10/9/2008 1:42 PM): CNN released a “Fact Check” on October 5, 2008 on this issue, backing up my conclusions.