Guilt by Radical Association

In the new movie "An American Carol" there's a scene shot in front of a mythical "Che Guevara Hospital", intending to spoof the Michael Moore propaganda health care trip to Cuba. It's kinda funny in the context of the film but does it actually hit a bit too close to home for some on the left, especially in regards to Obama?

Up to now the mainstream media has largely depended on Obama's own fight the smears website to debunk the charges of radical associations, which stands in sharp contrast to their investigative blitzkrieg towards newcomer Sarah Palin.

Before proceeding it's fair to note that Obama has been in the public eye for 2 years and Palin 2 months, and he's been asked a lot more questions and been through several debates. The point is, they're taking his word for everything. Sean Hannity may be a right wing tool but he's dead on accurate when he says 2008 was the year journalism died.

All of this is about to change, or be rearranged. The WaPo just printed an article Friday about team Maverick's newest strategy, which is to hit Obama with his radical associations. The column mentions William Ayers, but spells his name "Ayres", not including it as a hyperlink as with most other names on the page. Rather fitting, eh?

Speaking of Hannity, he'll be doing a show on the associations this weekend. He'll probably feature the various Che Guevara posters spotted on the walls of several Obama supporters during TV interviews without mainstream follow-up investigative reports, perhaps comparing them to hypothetical discoveries of Eric Rudolph, David Duke or Jerry Falwell posters on the walls of Palin supporters (which would have relegated her to a footnote of history by now). All of this will force a response.

Meanwhile, a former Democratic official in Pennsylvania has had a pending lawsuit over Obama's birth certificate for months to almost no fanfare. Actually, players on both sides have written the guy off as either a nutbar or disgruntled Hillary hack, but now the DNC is trying to legally quash the suit. That's only fit to print at World Net Daily for some reason. Can anyone define the real Truth Squad?

As to Ayers, Just One Minute has been channeling another Democrat, Chicago web reporter Steve Diamond, in trying to expose Obama's association with the socialist and former terrorist. After a year of pretending Ayers doesn't exist the Gray Lady finally sent reporter Scott Shane out on the case. The result is, as Maguire describes it, an apologia:

Mr. Hayden, 68, said he has known Mr. Ayers for 45 years and was on the other side of the split in the radical antiwar movement that led Mr. Ayers and others to form the Weathermen. But Mr. Hayden said he saw attempts to link Mr. Obama with bombings and radicalism as “typical campaign shenanigans.”

Once again they've misplaced the outrage--nobody is attempting to link Obama with actual bombings--they are linking him to a person who did the bombings and remains unrepentant. Is that too nuanced for Shane?

In other words, if Obama has no problem working on education projects with a psuedo-Marxist unrepentant domestic terrorist who only avoided jail time through a technicality associated with domestic eavesdropping by the FBI and a politically well-connected father, what are his real feelings towards A'jad and Chavez? It's clear he wasn't interested in removing Saddam and later wanted to throw up a white flag on our mission in Iraq despite the potential for devastating after-effects. And it's clear he's been down with allowing himself to be used in PR photo-ops with various dictators, ala Dennis Kucinich and Nancy Pelosi with Bashar Assad.

Shane mentions that Ayers received a doctorate from Columbia University in 1987 without mentioning the Obama campaign's refusal to release Obama's Columbia transcripts or whether they knew each other when. One of the favorite euphemisms of the Obama campaign of late has been the folks on Main Street, yet those folks must provide copies of their college transcripts when applying for federal jobs to stand any chance of success. Apparently that doesn't apply to the presidency.

One final note. It's ironic that a reporter like Shane, who has been on the leading edge of plumbing the deep depths of a domestic terrorist attack using anthrax, sees absolutely no hidden smoking guns when it comes to an actual domestic terrorist and his association with a possible president.

MORE 10/04/08

Talk about apologists:

While it is known that Obama and Ayers live in the same Chicago neighborhood, served on a charity board together and had a fleeting political connection, it's a stretch of any reading of the public record to say the pair ever palled around. And it's simply wrong to suggest that they were associated while Ayers was committing terrorist acts.

Again, nobody is insinuating Obama was chummy with Ayers during his Weatherman days, and it's in the public record that Obama deplores the actions of the former domestic terrorist. Problem is, the former domestic terrorist does not.

This screed was disguised as a news story from the AP. Jaw-dropping, but typical of what McCain/Palin will face by going down this road--mainstream media reporters acting as fight the smears teammembers. It's another desperation play by the fighter jockey, who is clearly trying to make an end-run around the media and go right to the people like Reagan did. Tuesday's debate might be very entertaining.