NR on Bill Ayer

Deroy Murdock wrote "Obama's Weathermen Pals Should Worry You," a piece saying Obama and his supporters are wrongfully trivializing his connections to Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn. The article chronicles Ayers' and Dohrn's past actions with the Weather Underground from the 60s through the 80s, and then it lists all the ways Obama knew and associated with Ayers.  

"No wonder Obama has been so evasive about his ties to Ayers and Dohrn. His relationship with these extreme leftists goes far beyond waving at some folks who live nearby. It defies belief that Obama never learned that they hated the USA and love TNT."

Some of the ways Obama and Ayers knew each other are:

-Obama chaired the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, which Ayers inaugurated and thus they worked together on.

-Ayers invited Chicago liberals to their house to meet Obama when he ran for IL State Senate in '95.

-Obama praised Ayers' book.

-They were co-panelists for a colloquium together.

And there were many more.

It was interesting to have all the ways they knew each other spelled out. But I am still not convinced that it is that big of a deal that Obama knows him. Ayers did these things long before Obama knew him, and I don't think it means that much that he has met with him before and worked with him on projects. I have worked with MANY people I am nothing like, and that does not mean that just because I have worked with them, I am now going to copy whatever they do. The same goes with Obama. Just because he worked with Ayers and Ayers liked him does not mean that Obama is now best buddies with a terrorist.