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New TV Ad: Obama & Ayers

Written by Jack Burden on August 21st, 2008

The American Issues Project goes after Obama hard:

Posted in |

22 Comments so far ↓

  1. Aug
    21
    4:18
    PM
    ChemistryDave

    Beautiful.

  2. Aug
    21
    7:05
    PM
    PaleRider55

    The truth sucks, doesn’t it Barry?

  3. Aug
    21
    7:33
    PM
    Barbara

    yeah, but I really hate to see anything that distracts from the policy-related discourse, assuming there is any at this point.

  4. Aug
    21
    8:03
    PM
    Sam

    That is awesome. Anyone know where and when this is being aired?

  5. Aug
    21
    8:34
    PM
    Jack Burden

    On network TV in Michigan and Ohio, from what I understand.

  6. Aug
    21
    10:07
    PM
    YellowJacket

    Barbara, this is policy-related discourse…

  7. Aug
    21
    10:13
    PM
    Ryan

    Yellow Jacket, this is definitely policy related. It goes to the question of Obama’s judgement. Anyone who calls Weather Underground “mainstream” must be left of Marx.

  8. Aug
    21
    11:58
    PM
    DavidShiffman

    Again, let’s try to find the whole quote here. They had one word - mainstream- in quotes. If Obama had said something like “The Weather Underground is a mainstream group and everyone should join them”, that would have been the quote in the ad. It was not. What did he actually say?

  9. Aug
    22
    7:59
    AM
    Barbara

    No, judgment is not policy. It may be a factor in determining fitness to serve, but it’s certainly not policy.

  10. Aug
    22
    8:36
    AM
    Barbara

    David:

    I’m a librarian so your question got me curious to see what I could find. I found one of the quotes. I’m still looking for the second one.

    It appears that Obama was actually quoting the AP when he made that remark (presumingly hoping to appeal to authority on the matter):

    Obama quoting AP: “Ayers is now mainstream — an educator with distinguished professor status.”

  11. Aug
    22
    8:53
    AM
    Barbara

    Okay, he did in fact quote the AP as noted above, but this must be the quote referred to in the ad:

    “Ayers…became a respectable figure in mainstream liberal Chicago years ago.”

    –statement on Obama’s website cached 6/10/2008, since removed, quoting an outside author, Alex Cockburn of the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

  12. Aug
    22
    10:30
    AM
    DavidShiffman

    Ayers BECAME such a mainstream, respected figure, not HE WAS a mainstream figure at the time the weather underground killed police officers and bombed the capitol.

    And the “left wing board” that Obama and Ayers served on? The ad makes it seem like Obama joined Ayers in bombing buildings. However, the board is called the Woods Fund. Here’s a quote from their mission statement. “Woods Fund of Chicago is a grantmaking foundation whose goal is to increase opportunities for less advantaged people and communities in the metropolitan area, including the opportunity to shape decisions affecting them. The foundation works primarily as a funding partner with nonprofit organizations.” Wow, what monsters.

    Sam wrote last week that “The DNC will use every dirty trick in the book, but accuse us of it around every corner, to win this election.” I would say that this is the right wing smear machine using a pretty dirty trick.

    Ayers and Obama happened to both serve on the board of a charity organization. Obama said that Ayers IS NOW mainstream and BECAME a respectable figure- this is hardly the same thing as Obama endorsing domestic terrorism. I wonder why the ad doesn’t show the whole quote?

  13. Aug
    22
    10:33
    AM
    DavidShiffman

    And Barbara, the fact that you, a professional information-finder, had trouble finding the full quote is very telling. I don’t think that would be the case if Obama was constantly endorsing radical domestic terrorist groups.

  14. Aug
    22
    10:50
    AM
    DavidShiffman

    My take-away from this whole exchange is that Obama worked with a charity to help poor people afford homes… while John McCain can’t even keep track of how many homes he has. Who is the one that’s out of touch with mainstream America?

  15. Aug
    22
    11:06
    AM
    ChemistryDave

    Does a terrorist ever become respectable?

  16. Aug
    22
    11:22
    AM
    Sam

    The Democrats didn’t seem to be bothered by the 7 or 8 homes John Kerry had, yet they are making a big deal about McCain having several. It’s hypocritical.

    Furthermore, this idea that the average Joe Sixpack shouldn’t support McCain because he has several homes and hence can’t understand what the average American needs is just as ludicrous because it infers that there are Presidential candidates past and present who have never been overly wealthy. You don’t run for President being poor and middle class.

  17. Aug
    22
    11:59
    AM
    ChemistryDave

    Personally, I dont see this having any impact on the electorate. Do adults really get angry when others have more than they do? I dont think class warfare has worked in this country for a few decades.

  18. Aug
    22
    12:23
    PM
    DavidShiffman

    I don’t think the house think will have much of an impact either, it was meant as a snarky aside. I apologize that once again sarcasm doesn’t come across well in text-only communication.

  19. Aug
    22
    12:37
    PM
    YellowJacket

    What you fail to mention, David, is that whatever Obama wants to claim, Ayers has not become “respected” or anything else other than what he has been - an unrepentant terrorist who sought to kill people (and was successful) to achieve his own political ends.

    He hasn’t apologized. He has no remorse for his actions. At one point he said they [Weather Underground] “should have done more.”

    There is no way to excuse associating with such a cretin.

  20. Aug
    22
    3:27
    PM
    DavidShiffman

    I don’t dispute that Ayers was and is a crazy person.

    What I’m saying is that the ad makes it sound like Obama joined the weather underground and excused their actions, when instead Obama served with Ayers on the board of a charity. The ad makes it sound like Obama said that Ayers’ weather underground actions are mainstream and respected, when in reality he said that the man isn’t blowing up buildings these days, he’s being a college professor and serving on charity boards.

  21. Aug
    22
    3:45
    PM
    YellowJacket

    David, he got his political start at a fundraiser in Ayers’ home! This isn’t merely “oh he was on a giant board for some obscure group that happened to have Ayers on it.” This is much closer than you are claiming.

  22. Aug
    24
    11:14
    PM
    Barbara

    Hey, David,

    I’m totally with you here. Politics aside, I’m for intellectual honestly above all else. If I were McCain I’d be embarrassed to even have this put out there, effectively for my sake, though ostensibly independently.

    The quote wasn’t even from Obama. It was from some journalist somewhere, no citation offered in the ad. And I bet the writer’s none too pleased that it was parsed and used against Obama in a smear ad.

    Regardless of what you think of Obama or his relationship to Ayers, this ad is completely dishonest, even by political standards.

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