Umm, I live in Chicago and Dohrn now runs the Northwestern Law School's Children's Rights Clinic and Ayers is active in a number of social causes and charities. They live near Obama and that's how he met them as their State Senator. Obama was on a charity board that Ayers was also on.
Tons of people in Chicago now associate with Ayers and Dohrn because they are now mainstream progressives in Illinois, after having a very stupid past. Sorry, but this story is really lame.
Sorry, but Ayers and Dohrn are unrepentant domestic terrorists. Period. They led The Weather Underground and declared war against the US government and bombed several targets, including the Pentagon.
Even worse - for mainstream America - they've never repudiated the underground or its tactics.
Everyone wants to say that since they are now "respectable" all this is a storm in a teacup. Hey, Jane Fonda was married Ted Turner, she made millions launching the exercise video craze, she even became a born again Christian and the right wing still drolls at her name.
So, should he get in front of this? He has often talked about not wanting to re-fight the fights of the '60s - maybe he could get in front of this and offer a reconciliatory speech about the Vietnam era?
I'm not sure just waiting for it to explode on YouTube or whereever as then it will just seem to a lot of people like CYA time.
This is so bizarre and dumb. What is there to talk about? Obama once met the dude when he was running for State Senate (it's doubtful that Obama even knew who the Weather Underground were given his age) and then he served on a charity with him. What more is there to say? Hillary Clinton worked on some controversial stuff as an attorney, but no one is really thinking that matters now.
Stop sounding like Sean Hannity, this story has been out there for a while and nobody in the media cares about it. Give me a break.
Mainstream progressives here in IL weren't saying they regretted not planting MORE BOMBS in interviews in the NYT on 9-11-01. Maybe you consider them mainstream progressives in IL but many of us in Illinois DO NOT.
