William Ayers On George Orwell and John McCain

So...the media waited until after the election to talk to Ayers about this?
I mean, maybe there was a good reason for it, but it seems like it would have been easy enough to go talk to Ayers and get his take on this, seeing as how he was a centerpiece of the McCain campaign.

Cliff, I believe I read that Ayers refused all interview requests.

And I should say that there may have been previous pieces on Ayers during the campaign that I had missed. My impression, though, is that no one went and talked to him.
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I'm reasonably certain I didn't see anything of the sort on Swampland.

Well then, my apologies.

Shouldn't that be "formerly" of the Weather Underground, not "formally"?

demwoman
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Nope, you know Scherer and the McCainiacs think Ayers is still using "Leader of the WeatherUnderground" as his formal title. Ill bet they think its at the top of his resume lol

That McCain/Palin used him in shameful attempt to "otherize" Obama does not de-doucheify Ayers for me one bit. He's so touched about his Alderman's concern over his safety from violent zealots ... like him.

Well, give Michael a chance, sgwhite - he did respond to Cliff, after all .

arghhhhhhhhhhh ye have proven me wrong

Completely OT but this is pretty odd.
http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2008/11/15/330-from-pickin-cotton-to-pickin-presidents/

Only one pirate person per thread is allowed. And now, undoubtedly, demwoman is feverishly concocting an Ayersian comment in pirate speeck.
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Arrrrrgggggghhhhhh, me mateys.

Whenever I hear of Ayers ("old washed up terrorist"), I remind myself that outside of external terrorists such as Al Quaeda the only domestic terrorists in the last 20 years have been RIGHT-WING TERRORISTS...McVeigh & Rudolf. I think we have much more to fear from the likes of them and all their "guns & religion" than we do from all the old, now-softie leftists.

More on topic. it is true that Ayers wasn't interested in interviews during the campaign. But that didn't remove responsibility from the media to be perfectly clear about the story. I know most said, at least once, that he is now a highly respected citizen and educator who palls around with anyone who works on education issues, including numerous Republicans. But they needed to say it every single time they reported on Palin's guilt by association smear. If the media thinks that reporting it once was enough then, to paraphrase, the media is an a$$.

MS, I thought your mentor did an excellent job interviewing Ayers. The NY Time misquote was the most interesting as well as his limited interaction with the Obamas.
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If Walter is your mentor, where or where did you go wrong? Just kidding. Appreciate the interaction with the commenters here.

codeguy1. You are correct, but IOKIYAR.

codeguy1,

That leaves out groups such as ELF which have committed several terrorist acts over the last decade. ELF and its cronies have so far avoided killing people, but it's just a matter of time really.
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So yeah, the majority of domestic terrorism acts over the last few decades have been by ideologically right leaning groups, but there are still leftist gun/bomb toting nuts out there. Although to be honest, once you get to the fringes that are lunatic enough to use violence, they all start sounding alike.

How about Bill Ayers socking it to the Mainstream Media. Ouch thats gotta hurt Scherer lol
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Which seemed more unlikely a few decades ago: that you would be the most famous graduate of 1960s radicalism in America or that you would appear on "Good Morning America" along with a segment about a pregnant man?
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I really wanted a segment about the two-headed monkey to follow.
That's exactly how I think of most of the mainstream media. It's amazing when you think about that this broad and amazingly diverse and committed and passionate antiwar movement of 40 years ago gets reduced in the narrative put up by the Republican campaign to a single organization which was tiny and on the margins [the Weather Underground] and a single individual who was co-founder of that and a single sentence that individual said. The parallel to that is that the powerful black freedom movement gets reduced to a single preacher in a single church and a single phrase.

Totally OT, but - here's a YouTube Obama impression of Obamba practicing in a mirror. This guy like totally needs a job on SNL:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0D1w2mjqzk
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Oh, and it's snowing here in WV.

wvng
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That was HILARIOUS! SNL should definitely hire that guy

I recommend that everyone read this interview all the way to the end. Having worked with Bill's brother, John, on some education projects, I have to tell you that both Bill and John are committed to making the world a better place for children who have too few opportunities to succeed.

I think the most insightful part of the post is this sentence:

I also felt from the beginning that this is a cartoon character that's been cast up on the screen and I didn't feel personally implicated in that character.

People think in symbols and all the attempts to paint Ayers as satanic or for that matter to paint Obama as a false messiah, tap areas of thought that bypass rationality.

That of course helps to explain Howie Kurtz's discomfort. Imagining Obama to be the Great Hope taps into the same subconscious processes that the Replicans were trying to exploit during the campaign, but the fact that Obama succeeded and the attempts to demonize him failed, suggests that all the traditional storytellers have lost control of the process.

No wonder they're frightened.

I think that in addition, there is very relevant historical issues relating to the Black Panthers here, as well.
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Most do not realize that during the Civil Rights activism in the late '50s through the '60s, the Black community came up with a number of responses to the activities of the KKK and other anti-Black operatives and orgainazations (some official). One of these was the Black Panthers, who have been roundly reviled during the campaign.
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The Black Panthers, however, deserve a second look by the people of this country as they were probably the least violent of the activist groups at the time. In addition, they were widely respected as they had set up community services in many cities, with some of these "institutions" later being absorbed, passed on, or officialized.
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I remember when I was a Jr. High schoolkid, and we had many racist functions, such as "white nights" and other "activities". One day, I saw the Black Panthers patrolling the hallways with rifles strapped on their backs.
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This may seem to many of you as extremely provocative, maybe even terrorist in some way, but consider:
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These activites represented an existential threat to their kids, of whom I knew a few, and that the Second Amendment, in truth, applied to them as well. Looking back on it, they were making the statement that I think many others would make:
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I have a right to protect my children, and the laws of the land are not being applied equally, therefore I have the right to avail myself of my Second Amendment rights.
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To consider this in even greater depth, there is something to be said for bravery and principled behavior.

Speaking of Orwell, how about those Heritage-supplied talking points coming out of George Will's mouth? Didn't he know he had an actual economist sitting beside him?
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http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2008_11/015686.php
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http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2008/11/lessons-from-th.html