Comments on: William Ayers On George Orwell and John McCain

By: dummidumbwit

dummidumbwit — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 19:19:55 +0000

http://dummidumbwit.wordpress.com/2008/11/18/oh-my-god-blagojevich-was-on-msnbc/

Illinois has heroes and.....

By: kathy

kathy — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 12:16:21 +0000

Michael - thanks for posting the interview.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 23:03:19 +0000

Once more with feeling.

http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_archive?month=10&year=2008&base_name=sarah_palin_bill_ayers_terrori

By: Aaron

Aaron — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 23:00:59 +0000

Don't forget about these terrorists, too.

By: constantweader

constantweader — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:36:33 +0000

Several interesting things came out of Shapiro's interview. (1) Obama had numerous contacts with Ayers but (2) had no reason to know of Ayers' nefarious past. The Obamas WERE "palling around with (one-time) terrorists, because Ayers' wife was a more famous terrorist than he, & she was friendly with the Obamas, too.

(4) Ayers IS unrepentant. After decades, he still can't face the fact that petty acts of violence are not good ways to oppose a colossal act of violence. He seems like a naive, preening, self-righteous jerk, which in no way casts aspersions on Barack Obama. I'm sure the Obamas know hundreds of jerks, just as most of us know way too many.

John McCain should read Shapiro's interview (also featured on http://www.realitychex.com ) and he would find out every little thing he kept insisting he needed to know. It's all one big so-what?

In fact, McCain himself had many interactions with a variety of terrorists, both domestic & foreign, & HIS interactions were not nearly so innocent as the Obamas' chance meetings with the Ayers.

By: acidj

acidj — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:19:56 +0000

53_3

re: Black Panthers. I figured that was what Palin & Giuliani were conjuring when they dissed Obama as a community organizer.
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Also, considering what happened to Fred Hampton, lining Obama up with him seemed like some kind of threat. Just one of many ways in which the Republican campaign shocked & nauseated me.

By: jayackroyd

jayackroyd — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 20:33:03 +0000

One of the benefits of reading Nixonland is being reminded that there were pitched battles going on all around the country in 1968. And that the better armed forces were the government's. They used those arms, and many people were killed. Many more than the dirty hippies killed.
.
And also that the narrative that survived is inaccurate. The narrative of Kent State in my head before I read the book was 18 year olds putting flowers in gun barrels being shot down. I didn't know about the buildings that were burned down that week, nor the attacks of the firefighters who tried to put it out.

By: codeguy1

codeguy1 — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 20:10:29 +0000

SDFHP & WVNG, ah...you're right about ELF, I forgot about them. And I'm glad it's "ok", WVNG, as I am a "right of center" kinda codeguy. But extremists of all stripes scare the hell outta me. Is it ok to be an "extreme moderate" and use violence against extremists? hmmm...only if it is the "system" itself that reponds so to extremism, I guess, otherwise it's as much all a form of vigilantism, left, right, or middle. I guess I'm always worried about 1933 happening: democratically voting in a fascist...or a communist for that matter. So...support your local and not-so-local democracy!

By: toddandincharge

toddandincharge — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 19:03:22 +0000

Michael, thanks for posting this. I have to say Professor Ayers comes across as very intelligent, insightful, and learned, whether he has fully come to grips with the regrettable choice he made back in the 60s or not.

`
I'm actually quite interested in his memoirs.

By: Paul Dirks

Paul Dirks — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 18:40:14 +0000

But it pays to remember that the self-styled maverick was never very comfortable as the standard bearer of a party that he had opposed so many times on so many issues. And the party long felt the same way.

And so once again, we see the staying power of a good story even if it has no bearing whatsoever on reality. If McCain were a quarter as principled as you insist on pretending, then he would have run an honest campaign. From the moment he repudiated the DREAM act(10/25/2007) , McCain embraced hatred and fear as the driving force upon which he would build his campaign.

Obama, for his part has a strong interest in toning down the polarization that McCain encouraged and McCain's concession speech was certainly a demonstration both that he could be gracious if he chose and that his supoorters could not.

Certainly the meeting is a good thing, but the effort to rehabilitate McCain has a lot more to accomplish than merely earning Jay Carney's forgiveness.