Ayers was too incompetent to be bin Laden. But he is an asshole (and was part of a group that had several members die while building a nail-studded bomb intended for a military dance, though his involvement with that particular plot has never been proven). We shouldn't lose sight of that in our (rightful) disgust with the dishonesty and scurrilousness of the Ayers attack.

And, as Olbermann amply proved (link to that You Tube please - is it up yet?) there's plenty of slime to go around if that's the game they want to play.

Hey Mick,

Dick Morris has a little bit of a point here.  Allow me to retort.

Ayers is a little more complex than the Kindergarten Teacher you portray him as.  He married a fellow rebel on the run and hid underground for 10 years.

Now it's mostly accurate that few people were killed by Weather Undeground, that may be just because they were busted up so quickly.  They went on the lamb after a Nail Bomb went off unexpectedly killing a few fellow travellers.  Nail Bombs aren't exactly noise makers.

In addition, Bill Ayers enjoys a privledged life in Chicago because of his fatehr's influence.  Similar to the Bin Ladens, the Ayers family has a few dollars and political contacts.  Would Mrs Ayers Dohrn be teaching at Northwestern if her Father-In-Law's name wasn't on the Building there?  I doubt it.

But if you really want to debate the Terrorist Label, why not do it the Ayers way.  His argument was that these bombings were political speech, not terrorism.  As he said, 'The reason we weren't terrorists is because we did not commit random acts of terror against people. Terrorism was what was being practiced in the countryside of Vietnam by the United States.'

So we have a rich spoiled brat and his obnoxious wfe who blew up government buildings and claim they are just regular folks protesting the war.  No regrets.

Imagine if someone were blowing up buildings today to protest the Iraq War.  Would that be ok?

If I were Obama or one of his supporters, I wouldn't talk to much about this association.  Use the Clinton Spin that this is old news.

What I wish would be talked more about is the weakness of the association, rather than the relative okayness of Ayers. The minute you try to downplay Ayers himself, the morons jump on their pogosticks of that Ayers quote where he wished he could have done [bombed/killed] more, or whatever, and it's just bam bam bam bam.

Like Sarah Palin talking about Ahmedinajad's description of Israel as a "stinking corpse" - she loves loves loves that quote. It's just "automatic win" for her - regardless of context. I hate her so.

Morris is a convicted sex addict who spends his time either at FOX or with hookers. He's a brilliant scumbag, a complete void as a human being, someone who rellishes the humiliation of others. This is a man we use as a moral compass? Murdoch really is a complete nihilist, I think it may be time to talk about Keating, Lindner, Iran-Contra, Boehner, Portman, Milken, and the other financial pirates who are still pillaging America. Time for Powell to step forward, step up, and tell us about what kind of temperament he looks for in a Commander-in-Chief.

And when are we going to get around to the Hensley's family's ties to organized crime? What are we afraid of, our car getting blown up? Welcome to Arizona politics, where the mob rules.

fougasseu, your assertion that AZ is run by the mob is crap (unless you want to falsely assert the Mormon church is the mob or that Italian governor, Napolitano, is linked to the mob). The Hensley ties are interesting history, but occurred before Cindy met John.  You can't link the two together, unless you want to get into Daley ties with Obama in Chicago.  And besides, are we going to blame people for what their father-in-laws did long before they ever met them?

The last few winters I've spotted Morris at the beach of the Colony Club in Delray, Florida with his wife where they're members. Each time I see him, he smiles and gives a little wave like I'm one of his adoring FoxNews groupies. I'm always tempted to tell him that I think he's full of s--t, but I restrain myself. When I read garbage like this, I wonder why.

As for "the other financial pirates who are still pillaging America," does that include George Soros?

Ross Douthat writes:

Obama’s obfuscation regarding Ayers is, in a sense, the homage that vice pays to virtue - a tacit acknowledgment of the fact that the political culture of Chicago, and especially of Hyde Park, is more accommodating than perhaps it should be to a morally dubious figure like Ayers, and that having accommodated himself to those accommodations Obama now recognizes the need to behave as if he didn’t.

There is no end to it — everyone gets the version of Obama that perfectly fits his own world view. It is not hypocrisy. It’s fraud. Whatever he told or shared with Ayers, Dohrn, Wright, or Pfleger counts for no more that what he told or shared with other now inconvenient groups and individuals. He’s sold the same piece of political real estate to multiple buyers for multiple, conflicting uses.

But one thing has been consistent. He has never, ever attacked political corruption, whether in Chicago or Washington.

www.commentarymagazine.com/.../35761

The Olbermann Special Comment:

www.youtube.com/watch

This segment is epic.

Morality lessons from DICK Morris are about as appropriate as sexual harassment/non discrimination classes from Bill O'Reilly (or for that matter, restroom etiquette from Larry Craig) or Ethics and the Family, or Ethics and Politics dissertations from John McCain  (remember him, the guy who got a marriage license for his affair with Cindy while still married to his first wife and father of his children--and the same guy of Keating Five acclaim, and the same guy who has several high paid Washington lobbyists running his campaign.  The Republican party is crawling with ethical scumbags who can't win on the issues or their ethics, so they spread fear and smear attacks far and wide.  Appalling cast of sorry characters on the right of the spectrum.

CRS,

Look, nobody (except maybe Ayers) is saying that what he did was OK.  Bombing buildings is not a valid form of protest; it's criminal destruction of property.  But the Bin Laden comparison is absurd.  The reason that few people were killed by the Weathermen is that they weren't trying to kill people.  There is a huge moral difference between bombing unoccupied buildings and bombing occupied ones.  Again, neither is OK and Ayers should have spent more time in jail than he did, but Morris's comparison is ridiculous.

cal80: "And besides, are we going to blame people for what their father-in- laws (sic) did long before they ever met them?"

Nice try, you're pretty good at attacking with a question, using a distorted time-line...we'll make you an honorary Alaskan.

Cindy's father was actively engaged with Charles Keating, investing in his real estate ventures, traveling with him, and so on. McCain slowed the government's intervention into the S&L looting, so that Keating, Milken, Boesky (all went to jail) could continue their theft for two years.

Here's an article from 1989, written by a Phoenix journalist, published in Phoenix. McCain had a variety of  mentors throughout his career; in Arizona, one of them was his father-in-law.

www.phoenixnewtimes.com/.../1

"And besides, are we going to blame people for what their father-in-laws did long before they ever met them?"

Well, yes, actually, why not?  Republicans would do this in a heartbeat; so would Hillary.  Or do you believe in unilateral disarmament for Obama, and just Obama, just because?  

Cal, yet another speaking point attack.  You disappoint.

Unless of course POWPOW both denounces and rejects Daddy Hensley and offers to give away the tainted loot to Kenyan charities.  

AlanSP,

I tend to agree that Dick Morris has no soul.  But he's generally correct in most of his statements on Fox.  He predicted Hillary's rise and showed her moves leading up to the 2008 Campaign.  About the only thing he missed was the rise of the Obama star.

My point in supporting his assertion that Ayer's = Bin Laden is based upon my readings of the facts.  

You can look at Bin Laden's terrorist attacks, and really he is not attacking America as much as he is trying to save Saudi Arabia.  Bin Laden has attacked foreigners and soldiers in trying to overthrow a corrupt Suadi Monarchy.  9/11 was the exception where he attacked civilians outside the middle east.

But I think the larger point is the support Bill Ayers and his wife recieve in the social circles of Chicago, based upon family money & connections.  Anyone else convicted of the crimes of Ayer and Dorhn would be in prison or walking the streets.  These are celebrated leaders in the Chicago Liberal commuinity.

I'll take this in a slightly different direction here.  I have listened to a few of Obama's earlier speeches from the Primaries.  Obama has been channeling a lot of 1960's themes, and in particular some of Bob Dylan's.  About how America needs to change, and have more importance on values and morals.  Obama understand the term Weathermen and protest songs.

But criticizing America while trying to change it is very difficult.  That's why the Right tries to paint him as unpatriotic or disloyal.  Ayers symbolizes the difficulties of trying to criticize and change Amerrica while remaining loyal and supportive.  

I think Obama can expand on this theme and people would understand.  However, it is very risky and the convential politician will bury the issue as old news.

The correct analogy is to an abortion clinic bomber who doesn't want the night watchman to get killed but doesn't care if it happens and cracks jokes about it to this day.  I doubt Michael Crowley or many others would care whether such a creature now worked as an "education reformer" but apparently for Crowley that counts for something with Ayers.  

If Ayers is like bin Laden, why didn't Bush invade Canada to capture him?

CRS9 writes:  

"I tend to agree that Dick Morris has no soul.  But he's generally correct in most of his statements on Fox.  He predicted Hillary's rise and showed her moves leading up to the 2008 Campaign.  About the only thing he missed was the rise of the Obama star."

Which is to say that in terms of the Democratic Primary, he missed everything.

This is also a man who also predicted that Hillary supporters would flock to the McCain/Palin ticket in droves.  Morris proclaimed Palin to be the next "great communicator" in American politics.   According to Morris, Governor Palin, who has yet to hold a press conference, is a masteful communicator and political superstar on the level of Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan.  

Why anyone listens to Dick Morris anymore is a mystery (I'll admit he was sometimes entertaining when Hillary was still in the race).

But when is the last time Dick Morris was right about anything?

While we're at it, may I suggest that this equivalence between Wright and the pastor who laid hands on Sarah Palin being peddled by Olbermann, whatever it's merit, is a loser politically?

The truth (uncomfortable for some) is that there are LOTS of such pastors, in just about every neighborhood in America, and most Americans are not bothered by them, certainly not to anything like the degree they are bothered by Jeremiah Wright.  I have encountered over the years plenty of people who thought (in the 80s) the Dungeons and Dragons was a satanic cult, or (more recently) that Harry Potter books are demonic.  Such people (many of the African American) are, in fact, mainstream.  If one thinks that the video of Palin's laying on of hands is somehow offensive, well, most Americans will not, or will view it as mildly eccentric.  People like Olbermann (and the authors of the blog) should drop it.  They are doing Obama no favors.

timteeter, I'm not going to say the gambit is a winner, but I think you've missed the point.

This guy is anything but "mainstream". A witch-hunt by any other name, is still a witch-hunt. Creationism in science class, by any other name, is Creationism in science class. Banning treasured pieces of American literature, science fiction/fantasy novels, and role-playing games is certainly familiar to, and tolerated by, Americans in general; but not widely followed by any stretch.

The part you appear to have missed is that Olbermann is trying to force people to actually recognize the hypocracy in defending Sarah's pastor while demonizing Wright; in many respects they are simply mirror opposites. There really is no defense against Sarah's pastor that does not hold to Wright: I mean, hunting a witch who uses black magic to cause a crime spree vs. AIDS is a government conspiracy? Really? And if we aren't impugning Sarah for her pastor's penchant for crime fighting witch hunt's, how are we impugning Obama for Wright's conspiracy theories?