AP FactCheck: Obama's Connections to Ayers Tenuous
William Ayers probably never got this much attention even when he was a member of the radical Weather Underground.
Ayers is, of course, today's 24x7 instant media story because of his 'relationship' with Sen. Barack Obama. Based on the exchange about Ayers during Wednesday night's debate in Philadelphia, you might have thought that Obama and Ayers were plotting the overthrow of the U.S. government together 40 years ago - even if Obama was only eight at the time.
But an Associated Press fact check shows that the connections between Obama and Ayers are a bit more tenuous -- if there is a connection at all.
So here are the facts:
Ayers was a member of the group when a bomb it was making in a Manhattan townhouse exploded and killed three people. He fled, spend years as a fugitive, met and fell in love with fellow group member Bernadine Dohrn. In the mid-'70s, the federal charges against Ayers and Dohrn were dismissed because of government misconduct. But the two kept underground for three more years. They both surrendered to police in 1980 and were never prosecuted (a point not mentioned during last night's debate).
In 1982 Dohrn spent several months in jail for refusing to give police a sample of her writing while police were investigating a case where three Weathermen and members of the Black Liberation Army killed an armored car driver and two policemen during a botched robbery. Dohrn was not involved in the incident in any way, but refused to give the police the sample "on principle."
When Obama was organizing his first race for the state legislature [in 1995], the incumbent lawmaker he hoped to replace introduced him to her supporters and urged them to back Obama. One introductory event took place at the home of Ayers and Dohrn, according to published reports. Ayers contributed $200 to Obama's legislative campaign in 2001, but there is no other sign that he has actively aided Obama's political career.Ayers and Obama both served on the board of the Woods Fund, a Chicago-based charity that focuses on developing community groups to assist the poor. Local business executives ... and journalists .. are also members, as well as local academics.
Here's a good 2001 profile of Ayers by the Chicago Tribune.
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UPDATE: The Swamp reports that Mayor Richard Daley comes to Obama's defense.
The mayor released the following statement:
"There are a lot of reasons that Americans are angry about Washington politics. And one more example is the way Senator Obama's opponents are playing guilt-by-association, tarring him because he happens to know Bill Ayers.
"I also know Bill Ayers. He worked with me in shaping our now nationally-renowned school reform program. He is a nationally-recognized distinguished professor of education at the University of Illinois/Chicago and a valued member of the Chicago community.
"I don't condone what he did 40 years ago but I remember that period well. It was a difficult time, but those days are long over. I believe we have too many challenges in Chicago and our country to keep re-fighting 40 year old battles."
But the Clinton campaign won't give up. In conference calls today, Clinton spokesman said Ayers "political" relationship with Obama was more important than President Clinton's decision to pardon two of former Weather Underground members, Susan Rosenberg and Linda Evans on terrorist related weapons charges.
Communications director Howard Wolfson also said that "Bill Ayers is unrepentant of what he did???and that is a difference, of course, between Linda Evans and Susan Rosenberg." But when Evans was released after Bill Clinton pardoned her, she told the Austin American-Statesman, "I'm not repentant. That's for sure. I wouldn't go about it the same (violent) way." But "we still need solutions, and we still need justice just as badly as we ever did."
"Asked if Hillary Clinton had expressed any disagreement with her husband's actions in commuting the sentences of Rosenberg and Evans, Wolfson said only that he would ask the candidate."
8:09 PM ET | 04-17-2008 | permalink
