Obama and Bill Ayers -- The Document Dump

Another chapter has been opened in the saga of Barack Obama and former Weather Underground member William Ayers.

How important a chapter isn't clear yet.

The University of Illinois at Chicago on Tuesday brought out the files of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a 1990s project to make Chicago's schools better. There's an on-line but cryptic 66-page listing of what's in the 132 boxes.

Obama was chair of CAC, as it was known. Ayers, now a nationally known expert on education and juvenile justice, was a co-founder of CAC and prominent participant in its activities.

The American Issues Project has a TV ad in swing states saying that Obama's ties to Ayers make him unfit to be president. Ayers has never apologized for his past as a militant and fugitive.

But the Obama-Ayers relationship has been hard to define. It's already known that they are neighbors in Hyde Park, and Obama made one of his early political appearances at a meeting in Ayers' home. Stanley Kurtz, writing on National Review Online, contends that the Annenberg Challenge connection is a critical link.

NPR's David Schaper's initial take on the contents of the boxes: "Nothing remarkable at all," but some detail about Obama's effort to mediate a compromise among three factions -- the business community, the mayor's office, and Ayers and others on the board.

UIC had resisted opening the files when Kurtz first sought access. It reversed itself last Friday, and its foot-dragging seemed to have more to do with Ayers' position as a tenured UIC professor than with Obama's current job of running for president.

Questions about Obama and Ayers came up during the Democratic primaries, but soon faded as a campaign issue.

-- Peter Overby

8:05 PM ET | 08-26-2008 | permalink

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