Monday, April 21, 2008

You Are Known By The Company You Keep

Finally, John McCain has stated the obvious. When questioned on "This Week" Sunday morning, George Stephanopoulos asked whether or not "Obama shares his sense of patriotism", according to Politico.com. McCain answered, "I'm sure he's very patriotic. But his relationship with Mr. Ayers is open to question." Thank you for some common sense injected into this dialogue, Senator McCain.

William Ayers is a former member of the Weather Underground, a terrorist group from the days of my youth. I clearly remember the stories of this group's destruction to buildings such as the Pentagon and courthouses, all in the name of 'protest'. They were terrorists. They killed innocent people in their self-indulgent violent acts. They were an example of the worst of the baby boomers. There was nothing noble or just in the violence.

Ayers' wife is also a former member of the Weather Underground. Her name is Bernadine Dohrn. As recently as in 2001, Ayers has lamented that the group didn't do more bombing. He makes no apologies for his activities.

Ayers has a friend in Barack Obama. He is a neighbor in Chicago. He serves on the same boards as Obama, such as the Woods Group. He held a fundraiser in his home for Obama in 1995 when he ran for State Senate.

"He became friends with him and spent time with him while the guy was unrepentant over his activities as a member of a terrorist organization, the Weatherman", McCain said. "Does he condemn them? Would he condemn someone who says they're unrepentant and wished that they had bombed more?"

Obama tried to brush aside any questions on this relationship during the last televised debate with Senator Clinton. "This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood, who's a professor of English in Chicago who I know and who I have not received some official endorsement from. He's not somebody who I exchange ideas from on a regular basis. And the notion that somehow as a consequence of me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8 years old, somehow reflects on me and my values doesn't make much sense."

Then, Obama went on to make a comparison with Senator Tom Coburn, a conservative Republican senator from Oklahoma and an Ob-Gyn who still practices. "The fact is, is that I'm also friendly with Tom Coburn, one of the most conservative Republicans in the United States Senate, who during his campaign once said that it might be appropriate to apply the death penalty to those who carried out abortions. Do I need to apologize for Mr. Coburn's statements? Because I certainly don't agree with those either."

Well, Senator Obama, Senator Coburn never advocated bombing abortionists' houses or clinics.

"To compare him with Dr. Coburn, who spends so much of his life bringing babies into this world, that in my view is really - borders on outrageous," McCain said.

Where was Obama's righteous indignation when Republicans running for President have spoken at Bob Jones University, for example, and are promptly criticized as mean, racist homophobes for simply delivering a speech? Not that they were members of the Bob Jones church family as Obama has with Rev. Wright's for 20 years.

This is still a center-right country. It is not just troubling that Obama arrogantly dismisses his connection - it's that he doesn't understand the concern in the first place by regular American voters. He is in his latte-fueled arrogant mode of 'how dare you question me'? Comparing Sen. Coburn with William Ayers was completely off base. That Obama doesn't see the difference is breathtaking.

First it was Tony Rezko, then Rev. Wright, now William Ayers. All of these relationships are deserving of scrutiny. To think otherwise is ridiculous.

As Michael Barone stated, in U.S. News and World Report, "Obama's choices to associate with Wright and Ayers tend to undercut his appealing message -- very appealing after 15 years of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush -- that we must strive to overcome the racial and cultural and ideological divisions which have dominated our politics. They are something that voters are entitled to weigh as they make their decisions."

William Ayers would still be in jail today if it were not for the technicality in the justice system concerning gathering evidence against him. Obama's full scrutiny of his association with Tony Rezko hasn't begun. Rezko is just now on trial and already Obama's name has come up in court.

Obama did not fare well in the last debate. He acted truly surprised that any of his relationships were questioned. His inexperience was showing. To think he can just brush the questions aside by saying he was a child as the violence was happening, or that he wasn't in church that day, or that he didn't realize his chief fundraiser who helped him purchase his new McMansion in Hyde Park was a crook will only last so long before the voters begin to see the pattern.

16 comments:

Right Truth said...

I've always believed that you are known by the company you keep. My parents taught that to me, I taught my daughter that same truth. Apparently a lot of the Democrat voters don't think that's true. They say, "OH that was in the past..." But honestly, it is still Obama's habit to be unashamedly connected to undesirable people.


Debbie Hamilton
Right Truth

Nikki said...

Great post...I am so glad to have you on my reading schedule...Obama actually thinks we want to hear him discuss the issues for the 500th time. we know where he stands. what he meant to say was that he wished he could give one of his hypnotizing speeches and get back to the rock star routine and talk rhetorically aboout change and hope. Great blog! :)N

Ottavio (Otto) Marasco said...

Obama is going to have to do better than that; disassociation without condemnation will not convince me and that comparison with Tom Coburn was certainly unreasonable if not, as you wrote, "outrageous". Obama remains connected to some questionable characters...

Paul is a Hermit said...

Barrack, it's the, "appearance of impropriety," remember that one? No? Ask some of your fellow liberals. You should resign your Senate seat.

Oh, wait, you're a liberal Democrat. Do as you say, not as you do. I forgot.

GrEaT sAtAn'S gIrLfRiEnD said...

Yes! Yes! Yes! Affiliation matters.

Guilt by affiliation matters too.

Karen - you got it going on grrrl!

The WordSmith from Nantucket said...

A certain book comes to mind by the title of your post. I took a criminology course, and the book we were reading had the author making the case that career criminals didn't "fall in with a bad crowd", accidentally. Making him seem like a victim. No, that career criminal chose to associate himself with that crowd, because he found their lifestyle appealing. They resonated with him.

Similarly...

Anonymous said...

This is a topic of debate that will be of great interest to me in the General Election, for a very simple reason: if these candidates are to be judged by the company they "keep" - even if that keeping of company is so peripheal and tenuous as to be ridiculous - the Republican side of the ticket will need to tread with extreme caution, I do believe. There are bites in the ass plenty to go 'round if this is the meat and merit of presidential selection.

Take Rezko, for example. He's an equal party destroyer. I wonder which members of our current federal government were in attendance at his megamillion dollar fundraiser for Bush in 2003? Should they all resign their current positions, too? Or are those associations somehow too petty to be brought into the conversation?

Me said...

The one comment I have over and over and over again is....


"... but the majority of the voting American people do not educate themselves on the true nature of the candidate and don't know these things about them!"

I am indeed, fearful of BO getting elected because so many are saying "We need a change!" and THAT IS THEIR ONLY REASON FOR VOTING FOR HIM! They know little and won't read or listen... put up their hands and close their eyes and then vote.

Makes me nervous.

Anonymous said...

Again we are seeing the right wing guilt by association because they have no other thing to go by. Mr. McCain is notorious for his associates if you want to compare notes...his hateful "ministers" like Hagee and his wonderful friend Keating and all the lobbyists who are his main men. This is a sorry attempt and dishonest...it displays only weakness of the right.

Anonymous said...

Here is Mr. Senator McCains sorry attempt which you are trying to mimic: Today on ABC's This Week, John McCain attempted to go on the offensive about Barack Obama's tenuous connection to Weatherman Bill Ayers because that was what all the cool kids were attempting to do. McCain said that those loose connections were indicative of Obama's overall attitude and he thought it was wrong for Obama to not condemn Ayers' actions of four decades ago.

The only problem for McCain is that a). Obama, did, in fact, condemn those actions, and b). McCain is chummy with bigoted scumdumpster extraordinaire John Hagee. How did McCain manage to navigate his way through this seemingly dense thicket of contradiction and hypocrisy? Not very well, if you must know! Not very well at all.

STEPHANOPOULOS: A lot of Senator Obama's allies and others say that you should condemn the comments of Reverend John Hagee, an evangelical pastor...

MCCAIN: Oh, I do. And I did. I said, any comments that he made about the Catholic church I strongly condemn, of course.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Yet you solicited and accepted his endorsement?

MCCAIN: Yes, indeed. I did. And I condemned the comments that he made concerning the Catholic church.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But you're going to hold onto his endorsement? Your own campaign acknowledged that you should have done a better job of vetting Pastor Hagee.

MCCAIN: Oh, sure.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So was it a mistake to solicit and accept his endorsement?

MCCAIN: Oh, probably, sure. But I admire and respect Dr. Hagee's leadership of the -- of his church. I admire and appreciate his advocacy for the state of Israel, the independence of the state of Israel. I condemn remarks that are made that has anything to do which is condemning of the Catholic church, but -- so...

(CROSSTALK)

STEPHANOPOULOS: ... no longer want his endorsement?

MCCAIN: I'm glad to have his endorsement. I condemn remarks
that are, in any way, viewed as anti-anything. But thanks for asking.

elmers brother said...

karen fyi this is the same troll that was at Z's...followed it over from her sitemeter

Karen Townsend said...

Thanks, Elbro!

Anonymous said...

Yes, McCain has an endless array of unsavory characters...But, oh, that was in the present...it sems to be his habit to be unashamedly connected to undesirable people:
David D. Kirkpatrick and Jim Rutenberg, of The New York Times, write... "When Mr. Diamond wanted to buy land at the base, Fort Ord, Mr. McCain assigned an aide who set up a meeting at the Pentagon and later stepped in again to help speed up the sale, according to people involved and a deposition Mr. Diamond gave for a related lawsuit. When he appealed to a nearby city for the right to develop other property at the former base, Mr. Diamond submitted Mr. McCain's endorsement as 'a close personal friend.'"

Anonymous said...

What is a troll? Is that someone who has a different viewpoint than most people on a site. You seem to be afraind of different viewpoints and of having your own challenged.

Incognito said...

absolutely... ! that's a truism... working on a post about that as well.
dems are so desperate because of their lack of choice they are willing to look beyond those things.

Rick Frea said...

I think because of this information coming out of the bag, Obama's stock is plummeting. One would have to wonder if Super Tuesday was held next week, if Obama would do as well.