Chicago Mayor Richard Daley - 'I Know Ayers, too'

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.

What more to add other than, perhaps, contacting Charlie, Steph, and Hillary and ... well, why bother ... just dust it off and move forward as our next President did today in NC ...

•  Very Nice...

  This guilt by association crap has got to stop (unless you're talking about Cheney then I say, send them to JAIL)

  by Steven R on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 02:14:17 PM PDT

  •  Roger that!

    Peace,
    Bob

    by understandinglife on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 02:16:35 PM PDT

    •  Buttons?

      We need "I know Ayers too!" buttons.

      by Bronxist on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 03:30:17 PM PDT

      •  40 years ago?

        What was Obama 6-8 years old?  Are you kidding me?  Ayers gave Obama campaign 250 doallars and now the media want to hang Obama for beint a child when this guy wasn't even found gutly of something 40 years ago?  I mean please people 40 years ago????

        by libbie on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 04:39:57 PM PDT

        •  It was $200. n/t

          by NWTerriD on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 05:14:49 PM PDT

        •  Turnabout is fair play

          Let's examine everyone Hillary and Bill Clinton have known in their lives.  Cross check with donors.  See who sat in the same room at a meeting, lived in the same community, served on the same boards, had in the White House.  Remember the Bill sleep overs in the Lincoln Bedroom?  Let's resurrect that list and apply a flea comb to it.

          by Heart of the Rockies on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 06:16:03 PM PDT

          •  Sun Myung Moon

            How about this?

            by The Dead Man on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 06:44:33 PM PDT

            •  Norman Hsu

              Come on down!

              by rlamoureux on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 07:42:16 PM PDT

  •  Cheney isn't guilt by association

    Cheney is guilty as fucking sin all by himself.

    But I do agree it might not be a bad idea to send everyone who hunts or plays golf with Dick Cheney to jail as well. On what grounds? Associating with genocidal maniacs, criminals and soon to be felons...maybe. I'm sure we could come up with something.

    by DelicateMonster on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 02:24:33 PM PDT

    •  association TO Cheney...

      now that would be damning, as in joining him in some version of hell.

      by billlaurelMD on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 03:20:42 PM PDT

    •  Borrow from the cousin ...

      Barack needs the "So?" answer to Ayers.

      It's a more appropriate response to Ayers than to Iraq.

      by Bronxist on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 03:38:12 PM PDT

      •  Good call.

        And Barack can back it up with the facts and with Mayor Daley.

        Expose the dirty trick for what it is.

        by walkshills on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 08:27:15 PM PDT

    •  Anyone who hunts or golfs with Dick Cheney...

      ...assumes the risk - no trial needed!

      by varro on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 03:53:52 PM PDT

    •  I'm surprised Cheney hasn't been used to tar

      Obama yet. After all, they are blood relations and he is the most aggregious of any American living or dead. Associating Obama to Cheney is sure to doom his candidacy. And you also have Brad Pitt, a man who is living "in sin" with Angelina freakin' Jolie and claiming to be a parent to children he didn't even sire! Certainly, these are all tar worthy.

      I'm just doing my part as a patriotic American.

      by mselite on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 04:33:28 PM PDT

  •  LOL This is good, but sorta funny too

    Daley.

    Now people will be screaming that, "OMG, BO knows Daley!"

    Why is this even an issue?

    by PBnJ on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 02:36:25 PM PDT

  •  I don't say this often....

    but I'm proud of my mayor, Richard Daley!

    Way to step up to the plate!

    by 57andFemale on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 04:08:49 PM PDT

    •  me too n/t

      by dotster on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 05:09:27 PM PDT

    •  Likewise..

      Way to go Daley... now fix the damn CTA kkthx :)

      by Winterblink on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 06:07:57 PM PDT

      •  Of course, Daley hopes...

        ...Obama will say those magic words to him:

        "I'll let you pick the next U.S. Attorney!"

        Or have you forgotten that Daley's fomrer patronage chief is headed to federal prison on Monday.  How long will that guy Sorich last in the joint before he starts singing like Caruso?

        by Randall Sherman on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 09:11:13 PM PDT

  •  Those were

    my EXACT WORDS when I was wathing the awful event last night.
    "This guilt by association crap has got to stop. . ."

    by urban raptor on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 04:12:38 PM PDT

  •  Way to go Richie

    Da old man put down his beer and is smilin' down on ya with his buddy Harold.

    If we can't take care of our own as Chicagoans, who will?

    by rightiswrong on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 04:29:26 PM PDT

•  This is a good statement by Daley.

  The use of Ayers to attack Obama is a McCarthyte tactic that all should reject.

  by TomP on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 02:14:34 PM PDT

  •  Denouce AND Reject

    Of course Hillary wouldn't let this topic go last night.

    by CalexanderJ on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 02:18:22 PM PDT

    •  Until Barack Obama pointed out that

      President Clinton pardoned to members of the Weatherman Underground ... and then she was all for going to commercial break.

      What? Hillary? No comeback for that?

      After Mrs. Clinton criticized Mr. Obama for not severing all Ayers ties, Mr. Obama said, "By Senator Clinton’s own vetting standards, I don’t think she would make it, since President Clinton pardoned or commuted the sentences of two members of the Weather Underground."

      That referred to commutations by Mr. Clinton in January 2001, shortly before leaving office, for Linda Evans and Susan Rosenberg. Ms. Evans had been convicted of weapons and explosives charges connected with eight bombings in the mid-’80s and sentenced to 40 years in prison. Ms. Rosenberg had been charged in connection with a 1981 armed robbery in which two police officers and a security guard were killed, and was serving 58 years after being convicted of weapons charges in a 1984 case.

      ’60s Radicals Become Issue in Campaign of 2008

      by hungrycoyote on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 02:22:31 PM PDT

      •  As Barack has observed before...

        Hillary loves to "cherry pick" the Clinton years which she does whenever possible.

        by Templar on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 02:28:03 PM PDT

      •  and Ayers was never convicted of anything

        He was a fugitive, turned himself in, and the charges wound up being dropped because of prosecutorial misconduct.

        Not that he wasn't guilty of plenty; he associated with people who were making bombs and planning attacks.  But had he been convicted, it is very likely that Bill Clinton's pardon would have included Bill Ayers.  After all, he was a close associate of Evans and Rosenburg.

        by Joe Buck on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 03:31:59 PM PDT

      •  She put the pardons on the front burner

        by joining the attack. She really sucks at campaigning against Barack.

        by kitebro on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 03:45:49 PM PDT

      •  This was kind of lame

        Obama's response that he was a small child 40 years ago is better.

        by theran on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 03:49:39 PM PDT

        •  Obama was probably learning to read...

          ...by reading Weatherman chants!

          "O-F-F T-H-E P-I-G"

          "Very good, Barack!  You'll be president by the time you leave elementary school!"

          by varro on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 04:02:09 PM PDT

      •  Clinton was never associated with them

        by katz5 on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 03:56:05 PM PDT

        •  Neither was Obama

          Why was Hillary Clinton---notionally a Democrat---rushing in to push the line that he was?

          by theran on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 04:03:23 PM PDT

          •  Votes.

            Whatever gets votes, she says.

            by kitebro on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 04:49:07 PM PDT

            •  too bad it doesn't.

              by NWTerriD on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 05:16:32 PM PDT

              •  Thank god (if I believed in one ) it doesn't

                by Urizen on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 10:03:59 PM PDT

          •  Obama is associated with them

            according to Republicans. This was his opportunity to set the record straight.
            And surely you realize if Hillary had received $200 from a former domestic terrorist, we'd see a million diaries here.

            by katz5 on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 04:56:27 PM PDT

            •  Uh.....

              Her husband pardoned two domestic terrorists.  Where are the million diaries about that?

              by dmh44 on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 05:08:48 PM PDT

              •  And Marc Rich

                I well remember the stink over that one.

                by Phoenix Woman on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 05:12:09 PM PDT

            •  So shall I tell everyone about your Uncle Murray?

              You know, the one that molested goats?

              Hey, you might not even HAVE an Uncle Murray, but the Republicans will say you do!  Guess that means you can't be president.

              by Phoenix Woman on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 05:11:20 PM PDT

              •  Republicans will say it

                So Hillary should say it first!  The reasoning completely escapes me.

                The people who do all the things Republicans do are Republicans in the typical case, not Dems playing the role while they wait for the real GOP to show up.

                by theran on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 06:00:20 PM PDT

              •  Lyndon Johnson?

                Link

                In Hunter Thompson's Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72, the author relates what is a telling (though probably apocryphal) story. During a presidential contest, Lyndon Johnson apparently told his manager to start a massive rumor campaign about his opponent's habit of enjoying carnal knowledge of sows. The campaign manager protested saying nobody would believe that the guy's a "pigfucker."

                "I know," Johnson replied. "But let's make the sonofabitch deny it."

                by frostyinPA on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 06:18:29 PM PDT

                •  heh

                  LBJ always manages to make our little primary war of two-double-ought-eight seem pretty tame.

                  by socratic on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 07:49:32 PM PDT

            •  40 yeasr later - when the guy was a professor

              and was well respected in his field.

              by karenc on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 06:46:47 PM PDT

            •  Nice dodge

              "according to Republicans".

              But your facts are wrong.  Ayers was never convicted of domestic terrorism.  

              Nice try though. When will you guys figure out that stupid is as stupid does, and that this kind of ancient Nixonian stuff just is not going to stick  anymore, not while our economy is collapsing, our jobs are disappearing, our children are dying in Iraq.  I am less concerned about a $200 donation from an ancient 60s radical, than $4 gas, increasing healthcare costs, and the price of food. The times they are a-changing, and this is why Clinton is dust.

              by Uncle Moji on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 07:47:27 PM PDT

            •  the genius HRC made it bad for either candidate

              in the general.  hello.  obama got money from; hrc in her first run at president (part of the experience, no?) let two go.

              what an idiot.

              by jj24 on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 08:04:46 PM PDT

    •  She's the one that slyly added Ayer's

      name to the debate last night. (as she had done with Resko)   It is rather shocking to watch the Clinton's throw out supposedly bad acquaintances of Obama when they have tons of them, along with the accompanying money deals, foreign and domestic.

      by mjd in florida on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 02:31:00 PM PDT

      •  She'll and do anything to win

        One has to wonder if she would really take the troops out of Iraq.

        by Shhs on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 02:38:14 PM PDT

        •  Of COURSE she wouldn't.

          Might hurt her chances for re-election, she'll leave them in.  After all, the "democratic" pollsters will say how weak it will make her look if she does.

          Poll Poll Poll Contort Contort Contort.

          It's so nice having a Democratic Candidate with an actual SPINE again.

          by KiTA on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 03:22:53 PM PDT

          •  Might hurt her chances for re-election

            That's the way Nixon did it!

            by brentmack on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 03:33:29 PM PDT

        •  She's doing anything and still losing <LOL>

          by Bronxist on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 03:39:26 PM PDT

        •  She'll announce a full pullout

          to be achieved by the end of her second term -- about the same time she said we'll get her health care plan in place.

          Someone should have her talk to Jimmy Carter about how well that whole second term thing worked out...or maybe her husband's BFF George H.W. Bush...

          by Cali Scribe on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 04:20:09 PM PDT

      •  No, she wasn't the one who added Ayer's name

        It was Sean Hannity who told George S. to bring up Ayers.  Like a good little stooge, George S. complied.  After all, he's "bent over backwards" to convince his colleagues that he has repented for the crime of working for Democrats, and that he's now fair and balanced.

        by Joe Buck on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 03:34:03 PM PDT

        •  Your'e right!

          It was Farrakan and Habbas that she added to the mix last night with Wright, while she found the Ayers story troubling too!   It is hard keeping up with all of her concern trolling for the MSN.  :)

          by mjd in florida on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 07:40:59 PM PDT

      •  You shouldn't be surprised

        she pushed the Wright story knowing all along he had been at the White House to " lay hands " on Bill in his darkest hour.

        These folks are relentless w/ no sense of right or wrong. (Clintons)

        by jaysunb on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 04:52:27 PM PDT

      •  Just as she slyly added Farrakhan into

        the Rev. Wright issue -- and used language that may have led some viewers to wrongly believe it was Obama himself who was somehow associated with Farrakhan.

        by trivium on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 06:33:34 PM PDT

  •  Great statement

    Not a huge fan of Da Mare Jr. but that is a very direct and correct thing to say. It would be insulting to tar Ayres for what he did 40 years ago. It's beyond insulting to tar a casual acquaintance of his for it.

    by anastasia p on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 02:19:31 PM PDT

    •  The issue of Ayers is separate

      from using Ayers to attack Obama.  My understanding is that Ayers sees his actions as part of the Weather Underground, including bombings, as justigfied by the war.  The only deaths in the bombing campaign were three members of the Weather undeground when they were making bombs.  This was a campaign of violence against property, symbolic bombings.  Still, Ayer's actions were illegal and  immoral.  Furthemore, they harmed the very cause he sought to aid.  His former collegue in the Weather Underground, Mark Rudd, considers the move to symbolic violence to be a real error that hurt the movement:

      Weatherman, and the Weather Underground, was the strategy of the Action Faction writ large. In the years since, I’ve learned that bold action only works in a few rare contexts, such as at Columbia in April, 1968. Without that context, supplied by both history and base-building organizing, bold action is merely self-expression. Weatherman and the Weather Underground were purely existential politics—look at us, this is what we believe—which doesn’t even buy you a cup of coffee.

      We thought that people would see our seriousness, our militancy, and because of that, join us. We had no need anymore for careful base-building, education, engagement. Fighting greasers on a beach in Detroit or a street corner in Milwaukee, or running through a high school in Pittsburgh or Chicago was by some strange sort of alchemy supposed to induce the hypothetical revolutionary youth to join our revolution. Handing some kid a leaflet with the words, "There’s a war going on in the world. Which side are you on? Come to Chicago Oct. 8!" was somehow going to build a white fighting force. Where were our heads?

      Similarly, our armed propaganda against symbolic targets, that is, bombs in bathrooms of the Capitol and the Pentagon and corporate headquarters, were no more effective at moving people to action. In our despair and zeal, we threw out the essentials of building a movement, replacing them with one single tactic, militancy, which had become our strategy.

      snip

      On that note I think I’ll stop lecturing. In sum, Columbia, 1968, good, because of organizing, which meant education, base-building, and coalition; Weatherman, 1969, very bad, for substituting violent self-expression for a real organizing strategy.

      Mark Rudd, Speech given at Drew University conference, Nov. 4, 2006

      That's all historically interesting, but it fundamentally is separate from Barack Obama.

      Not only was Obama a child at that time, but no one really believes that Obama endorses the tactics and actions of Ayers.  Whether Ayers was justified or not (I think not.  I believe his actions may have prolonged the war and helped the coming reaction, without even adddressing the lack of morality in the acts) has NOTHING to do with Obama.

      It is a fundamentally dishonest smear of Obama and shoudl be rebutted.

       

      by TomP on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 02:31:56 PM PDT

      •  Prolonging the Viet Nam War

        
        

        "I believe [Wm. Ayers'] actions may have prolonged the war"

        — TomP

        [peace voter shakes head in disbelief]

        I can't imagine how you can make such an assertion - seriously.

        
        
        `````
        peace
        
        

        by peace voter on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 02:46:44 PM PDT

        •  Were you alive then?

          I was.

          The WU bombings allowed Nixon to play put themes that a revolution was happening.  He appealed to a slient majority.  He tarred peaceful dissent with the broad brush that they gave him.  In 1972, he beat McGovern easily.

          The Weather Underground was a terrible tactic that harmed the anti-war and workers movements.

          Whether it prolonged the war is unknowable.  I said 'may have."  I did not say did.

          But no good came of it.  Mark Rudd is right.

          by TomP on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 03:07:01 PM PDT

          •  As by far the most conservative member

            of my family, who believed Eugene McCarthy was hurting us and prolonging the war, I totally didn't get the weathermen or even the more mainstream SDS or my sister's rantings about tearing down the establishment. So what? The past is LONG past and Obama knows the guy only in passing and in an entirely different capacity. I hope if this idiotic "issue" comes up during the gneeral-election debates, Obama turns around and asks about McBush's far closer and more recent ties to lobbyists and numerous corrupt policitians.

            by anastasia p on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 04:17:14 PM PDT

      •  That's not relevant

        I stand by what I said. What Ayres siad is long in the past and Obama has only the most passing acquaintance with him even in the present. I am sure we all know some people with unsavory ideas. Many of us have found after the fact that we have worked with criminals or pedophiles. I once took pictures of a band for a manager who years later was charged with picking up underage girls at malls and having the pose nude to post on the internet. I'm sure I could think of plenty of other cases of people I worked with who ended up doing something illegal, unethical or immoral because I was in the music business.

        So what.

        by anastasia p on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 04:14:50 PM PDT

        •  What?

          I do not understand your point at all and what I said is quite relevant.

          There is a big difference between Ayers and opinions regarding his acts and Barack Obama.  Two separate things.

          by TomP on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 04:18:07 PM PDT

      •  It's interesting that the Right

        is so outraged about these symbolic bombings...but they're silent about bombings that aren't so symbolic and actually kill people, like when anti-choice fanatics bomb women's clinics...

        by Cali Scribe on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 04:22:44 PM PDT

        •  Maybe because that's pretty much in the past

          as well.  Bombings at abortion clinics are exremely rare now - less than 10 a year. There have been seven people killed, the last of which I believe was the policeman killed in the Birmingham bombing 10 years ago.  Really, crazy anti-abortion fanatics - really not much of a threat anymore.

          by msanthrope on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 05:06:32 PM PDT

        •  I hope

          we can all agree that bombings, symbolic or otherwise, are wrong.

          by socratic on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 07:54:28 PM PDT

      •  Mark Rudd is still wrong

        There is nothing wrong with bold action. Not at all.

        The problem with the Mark Rudd and the Weather Underground--aside from their bomb-making-- is that they were going around picking fights with white working class people in an attempt to prove how tough they were and how racist white workers were.

        All spoiled white brats themselves, they embarrassed the left and their bomb-making and anti-white worker behavior did more to end what was the New Left than anything else.

        Mark Rudd was pure ego, and I will be greatly surprised if he's gotten over with the love of his life, himself.

        by skywriter on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 04:32:58 PM PDT

      •  Partially agree

        Not so much with "prolonging the Vietnam War" but definitely with "helped the coming reaction". The most radical, violent part of the New Left fed right into Nixon's Silent Majority strategy.

        OTOH, once the counterculture was kicked off by the war, the Beatles and the Pill, the reaction was coming, regardless of any piddling political activity.

        by frostyinPA on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 06:26:08 PM PDT

  •  and almost in english!

    which for nonchicagoans, well, it is rare.

    by agnostic on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 02:19:34 PM PDT

  •  Exactly,

    this is so McCarthy...it would be an answer to "prayer" if the voters in Penn reject these tactics like folks eventually did McCarthy.

    Is the tipping point in sight? I am way past that point, myself...

    by PLS on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 02:36:03 PM PDT

    •  Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) said last night

      (I'm paraphrasing) that Pennsylvanians are too smart to be taken in by such bullcrap. I hope he's right. (Oh, and Go Flyers -- tied 1-1 midway through the 1st period with Washington...)

      by Cali Scribe on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 04:24:44 PM PDT

  •  Remembering

    Mayor Daley remembers that period well, he says, but Obama doesn't. Obama was just little kid when all that happened, which makes this whole controversy even more absurd.

    by Korkenzieher on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 03:47:07 PM PDT

    •  Well, I'm just three years older

      than Obama, and I remember the Weather Underground, because one of their local groups tried to take over the newspaper offices where my mom worked.

      But I'm with Daley -- whether we're talking about Bill Ayres or Jeremiah Wright, it's time to stop fighting 40 year old battles and focus on the problems facing us here and now.

      by Cali Scribe on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 04:13:09 PM PDT

      •  But that's all the conservatives have--

        they're still in arms about rock'n'roll and "free love" and the Vietnam Dolchstoss and those Damn Dirty Hippies™ and girls in miniskirts and abstract art and...

        I mean, just read "Shorter Town Hall" at Sadly, No! - it sounds exactly like the rants in the conservative Catholic magazines my parents subscribed to in 1975, only gone scratchy with age like a mimeograph that's been photocopied...

        by bellatrys on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 04:20:29 PM PDT

        •  Same thing I said above!

          Rock'n'roll = Beatles
          Free love = the Pill
          Vietnam Dochstoss = the War

          Really, it's that simple. Those three things are what set off Pat Buchanan and the rest of the Reactionaries.

          Wouldn't it be nice if Obama could get us beyond this crap? I'll be working my PA neighborhoods on Saturday and the polls on Tuesday to help make it happen.

          by frostyinPA on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 06:30:41 PM PDT

      •  Its Ayers not Ayres. Just saying. nt

        by batgirl71 on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 05:09:36 PM PDT

  •  rightwingers attack Obama

    daily with Ayers, Rezko, Khalidi, etc so I don't understand why he's not interested in explaining any issues concerning his relationship with them.
    Better now than in the general.

    by katz5 on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 03:54:17 PM PDT

    •  What's to explain?

      He served on the board of a charity with him and got a $200 donation to his Illinois State Legislature campaign back in 2001. And they lived in the same neighborhood -- it would be like someone calling you a Nazi because your next-door neighbor is one.

      Maybe we should start checking into the background of everyone Clinton served with on the Wal-Mart board -- maybe we could find a few skeletons in their closets.

      All this sort of crap is going to do is to cause honest well-meaning Americans to think twice about getting involved in anything because of fears of being tainted by association...and that's really going to suck.

      by Cali Scribe on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 04:16:39 PM PDT

      •  Obama had a national audience

        and golden opportunity to explain and dispel the disinformation and rumors about his associations. Why he opposed these questions is strange.

        by katz5 on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 04:45:40 PM PDT

    •  Are you even sentient?

      he had an incredibly long sit-down with the Chicago Tribune a couple of months ago in which he promised to answer ANY question they had about Rezko -- and he did. As right-wing as they are, they've said there's nothing there. He has no relationship with Ayres to speak of. All these questions have been answered over and over and over and the only thing that comes out of continuing to ask (and Obama continuing to give the same answers over and over) is to cause people to think "where's there's smoke...." It's exactly what was done to John kerry. There was nothing there but when the swift-boaters kept harping on their lies, people sort of thought there must be some truth to it, especially since it took the media weeks to debunk the stories.

      by anastasia p on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 04:19:50 PM PDT

      •  you don't need to explain it to me

        but do you think all the people who watched the debate last night read Chicago papers? And then for Obama to complain about these questions, rather than willingly answering them, emphasizes his Elitism that has followed him since last year.

        by katz5 on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 04:37:50 PM PDT

        •  which, once again, shows the bias of MSM

          MSM was all over the Chicago papers when they thought there might be something fishy between Rezko and Obama but when they family get the answers they want and argue the story is settled, the MSM plays dumb.

          by batgirl71 on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 05:11:48 PM PDT

        •  Obama is smart enough

          to know the impossibility of giving an answer in that forum that would satisfy the people who are stupid enough/hostile enough to keep harping on this stuff.  

          It's a no-win situation.  There is no terse little soundbite he can give that will put any of these issues to rest.  They are the kinds of issues that require long, labyrinthine back-and-forth exchanges, with someone actually willing to hear and see facts.  No chance of accomplishing that in the forum they were in last night, in a 3-on-1 game.

          by NWTerriD on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 05:22:05 PM PDT

        •  It misses the point of his campaign

          It's a refusal to accept a silly question as part of the discourse.

          You 'complain' about the questions because the questions are stupid.

          Obama has spent the whole campaign talking about a "new" kind of politics.  

          This is it.

          For years, Democrats have lost because we play these GOP games about 6 six degrees of crap... Democrats enact polities that benefit the poor/middle class becomes Democrats play class warfare becomes communists played class warfare becomes Democrats are marxists.

          It's the same with individuals.  At its silliest - the association becomes "Do you hate America and want to bomb things, too?"  

          Does any rational American really believe Barack Obama supports domestic terrorism?

          His Coburn response was spot-on.  Tom and Barack actually do work together fairly often -- they were the primaries on the earmark light shedding legislation year before last.  They do share some policy preferences - they are both very pro-government transparency.   The scuttlebutt is that they also get along fairly well together personally.

          But does that mean Barack Obama is anywhere near in support of the death penalty for physicians who perform abortions?

          Or slice it another way... Should every member of congress need to apologize for associating with Tom Foley?

          Should every member of the CBC apologize and explain their association with William Jefferson?

          And on and on we go...

          The only way to win this GOP game is to refuse to play it.

          by zonk on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 05:30:10 PM PDT

  •  For all of his flaws

    and rough politics and strongarm tactics that surround his office, I believe Daley demonstrates common sense and a sincere interest in promoting the common good.  Chicago is a great city, and we have two great US Senators as well.  Thanks Mayor for stepping up and confronting this BS for what it is.    

    by rlteiken on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 04:26:38 PM PDT

  •  A good statement

    But it misses the significance of what the Clinton campaign is trying to do with the Ayers connection.

    It isn't about what he did 40 years ago with the Weather Underground - it's about his current activities in support of Palestinians and using him to try to paint Obama as an anti-semite.

    If you have a look at the Clinton blogs like talkleft and noquarter, you'll see they're currently concern-trolling the issue, to the point where TL has an article up that was previously featured at neocon Daniel Pipes' Campus Watch.

    They've really lost their fucking minds.

    by Alien Abductee on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 05:53:34 PM PDT

•  I know Daley too

  and I'm sure he's seriously pissed.

  by Robinswing on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 02:15:18 PM PDT

  •  Wait a minute...

    You know Daley and he knows Ayres?

    Terrorist.

    by MasonLee on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 02:29:28 PM PDT

    •  Be afraid. Be very afraid.

      by Robinswing on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 02:42:24 PM PDT

  •  There are really times

    When Daley is the perfect Democrat responder.

    I have some issues with M -- but few politicians do a better job parrying silly questions.

    He's got a real good "Oh geez... come on!" pitch.

    by zonk on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 03:38:00 PM PDT

    •  He sounds like Mickey Mouse when he gets

      irritated. Good to see him speak up here.

      by Skid on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 05:34:28 PM PDT

      •  Yeah

        I love the squeaky press conferences.

        I can hear him in my head now: "Come on!  Are you serious?  Come one!"

        by zonk on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 05:46:20 PM PDT

•  valid local support

  One doesn't have to be from Chicago, as I am, to know that a Daley commenting on this topic carries some weight.  Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

  by archidem on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 02:15:48 PM PDT

•  Hopefully this message will reach the right

  people. The Ayers question was nothing more than an attempt to paint Obama has a far-left terrorist sympathasizer by mentioning what Ayers did 40 years ago and giving people no other information about the man. Hopefully, once all the facts come out this will be no bigger than Rezko.

  by CalexanderJ on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 02:16:28 PM PDT

  •  Seriously, there are still

    those who can't let go of the 60's.  And its not Obama...as he said, he was what, eight years old?

    by tjb22 on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 02:30:07 PM PDT

    •  I don't know how much traction this will have

      will regular folks but I know Hannity has been bitching about Ayers for the last several months if not longer.

      Hannity: (I'm paraphrasing)  Ayers is a terrorist. Ayers bombed the pentagon. On 9/11 he said he wasn't sorry and should have gone further. Obama is "friendly" with Ayers. Draw your own conclusions.

      I'm just glad Hannity's point of view isn't going to be the only side presented to the public.

      by CalexanderJ on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 02:41:19 PM PDT

      •  This is so fucking ridiculous.

        These were young people who had no political representation. So they formed the SDS of which the Weathermen was the more radical of the the Far Left. During the time of their formation, the hardhats were beating up long hairs, hippies and anyone who might be "radical". Then in 1970 four students were massacred on the campus or Ohio State by the National Guard. J. Edgar Hoover and Nixon were carrying out illegal actions against the Far Left. They persecuted and prosecuted John Lennon because he was deemed to be a radical.

        Call me an anarchist, but it is because of these individuals, even if their particular tactics were extreme that we are not still embroiled in the Viet Nam Clusterfuck.

        And it is Sean Hannity and his ilk, including Hillary Clinton, who have made it possible that we are now involved in the Clusterfuck known as Iraq.

        by Flippant on Thu Apr 17, 2008 at 02:59:01 PM PDT

        •  gee, an