newsweek: Operatives such as David Bossie, whose Citizens United group made the Willie Horton ad that helped sink Michael Dukakis's 1988 presidential bid, are sharpening knives as expectations mount that Obama will be their target in the fall. Bossie says he is assembling material for TV spots about Obama's ties with Ayers, a Chicago professor and unrepentant former member of the Weather Underground, a group that bombed several government buildings to protest the Vietnam War. The Ayers issue bounced around right-wing media for months, but it received broad exposure at last week's debate on ABC, when Obama was asked a question about their relationship. Obama, who lives near Ayers in Chicago's Hyde Park, attended an event at Ayers's house when Obama ran for the state Senate in 1995—and served on the board of a nonprofit with him for several years. "Obama is aware of the acts Ayers committed when he was 8 years old and has called them 'detestable'," says spokesman Ben LaBolt, adding that Obama occasionally bumps into Ayers in his neighborhood "but has not seen him for months." At a recent dinner party, according to one guest who asked not to be identified discussing a private gathering, Ayers "ridiculed" the notion that Obama shared his left-wing views: "He thought the idea that there was a political connection between them was absurd." (Ayers declined to comment.)
these people are seething, powerful and ignorant and have no desire to meet on any middle ground. believe it or not, the following comes from a religious theologian:
human events: Your old paradigms are outdated, Mr. Obama. If you want to represent yourself as the leader of a new -- color neutral -- world order, you ought to look at the world which my family represents.
On the other hand, African American youth in the US drop out of high school at alarming rates. They have chosen to become a permanent underclass. They do not have hope-filled immigrant grandparents, nor apparently the right mentors. My Maternal Grandmother -- who arrived in America in 1910 from what is now Slovakia -- could barely speak English, but her 13 children and their kids and their kids... all respect the values we were taught. We were expected to get to the library faithfully as soon as we could walk there on our own. Bill Cosby got it right.
under the bush administration they've flourished.
robert novack, one of these radical types, says rev wright will be back in the general election again and again.
Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) appears to be weathering the furor over his radical pastor and his remarks about bitter small town residents as far as the race with Clinton is concerned, but the general election will be a different story. Independent Republican attacks will return to those items repeatedly.
novack will be hosting a political forum (fundraiser, it costs $600) on thursday--closed doors, no reporters--and john mccain will be the special guest.
To keep the interaction intimate and meaningful, attendance is strictly limited to just 70 people. Each guest speaks briefly about key issues of the day, then opens the floor to questions -- any question. The answers are frank and open because there are no reporters.
