CQPolitics has an article fact checking McCain’s commercial on Obama and William Ayers with the brutal headline: “Fact-Checking the Ayers Allegations: So Wrong, It’s ‘Pants on Fire’ Wrong.”
In the commercial, apparently McCain claims that “Ayers and Obama ran a radical education foundation together.” The “radical education foundation” is the Chicago Annenburg Challenge, a charity endowed by publishing magnate and Nixon-administration ambassador Walter Annenberg that funded public-school programs in Chicago from 1995 to 2001. Obama may have had some roll in administering the Challenge, but Ayers did not.
The McCain campaign cited several pieces of evidence for [the allegation that the foundation was radical], including a 1995 invitation from the foundation for applications from schools “that want to make radical changes in the way teachers teach and students learn.†The campaign appears to have confused two different definitions of the word “radical.†Clearly the invitation referred to “a considerable departure from the usual or traditional,†rather than “advocating extreme measures to retain or restore a political state of affairs.â€
Uh huh. The campaign was “confused.” I believe more appropriate adjectives would be “desperate” and/or “shameless.”
Among the other board members who served with Obama were: Stanley Ikenberry, former president of the University of Illinois; Arnold Weber, former president of Northwestern University and assistant secretary of labor in the Nixon administration; Scott Smith, then publisher of the Chicago Tribune; venture capitalist Edward Bottum; John McCarter, president of the Field Museum; Patricia Albjerg Graham, former dean of the Harvard University Graduate School of Journalism, and a host of other mainstream folks.
“The whole idea of it being radical when it was this tie of blue-chip, white-collar, CEOs and civic leaders is just ridiculous,†said the foundation’s former development director, Marianne Philbin.
. . .
In short, this was a mainstream foundation funded by a mainstream, Republican business leader and led by an overwhelmingly mainstream, civic-minded group of individuals. Ayers’ involvement in its inception and on an advisory committee do not make it radical – nor does the funding of programs involving the United Nations and African-American studies.This attack is false, but it’s more than that – it’s malicious. It unfairly tars not just Obama, but all the other prominent, well-respected Chicagoans who also volunteered their time to the foundation. They came from all walks of life and all political backgrounds, and there’s ample evidence their mission was nothing more than improving ailing public schools in Chicago. Yet in the heat of a political campaign they have been accused of financing radicalism. That’s Pants on Fire wrong.
The wheels have come off the Straight Talk Express, and it’s flaming down the tracks toward November and the dust bin of history.
I heard Obama knew a chemistry professor who talked incessantly about free radicals.
Doug:
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Politfact Check does not have clean hands. Read all about it here:
“Obama, Bill Ayers, and FactCheck.Org: All Have Ties To Annenberg Foundation.”
http://deathby1000papercuts.com/2008/10/obama-bill-ayers-and-factcheckorg-all-have-ties-to-annenberg-foundation/
The point is that the Annenberg Foundation is an entirely mainstream affair. Whatever Ayers past was, he seems to have figured out how to get along with The Establishment.
Pointing out that the Annenberg Challenge was funded by Walter Annenberg is a bit like pointing out that the Ford Foundation was funded by an uber-capitalist, Henry Ford.
The list of foundations which have been taken over by the those with agendas counter to their founders’ wishes is a long one and is easy enough to Google.
“The point is that the Annenberg Foundation is an entirely mainstream affair. Whatever Ayers past was, he seems to have figured out how to get along with The Establishment.
Get along as in “America. What a country. It makes me want to puke.” (Ayers, 2001, Fugitive Days)?
Or perhaps it’s more a case of “If you can’t blow ’em up, join ’em”?
Mondo, maybe it’s a mistake of the Allen County Election Board but I didn’t see Mr. Ayers on the ballot when I voted last week. How he is at all relevant to this election escapes me, other than I recognize that the McCain/Palin people see him as a way to (try to) distract us from the very real problems our country is facing. If any community leader is disqualified because of the people they come across (how about being married to a member of a group that advocates separatism from the US? would that count?) then nobody will be able to be elected to anything.
Ayers is relevant because LOOK SHINY!
It’s interesting that Ayers, who was apparently pretty motivated to harm this country, was so damn bad at it.
Looking at the wreckage of our economy and our armed forces, our infrastructure, and our global standing, I’m thinking it’s the ones who really, really super-love America (with the flag pins and bumper stickers to prove it) that we have to worry about.
Senator Allied with ACORN as Recently as 2006, Now Turns Cold Shoulder…Obama? Look again.
http://www.acorn.org/index.php?id=12439&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=22387&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=12346&cHash=b89d63c6a2
Even better is the fact that McCain’s campaign put out a press release yesterday touting their latest endorsement – from Leonore Annenberg, Walter’s wife. The duo, by the way, gave Ayers $50 million dollars to continue his work in education.
So now while Obama palled around with terrorists, McCain is being endorsed by someone who funds terrorists.
Doh!