When Illinois State Senator Alice Palmer decided to retire in 1995, she hand-picked local left-winger Barack Obama as her successor. In order to introduce Obama to influential liberals in the district, she held a function at the home of Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn. This was, really, the beginning of Obama's political career, and it linked him forever with Ayers and Dohrn, with whom, as his campaign has acknowledged, he continues to have a friendly relationship.
Ayers and Dohrn were famous radicals, and fugitives from the law, in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Dohrn, actually, was the more famous of the two; she was the head, as I recall, of Students for a Democratic Society or one of its factions. Dohrn was crazy. She is the only public figure, to my knowledge, to approve publicly and enthusiastically of the Charles Manson murders.
Ayers was a would-be murderer of soldiers and policemen, but he wasn't a very good terrorist. He had the ill fortune to be the subject of a profile in the New York Times on September 11, 2001, in which he said that he didn't regret his attempted murders and only wished that he had planted more bombs.
In last week's Pennsylvania debate, Barack Obama was finally asked about his friendship with, and the political support he has accepted from, Ayers and Dohrn. Obama replied that Ayers had done reprehensible things forty years ago, when Obama was eight years old, and scoffed at the idea that Ayers's ancient history could be relevant. That was disingenuous, of course, given Ayers's 2001 regrets.
It turns out that we don't have to go back as far as 2001 to find that Obama's friends are as unrepentant as ever. Just last year, Ayers and Dohrn attended a reunion--no kidding--of what must have been the tiny remnant of SDS members who still haven't figured out that they were wrong about everything. Listen to what Bill Ayers, who hosted Barack Obama's first fundraiser, has to say about the United States. Not when Obama was eight years old, but in 2007:
At the same event, Obama's friend and supporter Bernadine Dohrn described the United States as "the monster." Obama was 47 years old at the time:
Barack Obama has declined to repudiate or distance himself from his neighbors, supporters and friends, Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn. There is a certain consistency of perspective among Obama's friends and mentors, which can be summed up in Jeremiah Wright's memorable phrase: "God damn America."
Much more to come, tomorrow.
PAUL adds: Michelle Obama also takes a fairly dim view of America. But with all those student loans to pay off, I guess it's understandable.
SCOTT adds: Hugh Hewitt notes:
Keep in mind a young radio producer --Guy Benson of WYLL's The Sandy Rios Show -- found audio that no one else in all of the MSM found to launch this story.
Hugh asks: "What else will we be discovering about Barack Obama's friends, and about the candidate?"
Last night, in The Friends of Barack Obama, Part 1 I reviewed Obama's relationship with Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, who helped to kick off Obama's first political campaign and with whom Obama's campaign says he has a "friendly" relationship. Ayers and Dohrn were domestic terrorists in the 1960s and 1970s, and they are as radical now as they ever were, as evidenced by their own words. Obama emerged from the far-left fringe of Chicago politics, and his relationship with Ayers and Dohrn, like his relationship with spiritual mentor Jeremiah Wright, raises important questions about Obama's own political beliefs.
Obama has defended his relationship with Ayers and Dohrn by saying that Ayers did "reprehensible" things forty years ago, when Obama was eight years old. He says that Ayers and Dohrn are now respectable, mainstream figures in Chicago. But the reality is quite different; they, like Wright, are anything but "mainstream" in their views of America. The audio clips in which Ayers and Dohrn reveal their still-radical views were uncovered by Guy Benson, a recent college graduate who works for radio station WYLL in Chicago. Guy writes to introduce this series of clips:
In the process of doing some late-night research for both my own radio show and the program I produce, I stumbled upon a number of breathtaking videos featuring unrepentant terrorists William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn. Both are now gainfully employed at major Chicago-area universities, and both have longtime connections to presidential candidate Barack Obama. The audio linked below falls into two categories: First, a number of "terror era" comments from Ayers and Dohrn from the late 1960s and 1970s emphasize how truly radical, violent, and virulently anti-American they were. The second batch comes from a recent reunion of aging radicals in November 2007. These clips show that Obama's pals are as unhinged as ever, and they severely undermine Team Obama's spin that Ayers and Dohrn are now "respectable" members of the political "mainstream."The Top Five - THEN and NOW:
1. William Ayers Then: clip titled- Ayers fighting and upheaval
In 1970, the Weather Underground's top leadership was forced to go into hiding after three fellow weathermen accidentally blew themselves up while building an explosive devise in New York City. The bomb was intended to target a military dance at Fort Dix, New Jersey. While living in the shadows, Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn participated in a series of short films. In this clip, Ayers explains how living underground served as a convenient "base" for his group's destructive plots.
Click here to download the mp3.
2. William Ayers Now: - Ayers 2007 rebellion and Mao
Ayers addresses a Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) reunion in November 2007. He favorably quotes Chairman Mao's right-hand man while discussing the past and future roles of revolution.
Click here to download the mp3.
3. William Ayers Now: Ayers on leftist strategy
Addressing the SDS reunion in 2007, Ayers outlines the Left's strategy for the future, which requires them to "speak in a language that is large, and generous, and encompassing…and then we have to act." (One wonders if a certain Left-blessed presidential candidate with a nice smile and a vague mantra of "change" might fit the bill perfectly.)
Click here to download the mp3.
4. Bernadine Dohrn Then: Dohrn says "guard your children"
In this vintage recording (circa 1970), the voice of Bernadine Dohrn warns Americans that the Weather Underground is planning a series of violent attacks. She cautions her fellow citizens to guard their colleges, banks, and even their children. Dohrn explains that the revolution is designed to bring American society (or the "pitiful, helpless giant," as she so elegantly phrases it) "to its knees."
Click here to download the mp3.
5. Bernadine Dohrn Now: US violent "monster"
At the same 2007 SDS reunion, Dohrn quotes Martin Luther King, Jr., referring to the US government as "the greatest purveyor of violence" in the world. She says she believes this sentiment to be true today. She tells the audience that living in America constitues living in "the belly of the beast" and "the heart of the monster."
Click here to download the mp3.
Also important, I think, is this 2007 clip in which Ayers describes his bizarre vision of contemporary America:
Click here to download the mp3.
There are many more. In this 2007 clip, Ayers describes the United States as an incipient fascist country:
Click here to download the mp3.
Here, Ayers recalls his own use of "guns and bombs" to try to destroy the government of the United States:
Click here to download the mp3.
In this recent PBS interview, Ayers talks about overthrowing capitalism:
Click here to download the mp3.
In this 2007 clip, Dohrn denounces capitalism and the American "empire:"
Click here to download the mp3.
A blast from the past: Dohrn declares "war" against the United States on behalf of the Weather Underground:
Click here to download the mp3.
Does Barack Obama really consider these views to be "respectable" and "mainstream," as his web site indicates? If so, what does that tell us about Barack Obama and the hard-left milieu from which he emerged? Likewise, what are we to make of Obama's suggestion that Jeremiah ("God damn America") Wright's church is "not particularly controversial"? A politician can't pick his relatives, but he can choose his spiritual mentor and those who host fundraisers on his behalf. Barack Obama owes the American people an explanation of his choice of friends and political associates.
