Ayers Has Not Left Radicalism Behind(IBD Series: The Audacity Of Socialism)

IBD Editorials ^ | October 9, 2008

[Kaslin]

Election '08: Bill Ayers isn't out bombing anymore, but he has never stopped being a radical. His ties to hostile Marxist regimes remain, raising more questions about Barack Obama's refusal to fully repudiate him.

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Distancing himself, as Obama did, from the "detestable acts" of the founder of the Weather Underground terror organization, is one thing. Ayers' terror attacks — in armed robbery, police murder, attempted killings of U.S. troops, and bombings of U.S. democratic institutions to advance a Marxist revolution — were quite easy to disavow.

But Ayers' supporters say his violence was all a long time ago.

Obama emphasized that his friend's terror acts happened "when I was eight years old." Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley told the New York Times last week "he's done a lot of good in this city and nationally." He added: "This is 2008. People make mistakes. You judge a person by his whole life."

But a look at Ayers' whole life suggests he hasn't changed much more than his tactics. He's still the same radical he always was.

Ayers' terrorist acts in the 1970s didn't just blow in out of nowhere. Ayers moved to urban guerrilla violence after finding Tom Hayden's riot-prone Students for a Democratic Society too tame. He was inspired by the Cuban revolution of Fidel Castro, who toppled a democracy a decade earlier.

[ronnie raygun]

Ayers was recently in Venezuela for a world education fest chumming it up with Chavez, was Mccain breaking bread with Kim il jong rescently. Lets stop with this ridiculous nonsense, Obama the empty suit socialist trojan horse is showing us his wears in broad daylight and the American media by avoiding this is an acommplice. They are truley despicable!

[Eagles6]

"The reality is, either Obama is naive or he doesn't care that Ayers remains an anti-American radical who would hurt his country."

Neither. Obama believes wholeheartedly in Ayer's views. He is a fellow traveler.

[MathDoc]

Obama emphasized that his friend's terror acts happened "when I was eight years old." Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley told the New York Times last week "he's done a lot of good in this city and nationally." He added: "This is 2008. People make mistakes. You judge a person by his whole life."

Obama's friend, Ayers, has made it clear that blowing up buildings and killing a few people too (for example, the nail bomb that blew while they were assembling it, and some unproven events) were not mistakes as he sees them. He has no regrets except that he didn't set more bombs. I'm willing to judge Ayers by his whole life, from terrorism in the "Days of Rage" to his "no regrets" statements on September 11, 2001, to his photograph where he posed standing on the American flag. I'm also willing to judge Obama by his words that Ayers in "mainstream".

[IBD editorial writer]

Good one. I should have written that!