Ayers was royalty slumming among the peasants and playing at revolution. His family's money and political connections fixed the case, by having the prosecutors deliberately screw up, and a judge then threw the case out on the resulting technicalities.
Ayers is above the law, because the Daley political machine and the Democratic party generally, is above the law. To them, the whole point of political power is impunity.
In the finest Chicago Mafia tradition.
It's also always entertaining to hear the ‘I was 8-yrs old’ argument. He wasn't 8 when he voluntarily associated with Ayers. On the flip-side some of these same people think we should all be paying reparations for slavery, even though none of us were alive then, and most of our families didn't live in the US then. Just more hypocrisy.
With regards Ayers, I don't think the question should only be ‘Why did Obama choose to associate with him’. I think an equally important question is ‘Why did Ayers take the time to support Obama and host a political coming-out party at his home for Obama?’. The answer is that at the very least he felt that Obama had similar political views and goals. That's a telling realization in and of itself.
Thanks for the explanations. It’s truly disgusting that this guy is still breathing air.