Judged By the Company You Keep?

[Herb Schaffler]

"It would probably be a lot easier to attack him on the issues if anybody knew where he stood on anything."

We know that he supports socialized medicine and tax increases. Why don't Republicans attack him on those issues?

"So far the only thing I know about Obama is his willingness to sit down and talk with Kim Jong Il, Hugo Chavez, Mamoud Amadinijad, and any other tin pot terrrorist dictator out there."

Better to negotiate than to spill blood and spend America into the poor house.

Regarding Ayers, just how close was Obama to him? All I know is that Obama just attended a fund raiser at his house. It hardly rises to the status of great friends.

[nohil-billy]

I'm really not sure that the Republicans are attacking him on anything Herb. Most of the disclosures about Obama are probably originating from the Clinton Camp and the follow up queries are legitimate. Socialized medicine and tax increases are part of the the Democratic mantra so what's the point of raising the issue with one or the other. You're the only one who appears able to distinguish any differences between these clones.

As for Ayers. Obama launched his political career at that fund raiser and we are talking local politics not national. Local political backing is all about friendship.

By the way Herb, did you know that Tony Rezko was born in Syria? Just pilin' on.

[Herb Schaffler]

"As for Ayers. Obama launched his political career at that fund raiser and we are talking local politics not national. Local political backing is all about friendship."

Not necessarily!

"I'm really not sure that the Republicans are attacking him on anything Herb. Most of the disclosures about Obama are probably originating from the Clinton Camp and the follow up queries are legitimate"

Actually, the details about Wright were reported by Sean Hannity a whole year ago in April 2007. Sean Hannity gave the information about Ayers to Stephanopoulis to bring up in the debate. Hannity later commented on how the Democrats can't do any investigation on their own, they have to get it from him. So these big "scandals" seem to have been dug up by Sean Hannity and the Democrats got them from him.

"Socialized medicine and tax increases are part of the the Democratic mantra so what's the point of raising the issue with one or the other. You're the only one who appears able to distinguish any differences between these clones."

I didn't say the Democrats should be using these issues against each other. The Republicans should be focusing on these issues and pointing out how these issues will harm the public. It seems the Republicans are more interested in demagoguery and thus appealing to people's emotions over these guilt by association issues rather than appealing to peoples's minds by talking about substantive issues.

[Herb Schaffler]

Obama Said That It Is Not Incompatible For The Second Amendment To Be Respected And To Crack Down On Gun Violence. Tim Russert asked, "Senator Obama, when you were in the state senate, you talked about licensing and registering gun owners. Would you do that as president?" Obama said, "I don't think that we can get that done. But what I do think we can do is to provide just some common-sense enforcement...But here's the broader context that I think is important for us to remember. We essentially have two realities, when it comes to guns, in this country. You've got the tradition of lawful gun ownership, that all of us saw, as we travel around rural parts of the country. And it is very important for many Americans to be able to hunt, fish, take their kids out, teach them how to shoot. And then you've got the reality of 34 Chicago public school students who get shot down on the streets of Chicago. We can reconcile those two realities by making sure the Second Amendment is respected and that people are able to lawfully own guns, but that we also start cracking down on the kinds of abuses of firearms that we see on the streets." [[LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. ]
Obama: America Has A "Tradition Of Gun Ownership In This Country That Can Be Respected." The Weekly Standard reported, "When a student asks Obama for his views on the Second Amendment, he reminds his audience that he taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago and is thus familiar with the arguments regarding the right to bear arms. He acknowledges 'a tradition of gun ownership in this country that can be respected,' and says that his academic studies convinced him gun ownership 'is an individual right and not just the right of a militia.' But he was not finished. 'Like all rights, though, they are constrained by the needs and the rights of the community.' Obama then spoke of 34 students who were killed on the streets of Chicago and called for sensible gun control to prevent senseless death." [[LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. , 12/17/07]
Obama Said That The Rights Of Hunters And Lawful Gun Owners Can Be Protected While Working To Reduce Gun Violence. "On guns, the plan states, 'Obama believes that we can protect the rights of hunters and other lawful gun owners while still working to reduce gun violence.'" [Las Vegas Review Journal, 11/7/07]
2001: Obama "I Do Not Object To The Lawful Use And Ownership Of Handguns." Obama said, "I do not object to the lawful use and ownership of firearms, but I do think it is entirely it appropriate for the state to monitor it. Too many of these guns end up in the hands of criminals even though they were originally purchased by people who did not have a felony." [Chicago Defender, 7/5/01]

[Herb Schaffler]

REALITY: AYERS CONNECTION IS "PHONY," TENUOUS," "A STRETCH"


Chicago Sun Times: Obama's Connection To Ayers Is A "Phony Flap". The Chicago Sun-Times wrote in an editorial, "But Ayers, it is also true to say, has since followed in the footsteps of the great Chicago social worker Jane Addams, crusading for education and juvenile justice reform. His 1997 book, A Kind and Just Parent: The Children of Juvenile Court, has been praised for exposing how Cook County's juvenile justice system all but eliminates a child's chance for redemption. Is Barack Obama consorting with a radical? Hardly. Ayers is nothing more than an aging lefty with a foolish past who is doing good. And while, yes, Obama is friendly with Ayers, it appears to be only in the way of two community activists whose circles overlap. Obama's middle name is Hussein. That doesn't make him an Islamic terrorist. He stopped wearing a flag pin. That doesn't make him unpatriotic. And he's friendly with UIC Professor William Ayers. That doesn't make him a bomb thrower. Time to move on to Phony Flap 6,537,204." [Chicago Sun-Times, 3/3/08]
Washington Post: Obama-Ayers Link "Is A Tenuous One." The Washington Post reported in a fact check, "But the Obama-Ayers link is a tenuous one. As Newsday pointed out, Clinton has her own, also tenuous, Weatherman connection. Her husband commuted the sentences of a couple of convicted Weather Underground members, Susan Rosenberg and Linda Sue Evans, shortly before leaving office in January 2001. Which is worse: pardoning a convicted terrorist or accepting a campaign contribution from a former Weatherman who was never convicted?" [[LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. ]
Woods Fund President Harrington: "This Whole Connection Is A Stretch." The Washington Post reported in a fact check, "Whatever his past, Ayers is now a respected member of the Chicago intelligentsia, and still a member of the Woods Fund Board. The president of the Woods Fund, Deborah Harrington, said he had been selected for the board because of his solid academic credentials and 'passion for social justice.' 'This whole connection is a stretch,' Harrington told me. 'Barack was very well known in Chicago, and a highly respected legislator. It would be difficult to find people round here who never volunteered or contributed money to one of his campaigns.'" [[LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. ]
Noam Scheiber Of TNR: "I Don't See Evidence Of Any Relationship" Between Obama And Ayers. Noam Scheiber of The New Republic wrote, "Ben says Ayers and Obama were, at best, casual friends. Even that seems to overstate things, though. I don't see evidence of any relationship. The only concrete connection we know of is the meeting, which was attended by a number of local liberals; their contemporaneous membership on the board of a local organization; and a $200-donation by Ayers to one of Obama's state senate campaigns. (Obama also once praised something Ayers had written about the juvenile justice system.) I'm not saying they couldn't have been casual friends; just that there isn't much evidence for that at this point." [[LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. ]
Birdsell: Obama Links To Ayers Were "Pretty Slender Ties." The New York Sun reported, "'Those are pretty slender ties to a controversial figure,' the dean of Baruch College's School of Public Affairs, David Birdsell, said of Mr. Obama's links to Mr. Ayers." [[LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. ]

RHETORIC: He was then asked about his association with William Ayers, a member of the Weather Underground, a radical group from the 1960s and '70s. Ayers was quoted after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, as saying he did not regret setting bombs and that "we didn't do enough." [Washington Post, 4/17/08]


REALITY: AYERS COMMENTS WERE PUBLISHED ON SEPTEMBER 11; THE INTERVIEW OCCURRED PRIOR TO PUBLICATION


On September 11, 2001, A Story About William Ayers' Memoir Was Published In The New York Times; The Interview Occurred Prior To Publication. "'I don't regret setting bombs,' Bill Ayers said. 'I feel we didn't do enough.' Mr. Ayers, who spent the 1970's as a fugitive in the Weather Underground, was sitting in the kitchen of his big turn-of-the-19th-century stone house in the Hyde Park district of Chicago." [New York Times, 9/11/01]

[nohil-billy]

The Chicago Sun Times, Washington Post, New york Sun, The New Republic....

And who would you go see for a reference for John Dillinger Herb, Al Capone?

[nohil-billy]

Ok Herb, Sean Hannity. So how does that equate to the Republican Party?

[nohil-billy]

34 public school students get gunned down on the streets of Chicago. Sounds like the Community Organizers aren't doing their jobs.