Barack Obama and Bill Ayers: Why Conservatives Care

By the time Barack Obama met him, Weather Undground leader Bill Ayers may very well have been a reformed, well-respected educator and political advocate living in Chicago.

Trouble is, one can't undo one's past mistakes, if one refuses to acknowledge them as mistakes. Ayers, for all the good he had done, was still the founder and former leader of a violent radical left-wing group responsible for acts of domestic terrorism that included bombings bombings of the New York City Police Headquarters in 1970, of the Capitol building in 1971 and the Pentagon in 1972.

And there's little doubt that Obama knew exactly who Ayers was and what he had done.

The most important thing to know about the world of politics is that it is a GIANT gossip pool. Democrat, Republican, Green, Libertarian, none of that matters when you enter the larger world of politics. Again, unless he lived under a rock and only came out to serve on his boards, there is no way Obama couldn't have known Ayers had been a member of the Weather Underground. It was something of which Ayers was quite proud. Check out the picture above -- that's Ayers on the left in 2003 at the Sundance Film Festival's premiere of The Weather Underground.

But let's pretend for a moment that Obama did not know. The big question here is, "Why did Ayers' throw a coffee fund-raiser at his home for Obama?" Politicians don't just hold coffees for people they don't know or respect. Most of the time, in the political world, when people throw fund-raisers for a candidate, it's because they not only know that candidate, they also respect that candidate and believe in that candidate. In most of these situations, the candidate and the fund-raiser have gotten to know one another and, through conversation, have begun to realize they have certain ideologies in common. A fund-raiser is often very expensive to hold (even a coffee) and it's a statement to the public about the relationship the fund-raiser has with the person for whom the event is being thrown. It's kind of like a birthday party. You don't throw a birthday party for someone you don't really know unless you're the caterer.

Ayers certainly wasn't the caterer in this case.

And now we come to the rub. Although I don't buy this next hypothesis, I'm going to put it out there because it's the alternative theory.

Very rarely, someone will hold a fund-raiser for a candidate they don't know. As I say, this is rare, and it's done for one reason and one reason only: the candidate in question has promised them something of value in exchange for their time, money and energy. This is a little more insidious because this is essentially what it means to have a politician in your pocket. That candidate then becomes beholden to the person holding the fund-raiser.

That, I don't buy. I find it hard to believe that when he announced he was running for state Senate, Ayers asked Obama to do something for him legislatively, and Obama agreed. Not that I would put it past Ayers, but I honestly don't think Obama is that devious. I've said it before -- I think Obama's a pretty sharp guy. And, contrary to what people may think, I believe him to be a fairly decent man. He strikes me as a very intelligent guy, and not someone who would do something like that so early in his career. Plus, what could Ayers possibly need so badly that he would attempt to buy a politican? So that theory doesn't make any sense. But it is the alternative.

OK. So that pretty much leaves us with the first scenario.

Next question: Why does it matter that Obama was associated with this guy? It matters for two reasons. First, the moment Obama found out about Ayers' background, he should have distanced himself from him. Ayers may be reformed, but he's hardly repentant. In an interview with a reporter in 1998, Ayers proclaimed, "Guilty as hell; free as a bird. America is a great country."

With regard to Obama, the question is one of judgment. No one's saying that Obama is a radical terrorist because he hung around this guy. So, then ... what? If it was all those years ago, and Obama was new and didn't know any better, why not give him a pass?

That would be a fair enough question, except for one thing: Obama isn't saying that. Right now, he's saying, "Oh, I hardly knew the guy."

For conservatives, the question becomes, "OK, then why did he host a coffee for you?" Coffees are intimate little gatherings.

And that brings me to the next reason Obama's association with Ayers is important: either Obama is lying now, or he was in Ayers' pocket then. And, as I said, I don't think Obama was in Ayers' pocket -- or rather, I don't like to think he was in Ayers' pocket. Which means Obama isn't telling the whole truth about his relationship with Ayers.

There's more though.

Ayers and Obama crossed paths at Columbia University. They were there at the same time. Ayers' wife and Obama's wife crossed paths at the same law firm in suburban Chicago. They, too, were there at the same time. Now, it's possible these are all just chance circumstances, but I'm not so sure. They had to at least be aware of the others' presence at those places, even if they didn't meet or talk to one another. But, you can sure as hell bet that it was a topic of conversation when they were sitting on the Annenberg Foundation board together. And these coincidences were probably topics that got them talking, reminiscing and perhaps even finding common ground. What we know for sure is, after serving on the board together, Ayers threw Obama a coffee and helped kick-start his political career.

So there it is. As you can see, Ayers' past has very little to do with the conservative outrage about Obama and this issue. Ayers' violent past is obviously the impetus for the unease, but the big issue is how Obama is handling the association today. He's trying to cover it up. And, as Nixon discovered lo those many years ago, the cover-up is almost always worse than the crime.

Obama Photo © Paul J. Richards/Getty Images
Ayers Photo © Jill Orschel at WireImage for Getty Images