Palin Was Right: Obama Was Pallin’ Around with Terrorists

John on November 14, 2008 at 11:34 am

Prior to the election the press was eager to factcheck anyone, from Sarah Palin to “bloggers”, who suggested Barack Obama and Bill Ayers were closer than either man was letting on. CNN said:

There is no indication that Ayers and Obama are now “palling around,” or that they have had an ongoing relationship in the past three years.

The “past three years” is a nice attempt to limit the scope of inquiry to a period of time when Obama was mostly travelling the country running for President. Given that Palin never said they were “pallin’ around these last three years” it’s hard to imagine how that little qualification of her comment inserted itself into this fact check. Is it off limits to ask if they were “pallin’ around” seven years ago? If so, why?

Now that the election is over, Ayers has a new edition of his memoir out in which he says this:

[W]e had served together on the board of a foundation, knew one another as neighbors and family friends, held an initial fund-raiser at my house, where I’d made a small donation to his earliest political campaign.

Note that this was written in July, long before Palin uttered the “pallin’ around with terrorists” line for which she has been pilloried. Given that Ayers describes the relationship as “family friends” and that he is in fact a former domestic terrorist who has never rejected his prior actions, what exactly was wrong with her description?

The Chicago Tribune seems to be chocking on it a bit as well:

During the campaign, Ayers’ friendship with Obama was a favorite subject of conservative bloggers and talk show hosts who insisted the two were closer than the candidate was admitting. Ayers’ new description of the relationship seems to contradict Obama’s statements.

Yeah, it’s almost like those bloggers were onto something.

[HT: Ace]

Category: Politics |