I do so like this new Obama ad. It calls it like it is. Last night, I heard a blurb on BBC World Service from Sarah Palin talking about Obama's "association" with William Ayers. They have decided to take that route.
In seminary, I had a friend who was older than I who was friends with members of the Weather Underground. He told me a story of being stopped at the Baltimore airport in the early seventies and being detained by the FBI because he had just seen a couple members off on a plane (along with a couple members of the Black Panthers as well).
By the standards the right is setting for "friendship" and "association", it seems I, too, have associated with domestic terrorists. Of course, it's nonsense, but the right deals in nonsense and has done so for years. It is only now, as it becomes part of our wider discussion of politics that we realize, "Hey, these people are nuts."
For the record, I don't think the Weather Underground was all that. And the Black Panthers were nothing more than community organizers in Oakland who were protecting themselves. More of them were hurt by law enforcement than they ever hurt in return. I do think it's funny the way the FBI overreacted to them, proving the point that armed African-Americans scared the white power structure to the point of massive psychosis. That, however, is a post for another day.
