Obama, Ayers, and the Annenberg Challenge Cover-Up Was Weather Underground leader Bill Ayers really just "a guy who lives in my neighborhood," as Obama described him? (More on Obama and Ayers from Roger L. Simon here. ) August 22, 2008 - by Tom Maguire Support Pajamas Media; Visit Our Advertisers Barack Obama and the unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers have worked closely together on education reform since 1995, and possibly since 1987. Obama has obfuscated and minimized this association in his public statements and on his website. Why the cover-up? We don’t know, since we aren’t sure what is being concealed. It’s becoming known as the Annenberg Challenge cover-up and it’s become big news since the McCain campaign highlighted it in a press release late Wednesday. In the past few days, Stanley Kurtz of the National Review has been trying to get access to the archives of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, an education reform group co-founded by Bill Ayers in 1995 and chaired by Barack Obama from 1995 to 1999. After originally giving Mr. Kurtz permission, the library then told him that he could not proceed because they did not have proper authorization from the donor of the archives. They would not identify the donor, but the library assured Mr. Kurtz that they hoped to conclude an agreement and make the documents available soon. And why that cover-up? This is what we know. Bill Ayers was a leader of the Weather Underground, a violent radical student group of the 1960s. His father, Thomas Ayers, was a prominent Chicago business and philanthropic leader who served as an adviser to Mayor Richard J. Daley, father of the current Chicago mayor. Although he is not apologetic about his terrorist past (and had the bad luck to be quoted as saying, in an interview that ran on Sept 11 2001, that “I don’t regret setting bombs. … I feel we didn’t do enough.â€), Bill Ayers has been accepted back into the Chicago political community and has been an informal adviser to the current Mayor Daley on education reform. But regardless of his cachet in the liberal circles of Chicago politics, presidential candidate Barack Obama has not been eager to explain his own relationship with Bill Ayers. Published reports from February 2008 gave a glimmer of their ties. In 1995 Ayers hosted a fund-raiser for Obama prior to Obama’s run for Alice Palmer’s seat in the state Senate; they both served on the board of the charitable Woods Fund of Chicago from 1999 to 2002; and Ayers donated $200 to Obama’s state Senate campaign. Other researchers and reporters (for example, Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun Times) noted a few joint panel appearances and a favorable review by Obama of a book by Bill Ayers. But even this was more than Obama was willing to admit. Asked point blank by George Stephanopoulos in the Philadelphia debate preceding the Pennsylvania primary to “explain that relationship for the voters,†Obama prevaricated by pretending he scarcely knew Ayers: This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood, who’s a professor of English in Chicago, who I know and who I have not received some official endorsement from. He’s not somebody who I exchange ideas from on a regular basis. It was left to Hillary Clinton to remind Obama of his service with Ayers on the board of the Woods Fund of Chicago. The next day the Obama campaign posted at their website a “Fact Check†purporting to explain the relationship. Other reporters had been told that “Bill Ayers lives in his neighborhood. Their kids attend the same school.†They were left with the impression that Ayers and Obama had first met at the 1995 fundraiser. And what was missing?
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Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1
He worked no more closely with him than Republicans did: Regardless of his background, it was never a problem for anyone — including Republicans and Chicago's most powerful business leaders — to work with Ayers on Chicago's public schools. In fact, Ayers is widely respected in the field of urban education. "It was never a concern by any of us in the Chicago school reform movement that he had led a fugitive life years earlier," said former Illinois state Republican Rep. Diana Nelson, who worked with both Obama and Ayers over the years. "It's ridiculous. There is no reason at all to smear Barack Obama with this association. It's nonsensical, and it just makes me crazy. It's so silly."
2
Ayers is neither a close friend nor an adviser of Barack Obama’s. He has no involvement in Obama’s campaign. . . . The “association†of Obama and Ayers, as has been extensively documented, consists of (1) a 1995 meeting of Chicago political figures at which Obama appeared, which took place in Ayers’ home; (2) the fact that the two served together on the board of the Woods Fund, a charitable organization; and (3) the fact that the two attended six meetings of the board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a program funded by the late Walter Annenberg, a longtime Republican donor and Richard Nixon’s ambassador to Great Britain. Obama chaired the group’s board, and Ayers attended the meetings to brief the board on education issues. But as The New York Times reported on October 4, “the two men [Obama and Ayers] do not appear to have been close. Nor has Mr. Obama ever expressed sympathy for the radical views and actions of Mr. Ayers, whom he has called ‘somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8.’ †Indeed, Obama was not in any way involved in Ayers’ actions in the late ’60s and early ’70s; Obama was between 8 and 11 years old at the time of the bombings in which Ayers said he participated as part of the Weather Underground.
3
You people and your conspiracy theories. Did you guys ever figure out how NASA faked the moon landing?
4
because he lies and don't want to be connected to that but obama the truth will set you free and cost you the election that's all
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http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/09/aip_founder_professed_hatred_f.php
6
If people knew the whole truth of this matter they would not vote for him (Obama). Hence, the effort to distance himself from the unpleasant realities of this relationship.
7
"Ayers is widely respected ..." I can't even believe I am reading "respected in the same sentence as "Ayers" Ayers is respected in the Chicago school system -- one of the WORST in the nation, second to Detroit -- and his efforts to fund raise for the school is purely to continue his radical thinking it was never to support the traditional education of those who wanted to encourage math and science, reading and writing, etc... Just because Annenberg is a Republican and the group was originally started by a group of Republicans does not mean that they support the direction CAC of Chicago. The grant was received but they did not do exactly what they initially led everyone to believe. And Look at who is supporting McCain -- Annengerg. Ayers is respected by his peers in the most corrupt political arena there is. The fact that he is respected is exactly why we should be fearful of him. He still is unrepentant... he still wishes he could have done more (to hurt and maim others) ... he still thinks he was found not guilty (the guy was never brought to trial because of the idiotic prosecutor) ... and he still thinks like he did back in the day (just trying to assimilate... and doing a good job) To that end, I think Obama is just trying to assimilate just to ensure he is elected as President and we will only go downhill from there!
