Obama and ’60s Bomber: A Look Into Crossed Paths

[groovedaddy]

(this has probably been posted already, but still is worth the read. My comments entered in parens).
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In a televised interview last spring, Senator John McCain, Mr. Obama’s Republican rival, asked, “How can you countenance someone who was engaged in bombings that could have or did kill innocent people?”
(can McCain, as a Navy pilot in Vietnam, postively say that he never "bombed innocent people?" Oh yeah, they were Vietnamese - ALL GUILTY!).
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Their relationship has become a touchstone for opponents of Mr. Obama, the Democratic senator, in his bid for the presidency. Video clips on YouTube, including a new advertisement that was broadcast on Friday, juxtapose Mr. Obama’s face with the young Mr. Ayers or grainy shots of the bombings.
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A review of records of the schools project and interviews with a dozen people who know both men, suggest that Mr. Obama, 47, has played down his contacts with Mr. Ayers, 63. But the two men 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.”

Obama campaign aides said the Ayers relationship had been greatly exaggerated by opponents to smear the candidate.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/04/us/politics/04ayers.html?th&emc=th