Friday, November 14, 2008
Ayers Speaks Out
Written by Matthew Locke at 4:20 PMWilliam Ayers appeared on Good Morning America this morning. In his six-minute interview Ayers, a former leader of the radical leftist Weather Underground, appears perfectly reasonable in comparison to his interviewer.
Chris Cuomo grills Ayers over and over on Republicans' ridiculous guilt-by-association charges. In particular, Cuomo insists that the real problem with the so-called relationship is the 'evasiveness' used in Obama's and Ayers's descriptions of it.
This is perhaps the most politically dangerous (or profitable, depending on whose side you're on) lines of attack in the guilt-by-association arsenal. It is virtually impossible to refute: short of admitting outright to whatever your interlocutor's accusations are, you will continue to be charged with evasiveness.
The fact is that Obama's description of his relationship with Ayers rings true, corresponds with Ayers's own characterization, and is reflected by the known record. And yet Cuomo can still sit in front of Ayers and, with face straight and tone grave, object that 'there's an evaiveness here.' Cuomo's prosecutorial questions are loaded ('Will you admit to your close relationship with Obama or are you going to continue to lie about it?') and irresponsible.
Ayers, every inch the professor, makes a vain attempt to raise the level of the conversation:What I'm saying about the guilt-by-association -- which, as you know, has a long and tragic history in this country -- what I'm saying is that every one of us actually should talk to lots and lots of people, and especially our political leaders. Far from being a demerit on his record, the fact that he's wiling to talk to a lot of people from a lot of different walks of life, listen to a lot of opinions, and still have a mind of his own is something we should honor and admire.
But Cuomo will have none of it, returning with another accusatory question:But then you have to come clean about saying, 'I'm one of those people.' Barack Obama either sought me out or I sought him out to discuss my ideas, my radical ideas, and then he made his own decision.
There's nothing Ayers has to 'come clean' about. He and Obama have both been forthright about their 'relationship', to the extent that there ever was one, which was was neither extensive nor substantive. That Obama didn't refuse to sit on a board which included Ayers does suggest a degree of open-mindedness. (As does, I gather, the very act of living in Hyde Park.) It does not mean that Obama took Ayers's counsel. And even if it did that doesn't mean he's unfit for the Presidency.
Fortunately the American people agreed. Now hopefully Ayers can go return to his life, and maybe sell a few extra books along the way.
