Got Any Follow-Up Qs, Ben Smith? [UPDATED x2]
By SusanUnPC on February 26, 2008 at 4:30 PM in Barack Obama, Media, Politico, William Ayers
UPDATE x2, 02/27 a.m.: It’s okay, people! Ben Smith has cleared it all up in an update to his post yesterday: “UPDATE: There’s been a bit of confusion about Axelrod’s line on the kids, who — as the Guardian’s Daniel Nasaw noted — aren’t the same age. Obama’s kids went go the the University of Chicago Lab Schools, where Ayers kids, who are much older, had gone. However, Bernardine Dohrn is still active at the school, and an Obama aide said that was the connection.” [COMPARE that to what "Ax" told Smith, just below, and tell me if you're now satisfied.]
Original: Today, Ben Smith of Politico.com reports that he didn’t get a chance to ask Barack Obama about his history with William Ayers, the unrepentant terrorist who Larry Johnson has written about extensively here. (Could part of Smith’s problem be that “Obama stiffs, stifles national press“?)
However, intrepid reporter Smith did ask David Axelrod, Obama’s campaign manager, about the relationship:
“Bill Ayers lives in his neighborhood. Their kids attend the same school,” he said. “They’re certainly friendly, they know each other, as anyone whose kids go to school together.”
Barack Obama’s two children were born in 1998 and 2001. William Ayers’ and Bernadine Dorhn’s two children? They were born before 1981. (Then there’s another child Ayers/Dohrn raised, Chesa Boudin, who is the biological son of former Weathermen David Gilbert and Kathy Boudin, and who is a Rhodes Scholar.)
Mr. Axelrod, you’re fortunate that Mr. Smith didn’t ask you any follow-up questions, and published your statement as if it were fact.
Now, Mr. Axelrod, if you’re asked again — or if by some chance some reporter gets to talk to your elusive star client candidate — what spin will you give the gullible that time?
UDPATE: This goes entirely beyond the long friendship between Ayers and Obama. This is about the Obama campaign’s LIES and SPIN to defuse, deflect, and obfuscate Obama’s history of questionable associations. It’s about their inability to TELL THE TRUTH.
I’d never say that Ben Smith is gullible. Probably when he hears about the problem with the dates and the children — and that it’s not remotely possible their “kids” go to the same school — he’ll be embarrassed? He’ll scramble to correct the record? I’m sure he’ll act post-haste.
At least, however, Ben Smith is asking questions. And there’s something to be said for that.
::::::::
By the way:
– The conservative bloggers are all over this story.
– While I was researching the facts of this, I ran across an article via Powell Books’s book reviews that I had not seen before, which describes the terrible violence of the Weathermen, as well as their elite arrogance: “Family Circle: The Boudins and the Aristocracy of the Left.”
– I’m in good company. A blogger for The Guardian noticed the problems with Ben Smith’s “interview” of David Axelrod on William Ayers. It turns out this blogger went to summer camp with Ayers’ children, and knows how old they are.
See The Guardian blog Deadline USA‘s “Obama and Bill Ayers” post.
, the basis for the Best Motion Picture Nominee (Golden Globes) starring Brad Pitt.
, the novel by John Le Carre, a new motion picture starring Gary Oldman and Colin Firth.
by 
* (Included in the 
* 
.by David Fredosso who wrote 2008's 
- You'll have access to 18 million movies, TV shows, songs, magazines, and books, as well as ultra-fast Web browsing with Amazon Silk -- faster than iPad. Full e-mail and document access and a keyboard. Fire can transmit what is on your screen onto a connected TV or monitor without an accessory. It runs Flash (iPad doesn't). 
