Bill O'Riley questioned Obama on his association with bomber Ayers (transcrpt)

RK

"Kill all the rich people. Break up their cars and apartments. Bring the revolution home, Kill your parents." --Bill Ayers, summing up the ideology of the Weather Underground

Can you imagine a candidate running for President that had ties to a man and his wife who were former federal fugitives wanted for over 30 bombings during the 1970's, some of whom they were personally responsible for: the New York City Police Headquarters in 1970, the Capitol building in 1971, and the Pentagon in 1972? Wow!

During an interview on the Bill O'Reilly Show, Barack Obama attempted to disassociate himself from Bill Ayers, a former member of the radical 60's and 70's domestic terrorist group, the Weather Underground.

Obama claimed that he "knew thousands of people" and then called his relationship with Ayers, "tangential". DBKP took a look at just who Bill Ayers is, his past, and whether Obama was telling the truth about the "tangential" tango between himself and the former domestic terrorist, that Ayers was merely one of the "thousands" of people in Obama's life.

We found the transcript of the show at the Chicgo Sun Times. Journalist Lynn Sweet's "bio" on Ayers:

"Ayers spent 10 years as a fugitive--and now lives in Hyde Park with wife Bernardine Dohrn--also a Weather Underground fugitive. They faced federal charges when they surfaced, eventually dropped. Ayers and Dohrn--who runs a program at Northwestern's law school--have become well regarded members of Chicago's civic community. I wrote a column in April explaining how the past of Ayers---an urban education specialist embraced by Mayor Daley--did not bother anyone in Chicago by the time Obama showed up on the scene."


The charges against Dohrn and Ayers were dropped, not due to insufficient evidence, but due to charges that the FBI used "improper surveillance".

Partial Transcript from Bill O'Reilly Interview of Barack Obama, 9-9-08

MR. O'REILLY: I'm sitting there, and I'm an American. I'm sitting there in Bismarck, North Dakota, I'm sitting there in Coral Springs, Florida, and I'm seeing Reverend Wright, I'm seeing Father Pfleger, who think Louis Farrakhan's a great guy, I'm seeing Bernadette Dohrm and Bill Ayers, Weather Underground radicals who don't think they bombed enough, I'm seeing MoveOn.org, who says General Betray Us, and I'm seeing you go to a Daily Kos convention -- and this week, Daily Kos came out and said that Sarah Palin's Down syndrome baby was birthed by her 15-year old with no proof -- they put that on there -- and I'm going, gee, that Barack Obama, he's got some pretty bad friends. Am I wrong?

Obama: Now, on this Ayers thing which, you know, you've been hyping, Bill, pretty good --

MR. O'REILLY: Not that much. You know, you were on the Woods Foundation board --

SEN. OBAMA: Here's the bottom line. This guy did something despicable 40 years ago.

MR. O'REILLY: You know, (it was ?) despicable last week when he said he didn't do enough bombings. That's last week!

SEN. OBAMA: I haven't seen the guy in a year and a half.

MR. O'REILLY: But you know who he was. He's on the Woods Foundation board. You know he is there.

SEN. OBAMA: Let me finish my point, all right. Here's a guy who does something despicable when I'm 8-years old.

MR. O'REILLY: Okay.

-snip- SEN. OBAMA: All right. I come to Chicago, he's working with Mayor Richard Daley, not known to be a radical. So he and I know each other as a consequence of work he's doing on education. That is not an endorsement of his views. That's not me --

-snip-

SEN. OBAMA: That's pretty flimsy. Here's the point, right. This guy is not part of my campaign. He's not some adviser of mine. He is somebody who worked on education issues in Chicago that I know. The problem that your viewers, your guys, your folks, the folks you champion, the problem you're going through, the problems they're going through with trying to pay their bills, trying to keep their job, trying to move up in this world, their problem isn't Bill Ayers. It was Bill Ayers 40 years ago when he was blowing stuff up.

Was Ayers merely one of the "thousands" of people in Obama's life as he stated to O' Reilly?

During the interview Obama painted a very "slim" picture of Ayers, claiming that when Obama "met" Ayers, Ayers was "working with Mayor Daley" and "not known to be a radical" and that Ayers was "somebody who worked on education issues in Chicago that I know."

According to Capital Research.org, Obama may "know" Ayers a bit more than the current Obama campaign meme. In 1995, the two former Weather Underground domestic terrorists, Ayers and Dohrn, held a fundraiser for Obama's Illinois state representative run in their own home. Not just "any" fundraiser, but the very first fundraiser for Obama, for his first run for public office.

Another source of the Ayers fundraiser is an article from Investors Business Daily:

According to Investors Business Daily, National Review writer Stanley Kurtz has been stonewalled in his investigation into the relationship between Ayers and Obama:

"We have written extensively on the socialist past of Barack Obama as expressed in his proposals and associations, both personal and organizational. One of those associations is between Obama and Ayers, a leader of the Weather Underground, a '60s terrorist group.

It's true Obama has condemned and disassociated himself from the terrorist actions of Ayers and the Underground. But Ayers has never repudiated or apologized for his past, and if there's one word that should always precede his name, it would be "unrepentant."

Not only did Ayers hold Obama's first political fundraiser in his home in 1995, Obama and Ayers had later ties with their association with the Wood Foundation.