Neo-Conservatives and Bill Ayers

This issue of Bill Ayers is perfect for the neo-conservatives around McCain. Being former revolutionaries themselves in many cases, they know a former revolutionary like Bill Ayers when they see one. And since neo-conservatives really hate anyone like themselves who did not move to the Right, they are ready to pile on someone like Bill Ayers, even though his revolutionary days are long past and he has contributed to society, and been recognized as such by virtually everyone in his circle, including Republicans.

But this is such a crock. When Bill Ayers was doing his 60's revolutionary thing, Obama was in 3rd grade. When Obama went to Ayers house in Hyde Park, Chicago, for a political coffee in 1996 when running for the Illinois State Senate, Ayers was a distinguished professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, had been Chicago Citizen of the Year, was on the boards of numerous philanthropic foundations, etc. The Vietnam War and the turmoil surrounding was ancient history to Obama.

Time moves on, and so do people. Thank goodness. (Example: Nixon, disgraced and humiliated in resignation, was lauded in death on a bipartisan basis 20 years later.)

The Bill Ayers controversy is a sign of both desperation and character-assassination on the part of the McCain campaign. It is completely irrelevant to the crises that confront us.