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Since the McCain campaign announced they would be launching personal attacks on Senator Obama as part of their "turn the page" on the economy strategy, McCain surrogates have taken to the campaign trail and the airwaves and brazenly lied about the alleged connection between Obama and Bill Ayers.
What they won't tell you is that after a thorough and exhaustive investigation the very story they cite as raising questions definitely concluded that Obama and Ayers "do not appear to have been close." This finding mirrors the findings of a number of other independent investigations, which found that the relationship alleged is "tenuous," "absurd," and lacking "evidence."
Notwithstanding the facts, we fully expect an increasingly frustrated and desperate McCain campaign to continue to lie in attacking Senator Obama.
However, the question remains -- will McCain and his allies be challenged by the press on their lies or will they be allowed to propagate them with impunity. Please find, below, a list of the most common lies the McCain campaign tells about Ayers and the actual facts that prove them false.
LIE: Obama and Ayers 'palled around' and have a meaningful relationship.
FACT: Multiple independent fact checkers and investigative reporters have concluded that the link between Obama and Ayers is "tenuous" and that there is "no evidence of any relationship."
--AP: Palin Claim unsubstantiated, Obama was a child at the time of bombs and he has denounced Ayers radicalism. "[T]hough she may have scored a political hit each time, her attack was unsubstantiated... Obama, who was a child when the Weathermen were planting bombs, has denounced Ayers' radical views and actions." [10/5/08]
--CNN Fact Check: Obama and Ayers Are Not "Palling Around." "Verdict: False. There is no indication that Ayers and Obama are now 'palling around,' or that they have had an ongoing relationship in the past three years." [10/5/08]
--MNSBC: "Obama was never 'palling around' with Ayers." "But as the New York Times reported today, Obama was never "palling around" with Ayers. "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.'" [10/4/08]
--Washington Post: Obama-Ayers Link "Is A Tenuous One." The Washington Post reported in a fact check that "the Obama-Ayers link is a tenuous one." [Washington Post, 2/18/08]
--Time: Making An Issue Of Obama's Relationship With Ayers And Dohrn Is "Absurd." "Those have been the options in the debate. But the truth is a third option: Ayers and Dohrn are despicable, and yet making an issue of Obama's relationship with them is absurd." [Time, 5/29/08]
--Chicago Sun Times: Obama's Connection To Ayers Is A "Phony Flap". The Chicago Sun-Times wrote in an editorial, "But Ayers, it is also true to say, has since followed in the footsteps of the great Chicago social worker Jane Addams, crusading for education and juvenile justice reform. His 1997 book, A Kind and Just Parent: The Children of Juvenile Court, has been praised for exposing how Cook County's juvenile justice system all but eliminates a child's chance for redemption. Is Barack Obama consorting with a radical? Hardly. Ayers is nothing more than an aging lefty with a foolish past who is doing good. And while, yes, Obama is friendly with Ayers, it appears to be only in the way of two community activists whose circles overlap. Obama's middle name is Hussein. That doesn't make him an Islamic terrorist. He stopped wearing a flag pin. That doesn't make him unpatriotic. And he's friendly with UIC Professor William Ayers. That doesn't make him a bomb thrower. Time to move on to Phony Flap 6,537,204." [Chicago Sun-Times, 3/3/08]
--Noam Scheiber Of TNR: "I Don't See Evidence Of Any Relationship" Between Obama And Ayers. Noam Scheiber of The New Republic wrote, "Ben says Ayers and Obama were, at best, casual friends. Even that seems to overstate things, though. I don't see evidence of any relationship. The only concrete connection we know of is the meeting, which was attended by a number of local liberals; their contemporaneous membership on the board of a local organization; and a $200-donation by Ayers to one of Obama's state senate campaigns. (Obama also once praised something Ayers had written about the juvenile justice system.) I'm not saying they couldn't have been casual friends; just that there isn't much evidence for that at this point." [The New Republic, 2/22/08]
--George Packer: The Obama-Ayers "Media Flap Is An Absurd And Opportunistic Piece Of Guilt By Association" That "Deserves To Die A Swift And Ignominious Death." "Now George Stephanopoulos, Hillary Clinton, and a legion of Republican strategists are tying Bill to Obama because they sat on the board of a foundation together. What if they did? And what if they're friendly neighbors in Hyde Park? Bill and Bernardine are also friends with an old friend of mine who has a sterling reputation as a juvenile-court judge. Does that prove anything, other than that they've had successful careers in education and law, respectively? This latest media flap is an absurd and opportunistic piece of guilt by association. Unlike Obama's membership for many years in the church of Reverend Jeremiah Wright, or his comments last week in San Francisco, it raises no questions about his beliefs, only about our trivial political culture. It deserves to die a swift and ignominious death." [New Yorker, 4/18/08]
LIE: The New York Times story cited by the McCain campaign finds evidence of a relationship between Obama and Ayers.
FACT: The Very Story Cited By McCain Finds That a Review Of Records And Interviews Shows That Obama And Ayers "Do Not Appear To Have Been Close" And Obama Has Never Expressed Sympathy For The Radical Views Or Actions Of Ayers. "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." [New York Times, 10/3/08]
LIE: Senator Obama's political career was launched at a fundraiser hosted by Ayers.
FACT: Barack Obama had served Chicago as a community organizer who helped to restore opportunity to a community devastated by a steel plant closing. After serving as the editor of the Harvard Law Review, he returned to Chicago to run a city-wide voter registration effort in 1992 that helped to deliver Illinois for Clinton-Gore. As the New York Times confirmed, previous coffees had been hosted for Obama's State Senate campaign. State Senator Alice Palmer, Obama's predecessor, introduced some of her longtime supporters to Obama at Ayers home. That's it. It wasn't even a fundraiser. [10/3/08]
LIE: The Annenberg Challenge was a radical organization that promoted a liberal agenda in schools.
FACT: The Annenberg Challenge was funded by Republican Walter Annenberg, an ambassador during the Nixon administration and friend of President Reagan's. Illinois Republican Governor Jim Edgar and the conservative Tribune Foundation both wrote to Annenberg requesting funds for a foundation to help Chicago schools. Republican Governor Jim Edgar and Mayor Richard Daley announced the formation of the Annenberg Challenge in a joint event, and their administrations' continued to work closely with the Challenge throughout its existence. Reading and math scores for underperforming students improved during the course of the Challenge, and as a result of the Challenge there are now hundreds more board certified teachers in Chicago Public Schools. [10/3/08]
LIE: Bill Ayers recruited Obama to the Annenberg Challenge board.
FACT: Obama met Ayers at a meeting of the Challenge Board. Deborah Leff, with whom Obama served on another board, recommended that Obama join the Annenberg Challenge. He was recruited over a dinner with board member Pat Graham. The bipartisan founding board, which included Republican Arnold Weber, elected Obama Chair. [10/3/08]
LIE: Ayers has not been accepted by any community outside of Chicago.
FACT: Ayers is known in other communities like Columbia, SC. He is currently a distinguished scholar at the University of South Carolina where Republican Governor Mark Sanford, who supported Senator McCain's campaign as far back as the 2000 primaries, serves as an ex officio member of the Board of Trustees. By Governor Palin's standards, that means Governor Sanford shares Ayers' views.
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