Ayers vs. Keating

The Obama campaign wants us to believe that Barack Obama's affiliation with William Ayers is equivalent to John McCain's involvement in the Keating 5 scandal, but is that true? Let's explore.

The Keating 5 scandal involved five Senators who were accused of not taking action against Keatings company because he had made contributions to them. However, it should have become known as the Keating 3 scandal, since two of the Senators, John McCain and John Glenn were fully cleared of any and all wrongdoing, though some people still said that they exercised poor judgment, so, at worst, John McCain made a mistake, 21 years ago, and presumably, he has been able to learn from his mistakes, assuming he even did that much, which is not certain. At the time, McCain's position was that they could not take any inappropriate action on behalf of Keatings company, and that they had to put the American people first. At a meeting in April of 1987 McCain said, "One of our jobs as elected officials is to help constituents in a proper fashion. ACC [American Continental Corporation] is a big employer and important to the local economy. I wouldn't want any special favors for them.... I don't want any part of our conversation to be improper." At that same meeting, John Glenn stated, "To be blunt, you should charge them or get off their backs," showing that neither of them were looking to take the side of this company, nor did they want to cause them undue harm, and thus hurt the people who were working for the company. After that meeting, McCain never had any further contact with Keating. You can decide if he made the right decision or not, but, as I said before, at worst, he made a mistake.

Now, according to the Obama Campaign, this is equivalent to his relationship to 1960's terrorist William Ayers. Ayers is one of the founders of a group called the Weather Underground, and this group in general, and Ayers in particular were responsible for carrying out, and attempting, multiple bombings of Government and police buildings back in the late 60's and Early 70's. So, unlike Keating, Ayers killed people, and the organization that he founded, killed even more. One of Obama's first political meetings, or fund raisers, or however they want to qualify it, was held in Ayers' home, and they sat on the board of a foundation together, supporting radical causes. Ayers and his wife, another terrorist, were big parts of Obama's first run for public office. Obama's campaign tries to say that this isn't so bad because Obama was only eight years old when Ayers was out bombing his Country. On that front, so what? Does that make him someone you would want to be a friend to? I hadn't been born when Ayers was out doing these things, but I would certainly not associate with him, but there's more to it than that. You see on September 11th, 2001, while the rest of the country was trying to process the horrible events of that day, Ayers was making a statement that he felt that he had not done enough to damage his country. Obama was somewhat more than eight years old at that time. And, oh yeah, Ayers is an unrepentant TERRORIST! Somehow, having a friend like this, and they are friends, no matter what Obama tries to say, doesn't seem to bode well for someone who wants to be president, and to me, is far worse than some minor mistake that McCain may or may not have made 20 years go.

This tactic by the Obama Campaign is classic liberal running for cover. It's campaigning on the level of "I'm the rubber and you're the glue, whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you!" Whenever Obama doesn't have a good answer for something, he stands up and says, "But the other guy does thus and such," while never dealing with the actual issue at hand.