Well, Z, the Bush family was friends with the Bin Laden family before the 9/11 attacks. Least we forget, the US was buddy, buddy with Saddam Hussein before the Desert Storm War.
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When moderator George Stephanopoulos asked Obama about Ayers, the senator said he is "a guy who lives in my neighborhood ... who I know and who I have not received some official endorsement from. He's not somebody who I exchange ideas from on a regular basis." He continued:
Obama: And the notion that somehow as a consequence of me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago when I was 8 years old, somehow reflects on me and my values, doesn't make much sense, George.
Obama also correctly said that President Bill Clinton had pardoned or commuted the sentences of two Weather Underground members who had, unlike Ayers, been convicted and sentenced to long prison terms. Bill Clinton indeed pardoned one and commuted the sentence of another.
Obama visited Ayer's home in 1995 at the invitation of an Illinois state senator, according to a Feb. 22 story in Politico.com. But Politico concluded, "There's no evidence their relationship is more than the casual friendship of two men who occupy overlapping Chicago political circles and who served together on the board of a Chicago foundation." And while we by no means defend or condone bombings of any kind, Clinton strained the facts to make Ayers' 1970s activities sound homicidal.
Flag Pin Dissembling
Obama did a bit of historical rewriting regarding his previous statements on wearing a U.S. flag pin in his lapel.
Obama: I have never said that I don't wear flag pins or refuse to wear flag pins. This is the kind of manufactured issue that our politics has become obsessed with. ...
Actually, last year he told an interviewer for station KCRG-TV in Cedar Rapids, Iowa:
Obama, Oct. 2007: I decided I won't wear that pin on my chest. Instead, I'm gonna try to tell the American people what I believe will make this country great and hopefully that will be a testimony to my patriotism.
And ABC News quoted him as saying that wearing flag pins had become "a substitute for ... true patriotism":
Obama, Oct. 2007: You know, the truth is that right after 9/11, I had a pin. ... Shortly after 9/11, particularly because as we're talking about the Iraq war, that became a substitute for I think true patriotism, which is speaking out on issues that are of importance to our national security. ...
Conservative critics have attacked Obama repeatedly for these remarks and his lack of a flag pin. Obama said during the debate that this "distracts us from what should be my job when I'm commander in chief, which is going to be figuring out how we get our troops out of Iraq and how we actually make our economy better for the American people."
Discuss