Even if the charges were dropped, Ayers was still part of an organization that did engage in terrorist acts. He may have been found innocent for a particular incident, but he was knowingly part of a terrorist organization. Accepting funds from such an individual and holding campaigns at his house is disgraceful in my opinion.

Of course there isn’t anything wrong with being a communist. As a form of government I don’t think it’s the best and it usually ends up hurting the people it purports to help, but being one doesn’t make you evil any more than being pro-democracy makes you inherently good.

Having a campaign fund raiser somewhere doesn’t make you the organizer’s friend. I’d raise funds for Obama at my house if that would do any good. Doesn’t make me his friend.

The charges against Ayers were dropped, which in this country makes you innocent. Maybe it’s closed minded of me, but I think that politicians should be able to accept funds/fundraisers from anyone who isn’t a convicted criminal. Heck they should be able to receive funds from a convict and I would imagine they can.

“Obama minimized his relationship by acknowledging only that he knows Ayers. But they have quite a bit more of a connection than that. He’s appeared on panels with Ayers, served on a foundation board with him and held a 1995 campaign event at the home of Ayers and his wife, fellow former terrorist Bernardine Dohrn. Ayers even gave money to one of his campaigns.”

makes Ayers his friend and just looking at the link on the other matter doesn’t mean much to me. I’ve had people that I’ve looked up to as a young man turn out to be less than stellar individuals. Maybe I am drinking the Obama koolaid but I don’t see anything damning there. Does he have a “questionable past”? Sure ask all the questions you want, just don’t grasp at straws or strawmen. I don’t think he’s perfect and like you say in a newer post part of it boils down to voting for the least objectionable candidate. Not something I enjoy doing, but I gotta vote for someone.

Any comments that I make on someone’s blog isn’t just for the author. Again if your viewing habits are pretty broad, great. I was just pointing out that narrow viewing habits (right or left) lead to narrow minds.

And of course if Obama doesn’t win that doesn’t mean American is racist. But race does play a part for some.

If you weren’t making any assumptions about me, then why make a comment like “Personally I listen to a pretty broad spectrum of news sources form NPR to local Conservative talk radio and form Fox to well everything else on TV.” Were you just tooting your own horn?

No, I didn’t see any widespread racism in the south. That’s my experience, and since I haven’t done any scientific surveys, that’s all I can speak about. I never said that racism doesn’t exist. In fact, I specifically stated that it does. I’m just saying that if Obama doesn’t win, it’s not because America is racist.

I made no assumption in anything I wrote concerning your browsing habits. If what I said doesn’t apply to you, cool. If you’re open minded enough to check out more liberal sites, great. We both agree that the MSM has a bias I think. Most blogsites do too.

If you didn’t see racism, GREAT! Doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist. In my lifetime of experience in various parts of the south I’d say that it does exist, just in a more subtle way.

And no, I didn’t see racism as a problem where I lived. Again, I knew people who were racist, but they were a minority.

It’s been pretty well shown that anyone who gloms on to one source or another is going to draw incorrect conclusions. Also, you’ll need to define fawning. If by that you mean not using soundbites to defame a former pastor or not showing spurious links between Obama and and “radicals” who haven’t been radical in thirty years then yeah. That’s not what fawning means, but okay.

As I recall when we had a Democrat prez the media was just as hard on him and I expect that now that it’s just down to two we’ll see Obama get his share of licks fair and unfair. McCain has pretty well skated by too as far as the medai goes.

As for you living in the south are you saying when you live there you didn’t see racism as a problem? Mind you I’m not just talking about overt racism but about an underlying current and not just against black people, but Mexicans and folks of Middle Eastern extraction.