Obama and the Tenuous Weather Underground Connection

So, I'm getting ready to take off for the Pisgah--gonna do some camping in the Linville Gorge wilderness...gotta get away from civilization for a little bit lest I start getting as nutty as everybody else seems to be--but before I take off, I want to point out that I DO actually think that it's o.k. to ask Obama about his relationship to Ayers. It's too bad the debate last night was so ridiculous. In the absurd blizzard of Farakhan and flag fetishism and all that, it became impossible (for me, anyway) to take the Ayers thing seriously.

I realize that the question oozed forth from the fever swamps of Wingnuttia...but even sensible conservatives and sensible liberals should at least raise an eyebrow about an association with the Weather Underground. It all sounds pretty unremarkable to me--standard-issue kind of crap you end up doing when running for office--but it ought to be discussed a bit. Of course that's not the way Hillary and her new-found conservative allies are going to use it, but that doesn't mean that sensible people have to turn their backs on the question entirely. If Obama was just sort of making the circuit and kinda had to do this event at Ayers' house, well then yuck, but whatever. Liberals should be less concerned that Obama participated and more concerned that Ayers is a semi-accepted member of the Chicago Democratic world. Liberals have a tendency to be really lenient about hard lefties, when, as I keep pointing out, they're no more liberal than Limbaugh and company are.

Those are my quick thoughts anyway, for what they're worth. It's hard to keep your wits about you in this avalanche of hyper-partisan gotcha BS...but, hey, tough it out.