The BBC just reported, on the News at 10, that Barack Obama was giving an unscripted speech while it ran some video of Obama standing at a podium with a teleprompter screens either side of him. Perhaps they simply confused their VT. Or their script.
This morning, at work, a couple of colleagues scoffed at the McCain camp’s efforts to drag up the William Ayers connection. They didn’t know much about the story and they had accepted the MSM’s spin on Palin’s attack as a near-racist smear (AP story).
Perhaps it is worth remembering a few facts.
- William Ayers was a terrorist.
- The terrorist group of which he and his wife, Bernadine Dohrne, were national leaders, The Weathermen, made and planted bombs intended to kill American citizens
- Obama launched his bid for the US Senate at a fundraiser at Ayers’s house
For those of us in the UK, here’s an analogy. Imagine you’re the SDLP leader John Hume. Through gritted teeth you agree to serve on the same committee as Martin McGuinness – the erstwhile Head of the IRA’s Northern Command, personally responsible for numerous terrorist atrocities in the UK. You do this because you wish to help the progress of the peace process in Northern Ireland.
Then a general election is called. You decide to kick-off your re-election campaign at a fundraiser held at the house of … Martin McGuinness.
That’s a pretty near enough analogy. That’s the next US President.