New Information About Ayers and His Association With Obama

Bill O'Reilly's October 22nd Talking Points Memo

Nobody disputes that Bill Ayers was a terrorist. His ideology was extreme back in the Vietnam War Era and he took measures that I find wrong. He has not engaged in terrorist activity since then. The fact that he is not repentant plays little or no part in his relationship with Barack Obama. Basically, Mr. O'Reilly has joined in John McCain and Sarah Palin's last ditch effort to blacken the name of Barack Obama and prevent him from getting elected by scaring voters. John McCain has had a close relationship to Charles Keating who was jailed for fraud, racketeering, and conspiracy related to the savings and loan scandal of the late 80's. McCain was criticized for poor judgment in his dealings with Mr. Keating. Obama, however, has nothing to be sorry about in his dealings with Mr. Ayers. They were on a board together and did not participate in anything illegal. I don't know about the rest of America, but if placed on a board with someone who had done something bad in the past, I would not shun him or decline to take the position because he was there. Now, if Mr. Ayers asked me to join him in some terrorist activity, I would decline and notify the proper authorities. This, however, did not happen.

Obviously Mr. O'Reilly has already made up his mind about Barack Obama. Does the Ayers connection to Obama affect that decision? If John McCain were associated in the same manner with Mr. Ayers would Mr. O'Reilly care? I submit that he would not. The situation is this: to Mr. O'Reilly the issues are of prime importance here. He has his take on those issues and is dead set to convince America that he is right. Well, let me rephrase that. He isn't dead set to convince America he is right on the issues. He is dead set to convince America to vote for his candidate. This is why both John McCain and Bill O'Reilly have been promoting the Ayers connection. They know that on issues alone, the majority of America does not agree with John McCain and will vote for Barack Obama. So, in order to sway the "undecided" voters (I call them undecided, but they are really the voters who can be intimidated), they try to scare voters into thinking Barack Obama is a terrorist by proxy of having associated with Bill Ayers in the past. It is very sad when politics are reduced to name calling and hearsay.

And that's "The CounterPoints Memo."