How did Ayers Make Obama Chair of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge?
October 5th, 2008 at 08:24pm kimberly
What is Obama hiding? When did he meet Ayers? Why did BO lie to the American public about his involvement with Ayers? Will McCain bring this up during Tuesday debate? One can only hope he will.
I can easily understand why some readers may have become confused by the explosion of stories today on the Obama/Ayers relationship.
The partial story told by the New York Times today is collapsing of its own weight but has likely added to the confusion. Since I am one of the “bloggers” referred to without an explanation in the Times’ story I thought I would summarize the top ten highlights of the current state of play. These ten key points confirm what I have argued all along - that Bill Ayers was responsible for the elevation of Obama to the Chicago Annenberg Challenge board.
1) The key question is whether Bill Ayers had a role in the selection of Barack Obama to become Chairman and President of the $160 million Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a multi year school reform effort started in 1995.
2) This is the key question because if it is true that Ayers played a role in Obama’s selection it indicates that Ayers and Obama had a pre-existing relationship.
3) If Ayers and Obama did have a pre-existing relationship it undermines claims by the Obama Campaign that the relationship between Ayers, an authoritarian political figure who once engaged in bombings to implement his politics, was “tenuous” or “casual” and that Ayers was just a neighbor of Obama’s in Hyde Park.
4) I believe that Obama and Ayers shared a similar world view with respect to education issues, at least. For example, during their time together running the Chicago Annenberg Challenge they supported funding for groups like the Small Schools Workshop and Local School Councils. These groups were criticized as engaging in “teacher bashing” by union activists and as a “political threat” to school principals by Arnold Weber, a fellow Annenberg board member.
5) I have presented evidence here at Global Labor that Ayers did in fact play a direct and personal role in Obama’s elevation to the CAC board. This evidence consists of letters exchanged at the time of these events between the national Annenberg Challenge led by Vartan Gregorian, the President of Brown University, and Bill Ayers, on the one hand, and between Gregorian and Adele Simmons, President of the MacArthur Foundation, an advisor to Ayers, on the other.
Those letters state clearly that Ayers was actively engaged in the board selection process in November and December of 1994.
I described those letter to the Times when asked about this and provided them copies.
Read the rest.
Entry Filed under: Barack Obama
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1. The Record Speaks For Itself | October 17th, 2008 at 8:03 am
: William Ayres Bombing History
William Ayres, for those who don’t know him was a member of the Weather Underground. These are the bombings his association was tied to.
February 21, 1970, bombs were exploded three gasoline-filled fire bombs at the home of New York State Supreme Court Justice Murtagh. The same night, bombs were thrown at a police car in Manhattan and two military recruiting stations in Brooklyn. March 6, 1970 a bomb under construction blew up in the groups home, killing three members. October 6, 1970 They blew up the 1886 Haymarket Riot statue in Chicago. Bombed the Unites States Capitol on March 1, 1971. Bombed the The Pentagon on May 19, 1972. They bombed the United States Department Of State January 29, 1975.
William Ayres is unrepentant and has written and spoken about wishing he had done more.
Knowing all this, would you want to be on the same board, have a political fundraiser thrown for you in his home, let him appoint you to a board of directors, shake his hand or even give him the time of day?
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