I cringe when I see the Ayers talking point, as if the problem with Obama is that he's such an extreme radical. Just buckshot whackamole, grasping at everything available, when there is much of legitimate concern to be legitimately concerned about.

Ditto for the Obama-doesn't-know-how-many-states-there-are meme. It was a joke, folks (like McCain's $5M/year joke). Fer crissakes, he was born and went to high school in the state that's loud and proud about being the 50th and last state (Iraq notwithstanding). And also, speaking of the Aloha state, the moronic complaints about him taking a vacation.

he doesn't.

So if someone else considers Ayers important, they are zombies?

You don't really define the talking point, but you compare it to something that didn't ever happen, then throw in the word "truthiness" as if Ayers really wasn't a domestic terrorist and a 20-year associate of Senator Obama.

------------------------------------------------
“I don't belong to any organized political party. I'm a Democrat.” - Will Rogers

...what matters is Obama's dishonesty about Ayres.

From the "what Obama should have said files"...

Yes, I knew Bill Ayres. He's from a wealthy and highly influential Chicago family, and despite his radical background had managed to "re-invent" himself in Chicago politics well before I arrived in Chicago. One of my most important priorities is public education, and Bill Ayres was at the center of education reform initiatives in Chicago -- if you wanted to improve public education in that city, that meant working with Bill Ayres. I did so, and based on my work on educational reform initiatives, he was among my earliest supporters when I ran for State Senate the first time. If people want to hold my decision to be as effective an advocate for our children against me because of that, that's up to them."

I intensely dislike spoiled little rich anarchists who go around blowing stuff up, rant about THE MAN, and then run home to daddy when they need lawyering up. And that's Ayers' and Dohrn's life story.

I've never used the epithet "limousine liberal" even ironically, and I have no trouble at all with the economic elite spouting off liberal ideas, but since the 2000 GOP convention, when Philadelphia spent a LOT to spruce the place up - and our tax base is pretty much sucked from the onerous wage tax of ~5% laid on working people - and chichi anarchists from around the world trashed Walnut street franchise stores for... for .... yeah, whatever, and went back home to the 'burbs, well, let's just say I have no patience for that crap.

When I leaned that Ayers' rich daddy is still in the (small l) loop, still selling energy, and still influencing Chicago politics, well, yeah, I got sick. It still makes me sick.

As for Rev. Wright (another Philly native), I'd vote for HIM for POTUS before I'd vote for BHO. Watched his Bill Moyers interview and was mostly impressed. But again, he's a political liability because the God-wallowers in the elctorate like to sniff the butts of anyone who comes around talking about their own church, and lots of America's God-wallowers clearly did NOT like what they smelled of Wright.

And the fact that the DNC couldn't even spare someone to go check out The Anointed Candidate At Church on a couple of Sundays, when they were going to promote him as the Democrat with Fortified Jesus(tm)???

Come on.

I like Wright, detest Ayers, and have no opinion on Rezko. I know that each of them produces an "ew" reaction in some voters out there, whatever their reasons.

I also know that the tales BHO spun about his relationships with all of these people didn't pass the smell test, sometimes after multiple attempts.

What posts should we make to connect with "a large number of extremely pissed off women who have no place to go at all"?

How about posts about all the put-downs of women in the convention (I have no time now to do the linky goodness, sadly):
-both MO and HRC being "primetime" but getting pushed to 10 and 10:30
...while even Bill got 9-9:15--and even BO's "surprise" appearance got put in before the 11:00 news
-the 'women's night' had many men and in prime time slots--and not talking about women or women's vote at all or very briefly
-the media covering Schweitzer and praising him more than Hillary in a number of cases (are they crazy??)
-the Hillary-bashing appeared in many ways including 'she can't get over it' and doing 'way more than anyone ever' isn't enough--for a woman only?
-the Obama team did not defend Hillary or call out any of the media on talking about her badly or call any of the media on sexism, including the media's sexist treatment of Michelle
-that only Hillary is expected to elect her rival (Obama/Clinton rulz) and is being blamed for his poll numbers already
-Hillary is being criticized on her "warmness"('women' must be 'warm' dontcha know)--as was Michelle, including many close-ups of Michelle and evaluations of her supposed "thoughts and feelings" based on her criticized "expression"
-Hillary is being evaluated on her clothes, often meanly, while men's clothes are not even being discussed
-Michelle's clothes were discussed in the first paragraph about her speech in at least one major news organization
-when both Michelle and Hillary were praised, being a good mother figured largely in both accounts, while it's too bad that Joe Biden's good dad creds were downplayed (at least when I was listening) and other male politicians's parenting wasn't mentioned
-Hillary as a major candidate and her huge success being such a breakthrough for women was not recognized at all sufficiently--
and that's not even getting into the upsetting roll call.

If y'all want it, there's a lot more.

We're not getting ponies now?

Can you ride gazelles or train them to pull a cart?

How many people does McCain not know? How many times did Bush never meet someone (see photograph).

But when you've got a short resume, a funny name, and not even your most ardent supporters are sure exactly what your accomplishments are or what positions you hold, then, yeah, people are going to go about digging and casting for clues. Life's unfair.

[OFB]GET OVER IT.[/OFB]

esp since you seem to find this so important, lambert.

and not a post that scrolls away-- make a sidebar by collecting all Chicago links that are in the archives here.

And there you have it. If it was that easy, it would already have been done.

And in the case of Rezko, it was. BHO had to go, hat in hand, to the offices of one of the Chicago newspapers, to 'fess up that, yes, the amount of money Rezko amassed for him over the years was $250K and not the five figures he tried to bamboozle us with at the beginning of his campaign.

This was the same day he appeared on every talk show to do Rev. Wright damage control, the Friday y before the greatest speech EVAH, and all Keith O. had to ask the candidate about this slip-up??

"Why haven't we heard about this before?"

Oh, and by the way, the famous Obama character shone through again: When he was going around using the five-figure numbers? Yeah, he was relying on data from "his staff".

It was another article - in a newspaper from Texas - which revealed that all of Obama's legislative "achievements" were simply appropriated for him by Emil Jones in the State House.

And the full details on how BHO came to live in his house only rather recently came to light.

There are, of course, things which are going to take more than $100 to uncover, and in the end, life isn't fair and some things catch fire with the public imagination, while others do not. Some people got into a lather about Wright, others like myself think that a 1000%-plus mistake on how much money you got from your local gangster friend for your campaigns - the guy who enabled you to own the house you live in - is a Big Deal.

A good campaign is going to throw a bunch of crap against the wall and see what sticks. So far, BHO seems rather Reaganesque in his Teflon quotient. That's good news for his supporters.

And while we're on the subject, is anyone else slightly embarrassed for Dean and that "Ask Me how many houses I own" button? Anyone? Bueller?

every single thing about that place and that machine is more important than ever, no?

I don't think there will be too many loose lips to be found in Chicago between now and November.

for the first time now, in Denver--more needs to be known about her too.