The problem with the guilt by association story regarding Wright and Ayers is that is assumes that we can read the mind of Obama and know his "true" motivations. It assumes that more than simply being a rather left wing politician, that he is particularly deceptive and sinister in his ultimate goals.

I had an interesting FB comment exchange with some "true believers" last night. I found this rather enlightening and disturbing.

Walt - Gotta agree with Mary Katherine Ham: the Obama campaign is predictably whiny about Ayers: http://is.gd/3xgw.via Twitter - 11:05pm

Will Hinton at 11:09pm October 4
The Ayers story is a non-story.

George Lincoln at 11:12pm October 4
obama's strong ties to terrorist William Ayres is a non-story only to those who want black moslem leader barack hussein osama obama bin ladden to sieze control over America, turning it into the 58th islamofascist state.

Will Hinton at 11:14pm October 4
And now the nut-jobs come out of the closet.... :)

Walt Gilbert at 11:18pm October 4
If it were a "non-story", it wouldn't have made the front page of the Times today, Obama wouldn't have tried to minimize it by saying that Ayers is a "guy who lives in my neighborhood" when in fact he chaired the board for an organization that Ayers founded, and funneled $100 million into the education projects that Ayers was advocating at the time.

If it were a "non-story", people associated with the Chicago Annenberg Challenge wouldn't have tried to cut off access to the public records when they were being sought by an investigative journalist, and the Obama campaign wouldn't have sent out a blast "Action Alert" to its followers with talking points that consisted solely of attacks on the journalist and no denials of his associations with Ayers.

Clearly, Ayers is more than just a guy in Obama's neighborhood. And, clearly, Obama was seeking to minimize his association with Ayers for a reason. I submit that the reason is because he didn't want it to become a story.

Will Hinton at 11:21pm October 4
It's a non-story because you have to be intellectually dishonest to believe that Obama holds the same extremist views as Ayers. I believe that there are plenty of reasons to vote against Obama. But this isn't one of them. Same thing with the Jeremiah Wright story. You are just a blind partisan if you think that Obama is a black nationalist because of his association with Wright.

George Lincoln at 11:23pm October 4
What is nuts are all those millions of Americans faling for the pleasant sounding, empty words of barack hussein obama, who is the most left-wing extremist to ever run as a mainstream candidate in America. He has a strongly islamofascist upbrining, which his gullible supporters conveniently forget. And let is not forget that terrorist William Ayers is not the only America-hater that has very close ties with obama

George Lincoln at 11:25pm October 4
Obama said that America had 57 states because he sees himself as becoming leader of the 57 islamofascist countries. In an interview with George Stepenopolous, obama repeatedly referred to his own moslem faith, only finally disguising it when Stepenopolous pointed out this secret about himself that Obama was giving away

Will Hinton at 11:25pm October 4
Actually what is nuts George is that your silly rantings and insinuations that Obama is Muslim are the very thing that is causing normal people to want to vote for him. Sheesh...I'm a lifelong conservative but you are making me want to vote for him too.

George Lincoln at 11:29pm October 4
both of obama's fathers were moslem. that makes him a moslem forever, according to moslem law. obama was eduacated in his very impressionable childhood years in islamofascist schools. obama has THE most left wing voting record in congress. obama befriends terrorists, islamofascists, and other antisemites. obama wants to confiscate all of our ... Read Morehard earned money for his pet left wing pro islamofascist projects. obama has never accomplished anything in his entire life, other than to con a lot of really gullible, ignorant Americans. obama is the worst person in the world.

Will Hinton at 11:32pm October 4
Why do you have to make Obama out to be the Anti-Christ to not vote for him??? Aren't his positions on the issues reason enough? By focusing on these bogus (yes, absolutely bogus) side issues, you let yourself be caricatured by the media (and rightly so) as right-wing kooks. Focus on the issues people. Of course, McCain supported and voted for this bailout bill to make us a socialist country just the same as Obama, so maybe focusing on the issues isn't enough. :)

Will Hinton at 11:33pm October 4
And people wonder why the Republican party is in shambles nationally! With friends like this, who needs enemies...

Walt Gilbert at 11:35pm October 4
It's duly noted which comments you chose to respond to and which ones you didn't, Will.

Will Hinton at 11:38pm October 4
Ha! That is hilarious! Am I now going to be reported to the RNC for not toeing the party line? Get a grip, Walter. This sort of nonsense is killing the Republican party.

Monica Showalter at 11:44pm October 4
I think the GOP needs to articulate better why this Ayers issue is important. My other independent pals aren't impressed either. But I do think it's important, so we have to refine our reasoning and arguments to reach people who otherwise think it's old dead cats being brought up in a counterproductive derangement syndrome. I think there's more to it than that, am just thinking of how that argument can be refined and expressed better.

Walt Gilbert at 11:49pm October 4
Climb down off your cross, Will. You accused me of intellectual dishonesty because I think it's fair to question Obama's relationship with Bill Ayers, when Obama has basically no other history upon which to focus. You may think it somehow "hilarious", but that only calls into question your own grip on reality.

Looking back on the sum total of Barack Obama's career, all you see is one radical tie after another -- ACORN, Pfleger, Wright, Ayers, and Frank Marshall Davis. He then put together an largely evasive stint in the Illinois legislature during which he voted against abortion legislation that even Planned Parenthood agreed posed no threat to Roe v. Wade. Since then, he has put together a voting record to the left of Bernie Sanders in the United States Senate after having only serve half a term.

Finally, would it be an issue if John McCain had chaired the board of a foundation set up by a man who had bombed abortion clinics? I think we BOTH know the answer to that.

Will Hinton at 12:04am October 5
Does the fact that Randall Terry and Jim Kopp (who killed an abortionist in Buffalo) lived at my house for 6 months disqualify me for public office?

The only people that this non-story resonates with are true believers like yourself who don't need convincing anyways. There is a reason that undecideds are not convinced by this line of "guilt by association".

George Lincoln at 1:22am October 5
Will Hinton is probably a lifelong Left-wing Dummycrat trying to mislead us into thinking he has ever even remotely considered voting for the Grand Old Party, the patriotic party, the Republican party. Meanwhile, America is committing suicide by choosing as their next President the black moslem leader barack hussein osama obama bin ladden

George Lincoln at 1:22am October 5
barack hussein osama obama is...the Worst Person in the World!