Why I oughta...

Now I'm pissed, "my friends." That homophobic, Joe six-pack, know-nothing wolf hunter Sarah Palin, at a total loss when it comes to presenting anything resembling facts, policies or a working knowledge of government, has now joined her party in resorting to spurious attacks against Barack Obama, this time for his "ties" to a guy named William Ayers.

Ayers was a founder of the radical Weather Underground, which was involved in several bombings in the early 1970s, including the Pentagon and the Capitol. Ayers also happens to hail from the same Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago as Senator Obama, although Ayers is 26 years older. The two men have met on several occasions since Obama first ran for the Senate back in 1995.

In speaking engagements in Colorado and California today, Palin attacked Obama for associating "with terrorists who targeted their own country," citing an article in Saturday's New York Times about Obama's relationship with Ayers, now 63. That article concluded, however, that "the two men do not appear to have been close. Nor has Mr. Obama ever expressed sympathy for the radical views and actions of Mr. Ayers, whom he has called 'somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8.' "

Today Bill Ayers is an education professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and his wife, Bernardine Dohrn, teaches at Northwestern University. Riot and bomb conspiracy charges against Ayers were dropped in 1974.

No links greater than that of passing acquaintance can be made between Obama and Ayers, and yet Palin chose to spend a day trying to make a mountain of a molehill rather than for once speaking of her plans (assuming she has any) for our nation, should she (gasp) be elected.

More incredulous than Palin's witless diatribe is that of John McCain when, in a televised interview last spring, asked “How can you countenance someone who was engaged in bombings that could have or did kill innocent people?” Irony of ironies; McCain was shot down over North Vietnam while on a bombing run in heavily forested territory.

This "swiftboating" of Obama is beyond pathetic: It's sad, disturbing and shockingly unpatriotic. To expose your oppnents flaws in an attempt to win an election is serving the country's best interests. To mislead the public in an attempt to divert their attention from truths (We have no economic solution. The economy is not fundamentally sound.) is doing a disservice to the democratic process. If you believe you are truly the better option, prove it. Casting false aspersions as a means of obfuscation simply proves that you are not.

You can read the CNN story on this matter here.