Video: Obama responds to Ayers and the Old Glory Boogie

posted at 10:45 am on May 7, 2008 by Ed Morrissey

The Barack Obama campaign responded to the pictures of Obama political and community associate William Ayers stomping on the American flag, first published in 2001 in Chicago Magazine. In a statement reported on Fox & Friends this morning, Team Obama deplores Ayers’ actions but rejects any connection between Ayers and Obama:

That distance might be hard to maintain. First, the profile in the magazine wasn’t exactly a low-profile article in an obscure publication. Ayers had just published a memoir of his days as a fugitive for domestic terrorism in the Weather Underground, and both the book and the publicity gained national attention, especially after 9/11. Obama continued to work with Ayers after this, appearing on public panels with Ayers into 2002.

If Team Obama wants to disassociate itself from Ayers in this manner, it should recheck its website. Obama still defends William Ayers and his wife Bernadine Dohrn as part of Chicago’s “mainstream”. Does Obama think that stomping on a flag in an alley to celebrate a memoir of domestic terrorism represents the mainstream of political thought? That only makes sense when one supports demagoguery such as that issued by Jeremiah Wright on government conspiracies that created HIV as a genocidal tool and Dohrn’s exhortation to “overthrow capitalism” in the United States.

Old Glory Boogie

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The MSM and the blind little acolytes cannot be distracted by facts.
Barry makes them feel good.For now. That is all that matters to them, so our task is to make sure that this man, his wife and handlers do not get anywhere near the White House.

bbz123 on May 7, 2008 at 10:48 AM

You know, if we can’t nab UBL, we sure as hell should be able to make this muppet meet with an untimely accident.

Then, of course, it would just make things easier for Obama to defend him in memoriam.

Dammit.

MadisonConservative on May 7, 2008 at 10:50 AM

The argument against Ward Churchill–that the Colorado taxpayers shouldn’t be saddled with the salary for a public university professor if he’s going to behave in such a manner–seems appropos here; why should Illinois taxpayers pay Ayers salary?

radjah shelduck on May 7, 2008 at 10:53 AM

Does Obama think that stomping on a flag in an alley to celebrate a memoir of domestic terrorism represents the mainstream of political thought? – Ed

Of course not. But Obama is a Marxist and is clinging to his hopes for a change that will make stomping on American flags mainstream.

Maxx on May 7, 2008 at 10:53 AM

Aw shucks

SlimyBill on May 7, 2008 at 10:53 AM

Wasn’t Al Capone was a mainstream Chicagoan?

mymanpotsandpans on May 7, 2008 at 10:55 AM

He was! Was!

mymanpotsandpans on May 7, 2008 at 10:56 AM

I wonder if Barry is out shopping for flag pins about now.

Mallard T. Drake on May 7, 2008 at 10:57 AM

Having friends like this is why it would be easy for Barry to talk with Ahmadinejad. It’s just like talking to his neighbor.

moonsbreath on May 7, 2008 at 10:58 AM

Either Obama is:

1. The Dumbest/Smartest Senator alive… duping people to vote for him due to many things…
2. Runs with Terrorists on all sides who hate America, and then says he loves this country.
3. Thinks he is going to win the Seat at the Whitehouse.

Why do people surround themselves with people like Ayers is beyond me.

upinak on May 7, 2008 at 10:58 AM

And at least with Al Capone you could get good champagne during Prohibition.

mymanpotsandpans on May 7, 2008 at 10:59 AM

What really sticks out for me with this Ayers photo is how much of a chicken-sh*t he is. They took these pictures in a closed in alley where no one could see him do it, eliminating the chance that a passerby would notice and get in his face about it. What a radical!

Exit questions for him, Rosie, Kos, and every other hate America first loser – If its so bad, why do you live here?

Kendrick on May 7, 2008 at 11:00 AM

The argument against Ward Churchill–that the Colorado taxpayers shouldn’t be saddled with the salary for a public university professor if he’s going to behave in such a manner–seems appropos here; why should Illinois taxpayers pay Ayers salary?

radjah shelduck on May 7, 2008 at 10:53 AM

It does make one wonder a bit about the ideological make up of tenure committees, doesn’t it?

a capella on May 7, 2008 at 11:00 AM

Who will begin the campaign to remove Ayers from his academic position?

faraway on May 7, 2008 at 11:00 AM

Having friends like this is why it would be easy for Barry to talk with Ahmadinejad. It’s just like talking to his neighbor.

Thanks for the full Moonsbreath!

mymanpotsandpans on May 7, 2008 at 11:00 AM

I wonder if Ayers’ patriotism-is-dancing-on-the-flag logic can be extended to marriage. For example, “I love my wife so much that I’m going to sell her heirloom jewelry and buy a hotel weekend with one of those $2,000-a-night “escort” hookers. That’s how much I love my wife.”

RBMN on May 7, 2008 at 11:00 AM

Obama could have been caught, in photos, selling national secrets to the Taliban or buggering boys in a broom closet and it wouldn’t matter to the media. As long as he has that (D) after his name, the rest just doesn’t matter.

MCPO Airdale on May 7, 2008 at 11:02 AM

Given her attitude and many anti-American statements I wouldn’t be surprised if Michelle Obama didn’t choreograph that little flag dance. Them being close neighbors and all part of the Chicago mainstream and all.

snaggletoothie on May 7, 2008 at 11:03 AM

Why do people surround themselves with people like Ayers is beyond me.

upinak on May 7, 2008 at 10:58 AM

Birds of a feather…

DamnCat on May 7, 2008 at 11:09 AM

It’s not that it doesn’t stick necessarily because the media really likes Obama. It’s that they heartily agree with Wright and Ayers.

ChePibe on May 7, 2008 at 11:13 AM

Sewer rats on crack.

saved on May 7, 2008 at 11:14 AM

Ayers is no different than Tim McVeigh

jp on May 7, 2008 at 11:14 AM

Does Obama think that stomping on a flag in an alley to celebrate a memoir of domestic terrorism represents the mainstream of political thought?

If he doesn’t he’s sure doing a great imitation of a person who does. He smart enough not to come right out and admit it but his actions betray his heart.

TheBigOldDog on May 7, 2008 at 11:17 AM

Obviously Obama doesn’t think stomping on the American flag is bad enough to denounce.

That jibes with Obama’s distaste for the American flag lapel pin as a cheap trick

It also jibes with Obama’s refusal to distance himself from Wright’s G- d-mn America stance

Would Obama take the same position if one of his longtime personal friends gleefully stomped on the red and green Afro-American flag?

Not that this would ever happen since his crowd cherishes that flag.

Two nations, one under God and one under G- D-mn

entagor on May 7, 2008 at 11:26 AM

Something in Andy McCarthy’s new book, Willful Blindness, that I read caused an epiphany of sorts on this whole Obama thing. He states that the Joint Terrorism Task Force was created in 1980 because of terrorism by Weather Underground and the fact that they had created an alliance with the black liberation radicals resulting in the Brinks robbery and double cop killing in 1981. So we have Ayers of WU and Wright from the Black Liberation movement as co-conspirators to put Obama in the White House. But each knows that their brand of politics is too shocking to the mainstream, so they’ve substituted the word ‘revolution’ with the more innocuous word ‘change’, which both have the same meaning. Obama has been mum on his own personal views and speaks in flowery generalities to conceal his radical notions for this country.

I know this is not a new thought, but I had no idea about this formal alliance until last night.

pistolero on May 7, 2008 at 11:27 AM

So now we have “he didn’t know” take II. The Marxists friends who surround Obama re truly amazing.

tarpon on May 7, 2008 at 11:27 AM

I think he meant mainstream Marxist.

JammieWearingFool on May 7, 2008 at 11:28 AM

Ayers looks like somebody Barney Frank might date.

Someone should get the color version of the picture that was actually used in the article — the one where you can see just how pathetic an ugly old balding pot-bellied hippie terrorist loser looks when he’s stomping on an American flag — and see that it’s widely published. The photo could be featured in an article that explains how Obama launched his state Senate campaign at a fundraising party at Ayers’ house; how they worked together on several boards; how Michelle Obama invited Ayers to be on a university panel discussing juvenile criminals; and how Obama’s campaign admitted that Obama and Ayers are “friendly” with each other.

“Mainstream” my @ss.

AZCoyote on May 7, 2008 at 11:29 AM

There’s no excuse for stomping on a flag, but his terrorist past is so last century.

Has Barry been asked about the Che Guevara posters in his own campaign offices? I think it’s time to force Bill Burton to generate a flurry of press releases.

I’d also love to know more about the anti-war rally Barry attended in 2002 when he came out against the Iraq war. Who organized it, and can we see photos of all the patriots who were there rooting for him?

Buy Danish on May 7, 2008 at 11:36 AM

Poor ole Barack – he still doesn’t understand that if you lie down with dogs you get fleas.

TooTall on May 7, 2008 at 11:39 AM

Did anyone else notice in the color picture that this dill hole looks like he is standing behind the flag on the ground,but in the black and white he seems to be dancing on it?
I wonder why the magazine didn’t put that one on the front page?
Does anyone know what the FBI did that was illegal in going after this bastard that he was let go?

x-wing on May 7, 2008 at 11:40 AM

Hillary dances on Obama’s chances with every new chink is his empty suit of armor.

Convention Fight!

Rumble in The Rockies!

The Denver Deathmatch!

profitsbeard on May 7, 2008 at 11:40 AM

Be afraid America…be very arfaid!

libhater on May 7, 2008 at 11:47 AM

Is there any real difference between this idiot and other “English” teachers?

From my experience, not really. They’re mostly left wing losers.

benrand on May 7, 2008 at 11:49 AM

It really comes down to JUDGEMENT how does Obama make judgements? Last year he and Rev J Wright insisted Imus be fired for NHH but Obama would not disown Jeremiah Wright although he stated GDA an insult to a whole country full of people. What is the difference btw Imus and Wright in Obama’s judgement? I don’t know he won’t answer the question that has been put to him at least once in person by Barbara Walters on the View he still hasn’t answered that question? Meanwhile we are supposed to take Rev Wright’s rants in context and all his good works..well Imus got fired in the middle of his Imus Radiothon for children’s charities last year. Message to Imus, you don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here. Imus has a check list this year he is going to try and stay employed through the Imus Radiothon, for Tomorrows Fund, S.I.D.S. and Imus Ranch for Children with Cancer May 8th & 9th 77WABC and RFD TV. So far so good.

http://chickaboomer.blogspot.com/2008/05/media-buzzzz.html

Dr Evil on May 7, 2008 at 12:10 PM

There must be conservative 527′s putting together October ads with all these pictures and videos. McCain probably won’t do the dirty work himself, but the good folks whose money he kept out of the direct campaign won’t roll over so easily.

Buford Gooch on May 7, 2008 at 12:12 PM

FOX puts me in the position of defending this skunk Ayers.
They did not try to kill as many people as possible.
Afte the townhouse explosion, they took measures to avoid harming people in most cases. He still should be in prison for what he did however.

RobCon on May 7, 2008 at 12:13 PM

Wasn’t Al Capone was a mainstream Chicagoan?

I have more respect for Capone than I do Obama. At least Capone made no secret about what he was.

abcurtis on May 7, 2008 at 12:15 PM

I’ve always been very against an amendment to the Constitution concerning flag desecration. Then again, I think anyone that does it should show some cajones and should renounce his/her citizenship and move out of the country. Ayers has every right to take this action. Lucky for him I wasn’t in the alley, I’d be standing on HIS neck …Traitor of the first order, should be lynched. Like in the old Pace Picante commercial-”Get a rope”……

adamsmith on May 7, 2008 at 12:56 PM

Ayers is no different than Tim McVeigh

jp on May 7, 2008 at 11:14 AM

Good observation jp, I never thought of that.

kirkill on May 7, 2008 at 12:59 PM

Does Obama think that stomping on a flag in an alley to celebrate a memoir of domestic terrorism represents the mainstream of political thought? – Ed

Of course not. But Obama is a Marxist and is clinging to his hopes for a change that will make stomping on American flags mainstream.

Maxx on May 7, 2008 at 10:53 AM

I think in his world it is mainstream. When I spoke with my Obama-fan brother after the whole “bitter” comment, he heartily agreed with Obama’s worldview. Keep in mind that I love my brother dearly, and he loves me, but my husband is a Theology prof at Liberty, so he knew clearly who he was speaking to. It was a little horrifying and saddening.

acleaver on May 7, 2008 at 1:26 PM

Ayers’s lover, Diana Oughton was killed in the Greenwich Village townhouse explosion in 1970. Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn raised Chesa Boudin after fellow terrorists Kathy Boudin and David Gilbert were imprisoned after the murder of 2 cops and a brinks guard.

They can gussey it up any way they wish to, but it doesn;t change the fact that these narcissists beleive they have a special place in the world to force change to coincide with their world view. If it means killing cops, soldiers, or anyone else they deem a “pig”, sobeit.

It is worthwhile noting that Chesa Boudin has a very close relationship with the thugs in Venezuela and Hugo Chavez. Trees and falling fruit, indeed.

Telling yourself they are mainstream doesn’t make it so. Only at an international terrorist conference would Ayers be considered mainstream.

moxie_neanderthal on May 7, 2008 at 2:05 PM

Over/under for that “mainstream” comment coming off of Hussein’s web site: two days.

Whassamatter Hussein, can’t disown Ayers anymore than you can your polygamist father?

Akzed on May 7, 2008 at 2:32 PM

Obama can’t dodge this bullet.

old trooper on May 7, 2008 at 3:13 PM

As with the Wright controversy, for Obama to wait until May 6th (May freakin’ 6th!!) to issue that statement shows that he only reacts when it begins to become politically expedient for him to do so. He’s had six years! Wait a dope.

Ayers has the blight of Colorado, Ward Churchill, beat by a bit – he’s still teaching. (Although maybe Obama would appoint Ward Churchill Director of Faux-Indian Affairs.)

Captain Scarlet on May 7, 2008 at 7:16 PM

Obama’s cult is worse than any Ron Paul sickness. These people are truly dangerous and have the full backing of the media.

Big John on May 7, 2008 at 8:34 PM