Via Ace. The bad news? Obama was lying to us when he dismissed Ayers at the debate as merely “a guy who lives in my neighborhood.” The good news? We already knew that, thanks to Axelrod and Mayor Daley.

Anyway, belated confirmation.

“We had served together on the board of a foundation, knew one another as neighbors and family friends, held an initial fund-raiser at my house, where I’d made a small donation to his earliest political campaign,” he writes.

But right-wing commentators tried to use those connections to smear Obama, he says.

“Obama’s political rivals and enemies apparently saw an opportunity to deepen a dishonest narrative about him, that he is somehow un-American, alien, linked to radical ideas, a closet terrorist, a sympathizer with extremism,” Ayers wrote.

This turd will be on Good Morning America tomorrow to hawk his book, if you can believe it. Will Diane Sawyer think to ask him how friendly the families were? Or, more importantly, what he learned from his epochal meeting of the minds recently with Reverend Wright? A rich trove of video treasure awaits us in the morning, my friends. Exit question: Has anyone queried The One on what sorts of crimes one would have to commit to lose their coveted “family friend” status? I realize questions of basic personal judgment are inappropriate on “dishonest narrative” grounds, but I’m curious nonetheless.