I’m with Shannen on his answer to Amy’s question, and with my fellow Cornerites in general on the foolishness of the Obama campaign’s Ayers ad (and, as Jonah discusses, the obtuseness of a Left which can’t or won’t see why Americans would be alarmed by Obama’s relationship with an unrepentant terrorist).
The only two cents I’d add is that a real story — and one that should alarm people — is that this is what Obama thinks the Justice Department is for. Here is a guy who fought the Patriot Act, fought surveillance reform, has spoken admiringly of Ayer’s radical views of the criminal justice system, and has a record as a Chicago legislator of being soft on violent crime. He is evidently ambivalent about going after terrorists and hardened criminals, but he wants to mobilize the Justice Department post haste to suppress political speech that he doesn’t like.
I regard that as more than a little disconcerting from a guy who wants to be president, pick the next attorney-general, and make U.S. law enforcement policy. The McCain campaign may not be too anxious to mix it up on this one given McCain’s own history of suppressing political speech. But that doesn’t make it any less a story.