From a reader:
Jonah,The next time the Obama campaign repeats the line that he was only 8 years old when Bill Ayers was busy planting bombs, perhaps they should be reminded that Trent Lott was only 7 when Strom Thurmond ran for President.
Update: Another reader chimes in:
Your reader might have had a more valid point had Obama ever said “When Bill Ayers launnched his revolution, we joined it. We’re proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn’t have had all these problems over the years, either.”
Me: Fair enough. Though one might also note that Trent Lott was speaking at the century-old man’s birthday party and Thurmond himself had openly repudiated his past views. The relationship between Ayers and Obama is very different and Ayers still says he has nothing to apologize for. Oh, and lest people forget, I can’t stand Trent Lott. Update II: From a reader:
And Obama was only 45 when his friends in the Senate made Sam Alito out to be some kind of a bigot for a long past connection to a supposedly racist conservative group – an association that was far more tenuous than were his own connections to Ayers and Wright. Obama may recall the Alito confirmation; he voted no and favored a filibuster in order to prevent the nominee from taking the bench.