When I was a teenager, Keating came to my Catholic girls high school in Cincinnati in his capacity as the founder of Citizens for Decent Literature, an anti-pornography group. His theme was the evil of wearing shorts in the summertime.
Keating said he knew a young mother who took her child for a walk while wearing Bermuda shorts. A motorist, overwhelmed with lust at the sight of the back of her uncovered calves, lost control of his car and slammed into them. Everybody was killed, and it was all her fault. We were then asked to sign pledge cards promising to conform to standards of modesty that would have satisfied the Taliban.
True, none of this really proves that I was responsible for the banking scandals of the 1980s. But if Barack Obama is responsible for the Weather Underground, and if the mother in Bermuda shorts was responsible for the car crash, I am pretty sure that I am on the hook as well.
Michael Smerconish:
Like others, I’m troubled by Ayers. If he were indeed a close friend of Obama, it would be a deal breaker. I couldn’t cast my presidential vote for a man who befriended a bomber. It’s bad enough for Obama to sit passively through the ravings of a guy like Rev. Wright. But to befriend – or even associate with for the purpose of political advancement – a man who actually attacked the country is entirely another.
But if the facts suggest that Ayers is on the periphery of Obama’s public life, it raises a different question: Should candidates be held accountable for the conduct of their acquaintances?
Because if we begin to judge people’s character based on those in their orbit with whom they have no real relationship, I may as well surrender my pen.
While no one in any circle of my life has bombed a building in the U.S., there are some real characters – a few have done time, some have probably cheated on their wives, one I suspect of tax fraud and quite a number are in the DUI club. Should my acquaintances hinder my ability to be a journalist?
There’s even a guy I know who is 50ish and still smokes pot. A better concert companion you will not find.
I have a distant relative who relishes paying the IRS far less than his fair share of taxes.
I remember when a onetime neighbor attempted to off herself. And another who, unfortunately, was successful.
Some guys I went to high school with ran a big bookmaking ring. One former public servant writes to me from prison and I write back.
Terrorists, all of them.
Eric U.
My cousin was a lawyer that worked for Keating, guess that pretty much disqualifies me for any political office except for the Republican’s candidate for Preznit.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
If Obama wins how will McCain handle it? Will he be gracious or will he and his supporters keep up the charges that the President Elect is unfit for office?
Comrade Jake
He’s not going to care. At the rate McCain’s brain is rotting, he’ll be indistinguishable from Corky Thatcher come Nov. 5.
Comrade Incertus
My uncle plays bass guitar for Willie Nelson and I saw him in concert a number of times as a kid; therefore, I am responsible for the Outlaw movement in country music.
gopher2b
McCain lived with communists for five years. When is someone going to bring that up.
John "fucking commie" McCain
Brian J
I don’t like the equivocation of Rev. Wright with Bill Ayers, as if the two were on the same level. Wright may hold some bizarre views and may be a huge asshole personally, but he didn’t bomb anybody, as far as we know. Other than that, these people are all correct, which probably means they will be ignored.
Marshall
It may just be me, but Michael Smerconish sounds like a real wanker in that quote.
Cruel Jest
If you’re going to insist that Moosemuffin has foreign policy experience because she can [not] see Russia, then why not call Obama a terrorist? You can’t fight this kind of stupid. It doesn’t recognize arguments and reason and "stuff." Ridicule is the best disinfectant. But I do appreciate that some are finally stumbling upon the correct response.
Delia
Are we ready for the Six Degrees of Separation game yet? This story is getting run into the theater of the absurd. If they keep it up much longer they’ll simply be the laughing stock of the nation.
Delia
@Marshall:
Michael Smerconish is a wanker. The shocker is that he’s less wankerish in that citation than he usually is. It’s a sign the whole guilt-by-association campaign is getting tiresome, even for a lot of the usual suspects.
kommrade jakevich
Dear God, I thought Collins was joking.
WTF?
OK, I know it was a long time ago but when the knuckledraggers talk about the return to traditional values, this is part of what they’re pining for. Wow.
But you know, if we’re going to judge people by their associates, maybe it’s time to bring up one of John McPOW’s former campaign co-chairs again.
I’m pretty sure sex with a brown dude ranks higher than terrorism on the WingNut Calendar of Sins.
The Grand Panjandrum
Smerconish has ONE pot smoking friend, as far as he knows. Please. Does he walk through life with his eyes closed?
What I see happening at this stage of the election is that a lot of people finally admitting that McCain and the Republicans grasping for straws. With links to video of people who are "mad as hell" at the socialist winning or disturbed by "bloodlines" you are watching the crowd the Coward McCain attracts. He attracts cowards. They breath Fear. Its what keeps them going. Its like adrenalin and now that Obama looks like he is in position to win this election they are all headed to the fainting couch.
Most of these people are not racists, but they have a tiny, little bigoted heart beating in their chest.
But all is not lost. I’ll leave you with these lyrics from the great Carter Stanley, brother of bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley:
I am not a believer but I do find solace in that it has always been my experience that "the darkest hour is just before the dawn." As I stated in a previous I got my absentee ballot today and had my say. Here is a picture of my ballot. Quite frankly I never believed I would live long enough to vote for someone who didn’t look like me. Win or lose I did the right thing today. That will have to do for now.
DonnaInMichigan
IF Obama wins how will McCain handle it.
Funny, it was only months ago, we asked this about one Hillary Clinton. How will she deal with it if Obama wins the primary?
My guess…his concession speech will be:
My friends, today the voters spoke. My friends, we have difficult days ahead. I, as I have done for all my life, first as a military officer, then as a senator, and now as your president, to make this country one great nation. We together, my friends will move forward now, and fix our economy, make us safer in the world..
(someone taps McCain on the shoulder and whispers in his ear, that he didn’t win, and after a back and forth a bit)
McCain turns red, you can tell he is getting angrier by the moment…and bursts out with…
Well god dammit …you $$($%($(! Fu#$#%#% , Do you KNOW who I am?? Do you know WHO you are talking too? Don’t you TOUCH ME! I am the FUC$ING PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, you moron ASS%^…
They have to physically remove John McCain from the stage…..
Sarah Palin sashays up to the microphone.
And starts singing..
It won’t be easy, you’ll think it strange
When I try to explain how I feel
That I still need your love after all that I’ve done
You won’t believe me
All you will see is a girl you barely knew
Although she’s dressed up to the nines
At sixes and sevens with you
I had to let it happen, I had to change
Couldn’t stay all my life down at heel
Looking out of the window, at Russia
So I chose freedom
Running around, trying everything new
But nothing impressed me at all
I never expected it to
[Chorus:]
Don’t cry for me AMERICA
The truth is I never left you
All through my wild days
My mad existence
I kept my promise
Don’t keep your distance
And as for fortune, and as for fame
I never invited them in
Though it seemed to the world they were all I desired
They are illusions
They are not the solutions they promised to be
The answer was here all the time
I love you and hope you love me
Don’t cry for me AMERICA
[chorus]
Have I said too much?
There’s nothing more I can think of to say to you.
But all you have to do is look at me to know
That every word is true
Comrade Jake
Well, FWIW, apparently Obama was on his show today, discussing Ayers at length. Here’s the link to the story on the interview via Politico.
John Cole
It is not so much they are getting tired of it, it is just that some of the smarter folks realize it is political suicide (Douthat, Frum, and others come to mind). They realize that when about 3 trillion in wealth has vaporized in a few weeks time, running around ranting about some asshole from 40 years ago is really dumb politics.
But if it were working, they would be all for it.
What is so shocking is that this is the route the McCain camp is going. He should sue his campaign for malpractice.
kommrade jakevich
Or, he could just punch himself in the nuts.
frogspawn
Who was wearing the shorts, the mother or the child?
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
I disagree, I think McCain is the one running this play and his campaign should sue him.
Delia
Lovely lyrics. And BTW, Ralph Stanley has endorsed Obama.
Joshua Norton
I’m sure that’s what he meant to say.
kommrade jakevich
I just realized we’ve seen this movie before.
McPOW’s version contains Xtra crankiness and more pratfall.
The Grand Panjandrum
@John Cole: Why is this shocking? McCain has been an opportunist his entire life. John Sydney McCain is the son and grandson of Navy admirals. His entire life has been about John Sydney McCain. He wrapped himself in the Flag and played the POW for 30+ years. He believes his rightful place is at the throne waiting for him in the White House. Any wonder he’s pissed? Who the fuck is Barack Hussein Obama to deny him his rightful place? What little judgment he had went out the window when the skinny, black guy, with the funny name started kicking his ass in the polls.
I guess John Sydney McCain subscribes to the old adage: "Life’s a bitch, and then you become one."
Comrade Incertus
That’s really the thing to take away from all this. It’s not like there’s a sub-current of intellectual integrity running through what calls itself the conservative movement. There’s winning and losing, and the battle is between those who see the long game and the short one. The short run people are currently in charge and it shows.
Eric U.
I’ve done that. Or rather, I was breaking up some concrete with a pick, took a hard swing, and ran the butt end of the handle right into the family jewels. It fuckin’ concentrates your thinking in a hurry, let me tell you.
Probably just what the McCain campaign needs, he might even wise up and suspend his campaign until the election.
Ben A
McCain fiddles while the nation burns.
Comrade Kevin
@Comrade Jake:
Interesting. The comments attached to that Politico story are, er, something else.
Jorge
I don’t think the Ayers thing plays with anybody but the base and the McCain camps knows it. As someone else pointed out, at this point there only hope is to rile up the base so much that they come out in record numbers.
calipygian
This isn’t about beating Obama in the election. This is about de-legitimizing his presidency.
This is nothing less than laying the groundwork for an Iraq-style "patriot" insugency against the illegitimate "terrorist/maoist" regime in Washington D.C.
How much you want to bet that some wingnut congressman will call for impeachment the second Comrade Imam Hussein Obama takes the oath on a triple version of the little red book/Das Kapital/the Koran?
You laugh at me now – come back in four years and see if you are laughing then.
Palin is giving a whole crowd of McVeys a giant hard-on and they are going to have to sublimate it somehow.
Martin
(poo)
Martin
They’re interested in a whole other game, though. McCain cares about the next 4 weeks. Frum and company cares about the next 4 decades.
Oh, and Nikkei is down almost 10% again. 9 more days and it’ll be at zero.
slackjawed gawker
In forty years, I plan on running attack ads against people who choose to associate with people who voted for McCain in 2008.
Comrade Incertus
Is it Zeno’s stock market?
Comrade Desert Hussein Rat
As an Arizona native, die hard Democrat (but one who read John Cole pretty regularly when he was still a Republican (but always a thinking man’s Republican), I’m curious if McCain runs for the Senate again in 2010. He’s likely to be up against a pretty tough, popular Democrat who conveniently will be term limited out after two terms as Governor, and McCain will be 74 at the time.
Does John fight what will be the toughest reelection battle he has ever faced? Or does he sail off into the sunset?
It will be interesting.
EDIT: Personally, I’d like to see him run again. It’d be fun to see Janet beat him, and she’d have a pretty good shot at it.
Jay C
Yes, the odor of wankerism can get really cloying at times: especially since Smerconish’s sniffery, like that of so many other commentators, seems to miss one hugely important point:
If William Ayers really is such a heinous character, and so deserving only shunning in disgrace: how come NO ONE – up until Barack Obama started running for President – NO ONE seems to have engaged in any particular effort to disassociate themselves from Mr. Ayers, or shun him for his radical past (especially those known radical-coddlers the Annenbergs), or, AFAICT, bother themselves with him much at all, except in the normal course of whatever it was their Board did.
Until, of course, it was convenient to make a stink in the course of national politics. Feh.
Jay C
Oh, and btw, John: the polls at fivethirtyeight show West Virginia having shifted to McCain +.07: and the state is now rated "Toss-Up".
Can this be true? WV really in play?
Halteclere
Ah, a wonderful story about my home town:
I grew up in West Plains, still have lots of friends and family living there and in the area, and I’m not extremely surprised with the billboard.
Read any of Dave Neiwert’s work on Sundown Towns to understand the area. The majority of the rural areas of northern Arkansas and southern Missouri have been until recently (hispanics families are moving into the area, following employment opportunities with Tyson’s Chicken) almost empty of any kind of minority – when I played football for the West Plains high school in the ’80’s we had the only black player in the conference. And we were a 4A team playing other 4A and 3A schools (the two largest school categories for atheletics in the state).
And there is a significant bias / fear of anything / anyone "big city". People in the countryside outside the city limits continually rail against the "terrible things their kids are learing in the big city" consolidated high school. Big city! West Plains is a city with a population of 10,000!
Finally, West Plains is a poor area, such that it is a place where physisians go a-la Northern Exposure to pay off their expesive schooling.
So when you take this into account, plus the fact that Rush Limbah is from the town 100 miles to the east, it isn’t too surprising that there are many people who not only are ignorant of the greater world but easily lead to be fearful of anyone different.
r€nato
Comrade Rat:
Fellow Zonie here and actually I wrote a semi-lengthy comment here earlier today about Janet and McCain.
I haven’t heard anything authoritative about 2010; clearly McCain’s people are not going to talk about it because they are ‘assuming’ he will have another job next January.
Once McCain is defeated… well, 74 ain’t too old for a Senate seat, Barry Goldwater himself was really not all that fit for his last term but he served it out anyway.
I’m thinking if McCain has any sense he will gracefully retire and not run again. With his ambition to be president dashed, why go through it all again, particularly if he’s going to face a very tough opponent? After all he’s not our senator because he loves Arizona so much, he’s our senator because it’s a stepping stone to the presidency.
But, the GOP might persuade him to go for one more term. It would fun to watch Janet beat him but I’d prefer if he retired; Janet would win in a cakewalk and the Dems could concentrate their money and energy on other races.
The Moar You Know
I ain’t laughing now, I’m buying ammo. The left in this nation does have a body count, albeit a ridiculously small one. Furthermore, us DFHs tend to despise those who employ violence.
The right fetishizes those who use violence. Lord knows we’re out of money, but I hope that one of the first things that Obama does is beef up the ATF and FBI and get our domestic right-wing terror problem under control before it blossoms into full-bore insurrection.
It’s a perfect storm. Angry righties, crashing economy, Negro president.
Martin
LOL. Yes, yes it is. Out of curiosity, reading my comment did you know off the top of your head how much the Nikkei would drop after 9 more days?
r€nato
if we’re going to play guilt-by-association, it might be worthwhile to talk about how Cindy McCain came into her beer fortune – because her father was a pal of Kemper Marley, as close to a homegrown mob boss as Arizona has ever had, who was also strongly suspected of ordering the hit on journalist Don Bolles in 1976.
Adam
If you attend political rallies with people advocating the assassination of a sitting United States Senator, does that count as associating with terrorists?
Jess
@Jay C:
Exactly–especially since some of those other "pals" of Ayers are republicans. Much to their credit, some have come out to defend Obama from this nonsense, so honor isn’t entirely dead in the GOP ranks.
JGabriel
Smerconish:
My goodness. He is naive, isn’t he?
.
...now I try to be amused
Let’s identify the real culprit.
LiberalTarian
Hey, when I worked at the law firm that handled Enron’s oil leases I used to answer the phone and talk to Ken Lay.
Does that make me responsible for Enron? Did I steal a third of my own 401(k)?
Kinda cool to see people being real. But good lord, wtf were they thinking all this time when they were selling their soul to the religious right????
J Bean
My mother grew up with Diana Oughton (the incompetent and deceased Bonnie to Ayres’ inept Clyde). My family is quite amused by this rigamarole given that my 70 year old ex-Republican mom is now apparently an even bigger terrorist than Barack.
LiberalTarian
Genius.
Jeff
@Brian J: Actually, Wright was a decorated veteran who did two tours in Vietnam and cared for LBJ. Why does McPalin hate our veterans.
bedlam UK
I cant remember where I read the observation that Al Qaeda is Islamic for ‘The Base’.
As McCain sells his so called ‘honour’ like some brass flute on the corner to the Conservative ‘Base’, and Palin whips up his followers into a frenzy of hate and death threats, I think its worth remembering that ‘The Base’ that they are pandering to is the English translation for Al Qaeda.
That should confuse the hell out of Blondie
RememberNovember
We are on a slippery slope.If guilt by association is the current meme than it’s damning evidence for Rumsfeld and Cheney- both in their association with Saddam Hussein and Kim Jung Il. Same goes for anyone who was in the Army with Tim McVeigh….same goes for anyone who worked with Terry Nichols. We cannot Ex Post Facto accuse someone of a crime by association- McCain’s people won’t actively say it to his face cowards that they are- but they will stoop to whisper tactics. Never mind the fact Rick Davis took 17 k a month from Freddie Mac as a lobbyist. Never mind John McCain was endorse by the Annenberg Foundation, the self same one that co sponsored the education initiative Ayers and Obama were on- were they the only two? What about the other people on that board?Are they equally guilty by association?
Where is the myopic media addressing other members of this board and THEIR "terrorist" ties to Ayers.
Grandjester
Ah, my favorite game "Guilt by Association", now laying aside the Scooters and the Craigs and the other deviants and criminals in this Administration, how about those Bush Family connections? Did business with BOTH the Bin Laden family AND the Nazis.
Obama’s a piker by comparison.