PrintDecember 3, 2009
How far will Ayers turn against Obama?
On two unprompted occasions in October of this year, Bill Ayers admitted to having written Barack Obama's acclaimed memoir, Dreams From My Father.
At the time, I wrote of these admissions that "however ironic their delivery, [they] remind Obama who put him in the White House and who can take him out." I suspected then, and still do, that this shot across Obama's bow was meant to get his attention on the question of troop deployment to Afghanistan.
After months of dithering, Obama turned his back on his leftwing base, Ayers included, and grudgingly consented to a troop surge. Ayers is not pleased. On Wednesday night, he took to the streets of Chicago to protest. Never shy about using stark language, Ayers told an interviewer just what he thought about his protégé's policy.
I am here demonstrating against the war because I am appalled and alarmed that once against we are escalating the war. And the idea that there are benchmarks for getting out is a myth and a lie. The fact is that you cannot imagine a scenario where six months from now or eighteen months from now the administration would say well we did not meet our benchmarks therefore we are leaving. This is an absolute tragedy for the people of the Mideast, for Afghanistan and for us.
In response to the troop surge, Ayers counseled direct action, "I think everybody has to take a moment right now to stand up in opposition to this war."
To this point, as expected, the major media are all but mum on the schism, let alone the dynamics behind it. Those who have commented, like the willfully blind John Hudson, writing on Atlantic Magazine's blog, "The Atlantic Wire," spin the story to discredit conservative media.
Not surprisingly, Hudson sees the split as proof that "the ‘close' relationship between Bill Ayers and Barack Obama that many right-wing pundits envisaged had always been rather tenuous."
In truth, the relationship between the two is deep and complex. It is likely that the media will continue to ignore its complexity unless, of course, Ayers forces them to do otherwise. And rest assured, he has the means to do so.
