by Michael G. Mickey
(10-7-08)

NewsBusters is pointing out today what I insinuated yesterday, which is it would be close to impossible for "community organizer" Barack Obama not to have known the past of William Ayers, who was a domestic terrorist with the Weather Underground.

Mark Finkelstein writes, in part, for NewsBusters: "There's only one man in Chicago left-wing political circles who didn't know William Ayers was a former Weatherman bomber, and he's running for president. Funny, that."

In the article linked above we learn that Time magazine's Mark Halperin caught up to Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs and, although it was like pulling teeth, was able to get him to admit that Senator Obama, as Hillary Clinton pointed out in one of their debates, did continue to associate with Ayers after becoming aware of his terrorist past. Below is some transcript of dialogue between Halperin and Gibbs followed by more-detailed video of their entire conversation.

MARK HALPERIN of TIME Magazine: "Is it fair to say that [Barack Obama] continued to associate with [Bill Ayers] professionally -- and personally on a casual basis -- even after he learned?"

OBAMA SPOKESMAN GIBBS: "He continued to serve on a charitable board and an educational grant board with money supplied by Walter Annenberg, a Republican who was an ambassador under Richard Nixon. Yes."

HALPERIN: "But with the knowledge of Ayers' past?"

GIBBS: "Yes."

When it comes to being president of the United States, character matters. At least it should.

If I was made aware of the fact that someone I was associating with was part of an organization that had blown up a memorial to fallen police officers twice, killed a police officer in San Francisco with a pipe bomb and had bombed the U.S. Capitol? I would be done associating with that person and I'm not even running for elected office.

That Barack Obama knew William Ayers was a terrorist and business continued between them as usual? It's issues like that which, similar to Senator Obama's long-standing association with black liberation theology and Jeremiah "God damn America" Wright Jr., make me shudder to imagine the kind of president he is going to make for our nation if elected.

It's a sad state of affairs in the Democratic Party and American society in general that the mere question of what these associations tell us of Senator Obama's judgment didn't douse his drive for the White House at the outset.

One of my favorite sayings is, "Your character is your destiny." For America to be a shining city on a hill, we need someone at the top of the hill who has the character to lead us in perilous times like these. Truly, our nation's destiny is tied to the character of its leaders in challenging times like these.

If Senator Obama is going to be the kind of leader we need right now, he's going to have to exercise better judgment than he has thus far at the very least! If he's incapable of that, I pray that the Lord will show mercy on us as Iran continues to seek nuclear weapons, the Russian threat is resurfacing and our economy is in shambles and place in office Senator McCain and Governor Palin, the latter of whom I trust more than all the others in this presidential election process to place America's best interests first because that is what we badly need.

Remain in prayer for our nation, Christians.