Fucking stupid

The five is alive:

John McCain regrets the Keating 5. Indeed, you could say that his entire subsequent career has been one long apology for it. Repudiating what happened has formed the cornerstone of his current career; in a very real sense, it was the father of McCain-Feingold.

You could also say he regrets being caught as part of the Keating 5, and only made a public show of contrition to preempt the release of evidence of his guilt, but that would require knowledge of what happened, as opposed to reading off a blast fax. You see, in Megan's world the Keating 5 scandal didn't really involve McCain, but Obama's "ties" to Ayer, in the sense of having met the guy a few times, are a real problem.

Now, I don't like the lessons that McCain seems to have taken from his extremely minor connection to the events of the S&L crisis (even Democrats from the time seem to admit that he was basically just thrown to the wolves to make it look like the Democrats weren't the only ones who had screwed the pooch). [Who, Megan?] And in fact I think that the Ayers connection is too tenuous to be interesting. But there is a nugget of a real critique at its heart, which is that the academic culture Obama belongs to thinks its just fine to be a former active terrorist who has refused to renounce support for the violence committed by his group; that culture has rewarded Bill Ayers with prestigious employment and other positions in a way that it wouldn't dream of rewarding a similarly "idealistic" abortion clinic bomber. I know it's hard to imagine, but if you're conservative, that seems like a real problem.

Yes, Obama has refused to apologize for the actions of a man not connected to the Obama campaign which were committed when the candidate was 8 years old. How dare he.
Megan clearly knows absolutely nothing about the Weather Underground, particularly the fact that the only people they ever killed were two of their own. Ayers blew up public buildings after giving authorities several hours warning so as to clear the buildings. I'm not defending acts that are easily read as moments of boomer narcissism, but they have almost no connection to abortion clinic bombings, which typically target human lives.
Also, Megan is ignoring the fact that Ayers' current position is based on his accomplishments since going back to school following his decade as a fugitive. Academia, that apparently monolithic entity with a hive mind, did not reward acts of terrorism, but instead did not blacklist a qualified individual for youthful mistakes. I thought Christian forgiveness was a good thing, but I guess that's only for conservatives. Liberals are never forgiven.

The problem Obama's critics have is not that he once spent some time talking to Bill Ayers; it's that he refuses to apologize for it now. That refusal to apologize is why the charge has proven hard to counter. You can argue that it isn't a big deal, but you can't argue it isn't true, and unfortunately for Obama, some voters think it is a really big deal.
If I were the McCain campaign, I would be throwing a hell of a lot of resources into making my own video. They have an actual factually accurate and coherent narrative about how McCain has spent the last 20 years atoning for the Keating 5; I would tell that story. I would ask why Obama is choosing to bring up this 20 year old scandal without mentioning that McCain has repeatedly regretted it. And then I would throw in Ayers and Rezko and ask when Obama's going to apologize for his lapses in judgement.

Some voters think Obama is a Muslim, too, you fucking asshole.
I don't know how to snark this post, as you may have noticed. It's too... propagandistic. Megan, a putative Obama supporter, is blithely dismissing McCain's documented Federal crimes and attacking Obama for not leaning into McCain's thrown punch and agreeing Ayers matters. It's such a politically biased post that one of her more conservative commenters said

I've almost stopped reading your blog several times in the last few months, but this is why I keep coming back. In spite of your strong, very emotional dislike for McCain, you're still capable of some balance and insight.
Maybe we'll see the same balance soon regarding Palin. Peer pressure is hard to resist, as you've argued many times, but you don't have to lose your objectivity just because the people around you have Palin Derangement Syndrome.
Posted by Ann | October 7, 2008 8:35 AM

So at least Megan is doing well with the Malkin thing's readers.
I'm too peeved to keep going. I'll pretend to be funny again later.