Palin did nothing of the kind; she instead tried to smear President Obama, then Senator Obama, by apparently holding him responsible for the actions in earlier years of Bill Ayers, at a time when Obama didn't even live in the United States, as a child. When Obama did know Ayers, he had resolved his issues with the years during which he had committed violent acts, and he had moved on to become a respected professor, and civic contributor. Obama met the later individual, not the wild protester, and that individual was a very different person than the violent anti-war activist.
from wikipedia:
In 1997 Chicago awarded him its Citizen of the Year award for his work on the Chicago Annenberg Challenge project.[48]It was wrong to try to tar Obama with the brush of guilt by association. It was wrong of conservatives to misrepresent the closeness of any relationship - in other words the phrase 'palling around' - as a fraudulent exaggeration, one which implied approval, endorsement or encouragement of Ayer's violent past. Rumors on the right even tried to suggest Ayers wrote the books authored by Obama.
William C. Ibershof, formerly the lead federal prosecutor in the Weather Underground case, wrote in 2008: "Although I dearly wanted to obtain convictions against all the Weathermen, including Bill Ayers, I am very pleased to learn that he has become a responsible citizen."[68]
Ayers was elected Vice President for Curriculum Studies by the American Educational Research Association in 2008.[69] William H. Schubert, a fellow professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, wrote that his election was "a testimony of [Ayers'] stature and [the] high esteem he holds in the field of education locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally."[70]
Wall Street Journal columnist Thomas Frank praised Ayers as a "model citizen" and a scholar whose "work is esteemed by colleagues of different political viewpoints."[71]
In an October 2010 Chicago Sun Times editorial Attacks on Ayers distort our history, former students of Ayers and UIC Alumni, Daniel Schneider and Adam Kuranishi, responded in opposition to the University of Illinois Board of Trustees' decision to deny Ayers Emeritus status. They write, "We juxtaposed the image of him painted by the media with the teacher we saw in class; and the two could not be more distinct. The Ayers in the media was frozen in time; he never left the 1960s, never aged out of his 20s, and never grew in perspective. As his students, we see through this representation... Ayers is still committed to movements for peace and justice. His worldview and tactics are evolved and elaborate, thoughtful and wise, making him unrecognizable to the media's caricature. Should we not expect someone to evolve after 40 years? One may disagree with his activism, but it is impossible to ignore his hard work and contributions to urban education, juvenile justice reform, the University of Illinois and Chicago."[72]
This was a contrived relationship that did not really exist as portrayed by Palin and others on the right. The reality was entirely different, as noted here:
A controversy arose regarding Obama's contact with Bill Ayers, a Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and a former leader of the Weather Underground, a radical left organization in the 1970s.[172] Investigations by The New York Times, CNN, concluded that Obama does not have a close relationship with Ayers.[173][174][175] Ayers served on two nonprofit boards with Obama and in 1995, Ayers and his wife, Bernardine Dohrn, hosted a gathering at their home,[176] where Alice Palmer introduced Obama as her chosen successor in the Illinois State Senate.[174][177]
The matter was initially raised by Sean Hannity and other hosts on conservative talk radio programs, and then by moderator George Stephanopoulos during a debate between Clinton and Obama in April 2008. In October 2008, the matter was mentioned in attack ads, robocalls, mass mailings, and campaign speeches by Republican presidential candidate John McCain[citation needed] and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin as an issue in the general election campaign. Obama has condemned Ayers' past,[178][179] and stated that he does not have a close association with him.[176]
That Obama did not 'pal around with terrorists' was confirmed by multiple news organizations and by multiple fact checking sources.
In contrast we have a close supporting relationship between Todd Akin and the originator of the horrific lie that women can't get pregnant from rape, specifically violent rape. This is the basis for attempting to insert language into legislation that would specify ONLY the most brutally violent rape as a limitation on abortions for all cases of rape.
In fact, Todd Akin continues to use the phrase VIOLENT in connection with rape, over and over and over, most recently in the Wednesday August 22, 2012 interview with Good Morning America. Rape is always non-consensual, but it is not always violent, which appears to be the only kind of rape acknowledged by Wilke. It is not necessarily violent when someone is drugged and then raped; it is not always violent when a child is incestuously raped, but only emotionally, psychologically, or verbally coercive; it is not always violent when a vulnerable person is raped, such as a person who is disabled physically or mentally, because violence is not required in those circumstances to overcome the victim's refusal.
Todd Akin is STILL welcoming the support of the incredibly offensive man who continues to assert that women do not become pregnant from forcible or violent rape. Jack C. Wilke should have his medical license revoked for practicing substandard and unprofessional medicine for his utterly and dangerously unscientific claims. Wilke man is a charlatan, who continues to support and in turn receives the support of Todd Akin.
There is no guilt by association in an objection to the support of Jack Wilke for Todd Akin; there is a perfectly appropriate assignment of guilt to both of them for continuing to affirm these views which are so harmful to rape victims, and so harmful to all women by extension.
As noted in the L.A. Times :
Rep. Todd Akin takes questions after
speaking at the Missouri Farm Bureau candidate interview in Jefferson City, Mo.
(Christian
Gooden / St. Louis Post-Dispatch / Associated Press / August 10, 2012)
|
Todd Akin touts support from crusader who espoused theories on rape
Photos: 'Legitimate rape' and other career-limiting candidate quotes
Todd Akin says he will 'rush to the gunfire,' stay in Senate race
Todd Akin not alone in adhering to bogus rapist theory
August 21,
2012, 12:53
p.m.
Akin's decision to release the letter from Dr.
Jack Willke, founder of the International Right to Life Federation, sends a
mixed message from the GOP
congressman, who has apologized repeatedly for having said "legitimate rape"
rarely leads to pregnancy.
"The pro-life movement and I unequivocally stand with Rep. Akin. How could we
not?" Willke wrote in the letter. "Rep. Akin will make the U.S. Senate a safer
place for the most vulnerable in our nation."It's time for Republican leaders to rise to the level of Rep. Akin's principle and courage and stand with him and the Republican platform that stands for the protection of every human life."
Willke said he was overnighting copies of his book, "Abortion, Questions and Answers," to Akin, noting that "there is a full chapter on this issue, fully documented, which completely exonerates him."
The Akin campaign has been in turmoil as
supporters have pulled ads and Republican leaders are pressuring him to withdraw
from the Senate race. Mitt
Romney's presidential campaign distanced itself from the embattled
candidate, and party leaders are calling him personally, explaining that his
candidacy threatens to disrupt races across the GOP ticket.
Akin's refusal to step aside pits the party's establishment and its
fiscal-conservative flank against those on the religious right, who have long
championed the six-term congressman's strict antiabortion views. The Family
Research Council's Action PAC also defended Akin this week.Willke and his wife, Barbara, are leading antiabortion advocates. Their book, first published in 1971, asserts that "assault rape" rarely results in pregnancy because the assault traumatizes the woman and makes her body less habitable.
It's "just downright unusual" for a woman to get
pregnant from a rape, Willke said in an interview Monday.
"This goes back 30 and 40 years. When a woman is assaulted and raped, there's
a tremendous amount of emotional upset within her body," Willke said, adding
that this trauma "can radically upset her possibility of ovulation,
fertilization, implantation and even nurturing of a pregnancy."It might also make a woman's fallopian tubes "tight," he said.
Willke estimated that there are just one or two pregnancies for every 1,000 rapes.
That contradicts research published in the Journal
of American Obstetrics
and Gynecology
in the 1990s that found the occurrence of rape-related pregnancies is 5%. More
than 32,000 women experience rape-related pregnancy every year, the research
found.
Willke's book has gained currency among some conservative antiabortion
activists.Akin has apologized for his comments, saying "I used the wrong words in the wrong way," and his campaign produced an ad Tuesday morning asking for forgiveness.
Willke said he reached out to talk with Akin because he was "so outraged at how quickly Republican leaders have deserted him. After talking with Rep. Akin, I'm even more outraged."
Condemn the ignorance of an adult of the advanced years of Todd Akin, personally, legislatively, and especially serving on a science committee in Congress.
Condemn Todd Akin for accepting the support of a charlatan who advocates a view which is false and which horribly harms women. Condemn Jack Wilke for being an ass and a fraud and a dangerous extremist.
While I applaud the political operatives, politicians, media and candidates on the right for demanding that Todd Akin step aside, and I applaud them putting their money where their mouths are by removing their contribution to the funding of Todd Akin's candidacy, I also condemn them for denying Akin the opportunity to participate in the Republican convention. Right or that special variety of right-wing-wrong, Akin was elected as a candidate by the citizens of Missouri. We can all offer an opinion, and offer or withdraw support, but the decision is theirs. I have decried the intrusion of outside money and of big money into our elections; I feel it diminishes the contribution of the individual citizen in the jurisdiction of each elected office - from all sides. But no political party, not right or left, should be able to go so far as to debar an elected candidate from participating in a national convention of the party which endorsed him. Who the hell is anyone on the RNC to tell Missourians who they can - or can't - send to the national convention?
This sets as dangerous a precedent in political party operation as the views of Todd Akin, and the attempted legislation by Akin and Paul Ryan set for heavy handed oppression of women.
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