Countering the lies

Scott Shane has written a decent piece in the NYT, countering the McCain campaign’s McCarthy-style attack on Barack Obama and his association with radical educator Bill Ayers. Bill is a Distinguished Professor of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, author of a dozen books, and has been a leader and central figure during the past two decades of Chicago’s school reform, including the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. The CAC has been slimed by pro-McCain bloggers as some sort of radical conspiracy between Obama and Bill. Shane interviews former CAC leaders who refute every such claim.

Anyone who has been involved in that far-reaching movement for public school improvement, regardless of their political leanings, has found themselves in meetings or in close contact with Bill Ayers. That would include everyone from Mayor Daley to Senator Obama, to the head of the powerful conservative business group, the Civic Committee, whose leader is quoted in this article.

As Mayor Daley put it : “He’s done a lot of good in this city and nationally,” plus one of the more thoughtful things this mayor has ever said: “This is 2008. People make mistakes. You judge a person by his whole life.”