I think that the loyalty to Wright can be explained by the fact that it would do his reputation no good to drop the man like a radioactive potato at the first sign of trouble.

More news from the Republican Governors Association meeting.  Looks like its been a fairly big press event:

From CNN Correspondent Dana Bash

Even if we assume the strategy is sound and dropping him outright is a bad move, why would you bring him closer?  I mean he reaffirmed how close his relationship was at a time when people were calling for him to back away from the guy.  I have a hard time believing that was a self-serving decision, I honestly think he did it out of loyalty.

Really though, I think trying to figure this out after the fact is a bit moot anyways, we're each likely to see whatever we want to see, and there is no objective method of determining the true answer.

PS - Does anyone find it a bit ironic that I was arguing for Obama's loyalty and Steven/FF against it =P That really was a strange conversation =P

Although I am supporting the conclusion that he will be a good president, my real point is that talking Ayers and Wright is stupid for many reasons.

If people aren't trying to say that he's a Radical Black Socialist Terrorist, what are they trying to imply?  Nobody ever answers this.  Ever.  The closest I ever got to an answer is, "it shows bad judgement."  How?  He won.  He got security clearence for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.  Are they saying the FBI doesn't do it's job well?

To be honest I didn't follow the Wright story that closely -- you say he strengthened the relationship in response to the initial story and I have to believe you because I really have no idea and you're generally trustworthy. 

I was just trying to say that it seemed consistent with steven787's theory, not trying to take a stand on whether I thought the theory was right.  But if he did strengthen ties instead of keeping steady then it would weaken his theory.

I think it would've been weird if he immediately went along with his attackers and denounced Wright and distanced himself from it. I mean... he did just write a book in 2006 and give a speech in 2004, both called "The Audacity of Hope," which was named after a part of a Wright sermon. To get rid of him too fast would've made him look too disloyal, like you couldn't have a beer with him.

I'm not sure what he did to strengthen ties with Wright though. I just saw his big racism speech. Did he say something weird before that speech?

How about being entrusted with over $100 million dollars for the education of one of the largest cities in the country.  Then over the course of more than 5 years under Obama's leadership the money was literally wasted on projects, the majority of which were found and recommended by Bill Ayers.  Obama controlled the money, while Ayers set the agenda and found the projects to present for funding.  This is how it went at the CAC for over 5 years.  Then when the organization finally closed its doors after disbursing all of the money it had they did an assessment of their efforts and determined that they had zero impact.

How much did you hear about that during early September when the CAC documents had just been released and this information came to light? I think this kind of profound failure was relevant in a very big way and was simply never covered, not even to debunk it as false or even challenge it in any way.

Again, I don't really want to get into the Ayers thing because frankly the man disgusts me (you can check into Larry Grethwohl for reasons why), but you asked for a specific point so I gave you one.

Great answer.

The conservative media and Republican voters weren't talking about this though, they keep saying, "we don't know who this guy is... he's palling around with terrorists" Look through the history on here. Look at videos of Sean Hannity and the like. Palin never brought it up, she said that he lives in a different America... oh well.

You're exactly right on that.  And its their obsession with the unreliable and frankly unprovable portions of the Ayers connection that made the entire thing nuclear so that none of the relevant information ever got out.

The exact quote was:

"As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains within him the contradictions - the good and the bad - of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.

I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother - a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.

These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love."

Intepret that as you will, as I said I think this one is very opinionated so I'll leave it at that.  I just wanted to present the quote I was referring to so you would know what I meant specifically.