Blogs > Cliopatria > More Ayers

Oct 7, 2008

More Ayers


by Cliopatria


With Sarah Palin stoking up the audiences, the Ayers issue seems likely to continue.

Sol Stern, whose work I very much admire, addresses the Obama/Ayers question in today's City Journal. I agree 100% with everything Stern says about Ayers, and also agree with him that it's perfectly reasonable to"ask Obama what he thinks of Ayers’s views on school reform." Policy disputes, rather than guilt-by-association, should be the focus of the campaign.


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Ralph E. Luker - 10/9/2008

Thanks. I'd rather not feel it, if you don't mind.

Serge Lelouche - 10/8/2008

I agree with you on that--I take the author too much at his word.
Still, the line
"Calling Bill Ayers a school reformer is a bit like calling Joseph Stalin an agricultural reformer" has a nice feel to it, I think you'll agree.

Ralph E. Luker - 10/8/2008

KC and I are not obligated to have the same attitudes about a piece. Before I'd use language like "terrible, ideological poisoning of children," I'd want to have looked closely at some primary sources.

Serge Lelouche - 10/8/2008

I'm surprised you feel that way. KC said he likes it.

Ralph E. Luker - 10/8/2008

There's actually not much of substance in that piece. Stern has apparently not examined the evidence in the Chicago Annenberg Challenge documents to substantiate his claims.

Serge Lelouche - 10/8/2008

Yeah, it's in the piece KC linked to.

Ralph E. Luker - 10/8/2008

What do you know of Bill Ayers's "terrible, ideological poisoning" of children"? Do you have any evidence?

Serge Lelouche - 10/7/2008

I admire KC Johnson enormously and have been depressed by what appears to be a slight case of OBS (Obama Blindness Syndrome) on his part. It is, therefore, enormously encouraging to see him advocating the Sol Stern piece. It's not who Bill Ayers was, but his terrible, ideological poisoning of children that should alarm us.