Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Ayers: Association with Obama professional

|
|
 
  
Published: Nov. 14, 2008 at 2:32 PM

CHICAGO, Nov. 14 (UPI) -- One-time radical William Ayers said Friday the Republican Party "demonized" his militant past to wage a campaign of fear against Barack Obama.

The relationship between Ayers, a co-founder of the 1969 to mid-1970s Weather Underground, and the president-elect became a talking point for Republicans during the 2008 campaign, with party operatives and candidates raising questions about the depth of Obama's association with Ayers.

The two served together on several boards in Chicago. Ayers is now a professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

"The truth is we came together in Chicago in the civic community around issues of school improvement, around issues of fighting for the rights of poor neighborhoods to have jobs and housing and so on," Ayers said on ABC's "Good Morning America.

"So this idea that we need to know more like there's some dark, hidden secret -- some secret link -- is just a myth. And it's a, myth thrown up by people who wanted to kind of exploit the politics of fear."

He said the two knew each other "in a professional way ... on the same level as, say, thousands of other people."

Topics: William Ayers
© 2008 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
Notable deaths of 2012 Scripps National Spelling Bee AmfAR Cinema Against AIDS gala
Indianapolis 500 Presidential Medal of Freedom Memorial Day around the nation
Additional Top News Stories
1 of 20
Singer Janelle Monae arrives at the 2012 MTV Movie Awards in Universal City, California
View Caption
Singer Janelle Monae arrives for the MTV Movie Awards at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, California. UPI/Jim Ruymen
fark
Famous last words: "The notion that it's too late to do anything is comical. It's hilarious. We're...
Five secrets to getting the best healthcare. #6: Don't get sick
Traveling to the U.S.? If invited to a dinner party, bring a gift of wine, but not cash or toiletries...
Man turns dead pet cat into remote-controlled helicopter, calls it art (w/WTF pics)
"Good News" clubs teach children in public schools the Biblical importance of killing all nonbelievers...
Five arrested in prostitution sting. Article lists their names, ages and distance from a church