Into the time machine!

I can't believe the McCain campaign and right-wing pundits ever thought they could make anything out of Obama's alleged connection to Weather Underground co-founder Bill Ayers. Obama was approximately eight years old when the Weathermen were at their peak of blowing up statues (and themselves), and Ayers' doings in the years since Obama has been active in politics are the sort of thing most people would find unremarkable, if not laudatory. Hell, Ayers is a professor at the University of Chicago; I suppose all of those libertarian economists are similarly tainted by association.

I would expect them to be more likely to exhume the sermons of Jeremiah Wright again to frighten the public, but, unlike Ayers, the Wright tapes have already been aired extensively and turned out to be a total flop at turning public opinion against Obama. This is a case where the over-religiofied nature of Americans has a beneficial side. Only right-wing fundies--who aren't voting for Obama anyway--think you're required to take every word your religious leader speaks as an ineffable proclamation. Most people recognize that being part of a faith community naturally requires some realpolitik.

But Ayers has one important advantage over Wright; he allows the old-timers to drag us kicking and screaming back to the OMG teh Sixties!, which they still believe has inexhaustable relevance to any and all future conflicts. Alas, we will never be rid of them.

...I speak in the past tense because almost as soon as McCain and Palin started the Ayers-palooza, they've apparently now called it off.