The theme of the 2008 presidential campaign, as with many others, has been a continued focus on topics extraneous to the core of our country's problems.
William Ayers, Sen. Barack Obama's so-called terrorist pal, is a much more intriguing topic than the economy, which is why Ayers has begun to take over national headlines.
Before you get so ready to call us on our left-wing bias because we've mentioned Obama before Sen. John McCain in another editorial, give us a second. If the tables were turned and McCain was being accused of cavorting with home-soil bombers, we know the Democrats would be taking the same course of action.
Obama and Ayers don't hit the links every weekend or go Pentagon-bombing once a month. They worked together at Chicago-area not-for-profit organizations like the Woods Fund of Chicago, which met only four times a year.
In the mid-1990s, Ayers hosted a meet-and-greet for Obama as he made his first run for the U.S. Senate. Sound fishy? The two men lived in the same neighborhood. That's not terrorism; that's convenience.
We know that during the 1970s, Ayers spent years as a fugitive for taking part in anti-Vietnam bombings on American soil, and as recently as 2001 he said he should have bombed more. What about the work he has done since? He is a tenured education professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Is he solely remembered for what he did more than 30 years ago?
Whether you think Ayers is a terrorist, his loose ties to Obama are not going to affect the presidency if Obama is elected. Forget about Ayers' past and focus on our country's future - the two are not intertwined.
