Several readers have pointed out that I completely failed to give a full explanation of why the McCain gambit on the Ayers – Obama “connection” fails on its face. (This has nothing to do with my previous column on the eventual outcome of the election.) One example of the GOP’s hopes can be found in this post at Hot Air, where every effort is made to stitch together any particle of connectivity between Obama and Bill Ayers. The reality, of course, has little to do with how many meetings, coffee klatches or board meetings Obama and Ayers share in common. We may, for purposes of this exercise, assume that Obama has had more than sufficient meetings with the unrepentant domestic terrorist to say that he “knows him.” (Though not in the Biblical sense.) The real story here is the media reaction.
Before you get started, I’m not heading toward some lofty pronouncement of the media as a liberal tool or lover of McCain. Neither matters in this case. The fact is that only a few moments on The Google will show that the dreaded MSM took a peek at the Obama-Ayers connection early this year and found it lacking in heat. However, now that Team McCain has stuck the iron back in the fire, the ever hungry media beast has been handed a new story. As I predicted in a phone call to a friend on Saturday, the story greeting America’s voters this week is not the connection between Obama and Ayers. It is as follows:
Why are McCain and Palin talking about Ayers right now?
The story was predictable and obvious. I’m seeing it in newspaper headlines and television shows morning, noon and night. Nobody is asking why Obama was involved in any sense with Ayers. They are asking if McCain is looking to turn the page from the economic meltdown? Are they getting desperate because they are behind? Is this a distraction?
That’s the new media story. Had the McCain team not brought up Ayers, it would have lain idle and rotted away under its own weight. Now that new life has been injected in it, the media is bringing up ugly and obvious questions which make the McCain campaign look even worse than they did. That’s the real Ayers story this week.