222 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized BiographyOBAMA: TERRORIST AYERS IS “COURAGEOUS”
We thus have from this time a rare published endorsement of Ayers by Obama which appears to
have been overlooked by many of the opposition researchers during the spring primary campaigns.
Obama’s encomium of Ayers came in a review of the terrorist bomber’s book on juvenile justice, a
review which was published just before Christmas in 1997: “As Bloomberg News reported
recently, Obama and Ayers have crossed paths repeatedly in the last decade. In 1997, Obama cited
Ayers’ critique of the juvenile justice system in a Chicago Tribune article on what prominent
Chicagoans were reading.”^84 The title of Ayers’ work is A Kind and Just Parent: The Children of
Juvenile Court by William Ayers (Boston: Beacon Press, 1998). Obama’s full comment was: “A
searing and timely account of the juvenile court system, and the courageous individuals who rescue
hope from despair.” (Chicago Tribune, December 21, 1997) Even ten years ago, Barky was long on
hope.^85 One can surmise that Ayers’ chances of becoming secretary of education under a future
Obama regime are higher than most observers would imagine.
Obama also pursued a relentless process of political networking:
Mr. Obama cultivated clients like Bishop Arthur M. Brazier, the influential pastor of an 18,000-
member black church and founding president of the Woodlawn Organization, which focuses on
improving conditions for blacks in a neighborhood adjacent to Hyde Park. The two men began
talking politics over tennis games at Chicago’s elite East Bank Club, Mr. Brazier recalled. (Jo
Becker and Christopher Drew, “Pragmatic Politics, Forged on the South Side,” New York
Times, May 11, 2008.)
Obama also solidified his relations with the foundation world, the ambient in which he feels
most at ease.
Mr. Obama further expanded his list of allies by joining the boards of two well-known charities:
the Woods Fund and the Joyce Foundation. These memberships have allowed him to help direct
tens of millions of dollars in grants over the years to groups that championed the environment,
campaign finance reform, gun control and other causes supported by the liberal network he was
cultivating. Mr. Brazier’s group, the Woodlawn Organization, received money, for instance, as
did antipoverty groups with ties to organized labor like Chicago Acorn, whose endorsement Mr.
Obama sought and won in his State Senate race. (Jo Becker and Christopher Drew, “Pragmatic
Politics, Forged on the South Side,” New York Times, May 11, 2008.)
The Acorn endorsement is proving to be of significant value for Obama down to the present day.OBAMA SLIPPERY AND SHIFTY ON THE ISSUES
During this entire phase, Obama’s positions on issues go beyond the simple flip-flop to confront
us with a bewildering and shimmering kaleidoscope of variegated answers. The simple attempt to
catalog Obama’s positions on the issues would require a task force in its own right. The Roman god
Proteus was famous for his ability to assume any shape he wanted, and Obama has inherited some
of this gift. Around 2000, Obama claimed to be in favor of gun control and opposed to the death
penalty, whereas in 2008 these views have been transmuted into their opposites by the alchemy of
the Perfect Master:
Today, Mr. Obama espouses more centrist views [on guns and the death penalty] and says a
campaign aide had incorrectly characterized his views on those issues — a shift that does not sit
well with some in the group, the Independent Voters of Illinois Independent Precinct