User:Tillman/Stanley Kurtz on Obama-Ayers

In late August 2008, Fox News reported on their examination of the University of Illinois at Chicago records for the Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC), for the period in the 1990s when both Obama and Ayers were employed there. Minutes from an October 1996 meeting show that Obama was concerned with the program's effectiveness.

Stanley Kurtz, a conservative commentator and Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, thinks Obama's association with Ayers should raise questions in the minds of voters. "The fact that Obama and Ayers were working together stems from the pretty sharp left-leaning ideology that both of them shared to some extent," Kurtz said.

Kurtz has also examined the University's Annenberg records, and reported his findings and opinions in the Wall Street Journal in late September 2008. "The Obama campaign has cried foul when Bill Ayers comes up, claiming "guilt by association," Kurtz wrote. "Yet the issue here isn't guilt by association; it's guilt by participation. As CAC chairman, Mr. Obama was lending moral and financial support to Mr. Ayers and his radical circle."