Obama Exploits 9/11

I thought it was off limits for political candidates to mention 9/11?

Well, the guy who keeps reminding us he's patriotic, even though nobody has questioned his patriotism, dares to tread where nobody is allowed to go.

"You also felt pride - pride in the firefighters who rushed up the stairs while workers rushed down; pride in the police who provided comfort, and the neighbors who lent a hand; pride in your citizenship, and the tattered flag that flew at Ground Zero."

"That's why Americans lined up to give blood. That's why we held vigils and flew flags. That's why we rallied behind our president. We were ready to step into the strong current of history, and to answer a new call for our country. But the call never came."

The flourish of rhetoric comes as Obama seeks to call attention to his own patriotism, after controversy over his past refusal to wear a flag pin.

Obama slammed President Bush for failing to call for "shared sacrifice" after the attacks and defining patriotism "as the property of one party, and used as a political wedge to take us into a war that should have never been authorized and never been waged."

Obama failed to mention that on 9/11, his good buddy and political mentor William Ayers fondly reminisced in the New York Times that he had no regrets about being a terrorist.

''Everything was absolutely ideal on the day I bombed the Pentagon,'' he writes. But then comes a disclaimer: ''Even though I didn't actually bomb the Pentagon -- we bombed it, in the sense that Weathermen organized it and claimed it.'' He goes on to provide details about the manufacture of the bomb and how a woman he calls Anna placed the bomb in a restroom. No one was killed or injured, though damage was extensive.

Between 1970 and 1974 the Weathermen took responsibility for 12 bombings, Mr. Ayers writes, and also helped spring Timothy Leary (sentenced on marijuana charges) from jail.

Today, Mr. Ayers and Ms. Dohrn, 59, who is director of the Legal Clinic's Children and Family Justice Center of Northwestern University, seem like typical baby boomers, caring for aging parents, suffering the empty-nest syndrome. Their son, Malik, 21, is at the University of California, San Diego; Zayd, 24, teaches at Boston University. They have also brought up Chesa Boudin, 21, the son of David Gilbert and Kathy Boudin, who are serving prison terms for a 1981 robbery of a Brinks truck in Rockland County, N.Y., that left four people dead. Last month, Ms. Boudin's application for parole was rejected.

So, would Mr. Ayers do it all again, he is asked? ''I don't want to discount the possibility,'' he said.

I guess Ayers didn't line up to give blood that day.