The Challenge Of Exposing The Challenge

"The Obama campaign claims that his name was suggested [for the Chicago Annenberg Challenge] by a couple of other foundation presidents who were on a committee there, and that may or not be true. But the truth is that Bill Ayers was the most powerful person on that foundation and he was on that committee that selected the board members. It is extremely unlikely that Obama would have been chosen without Ayers’ say so. And I also published recently an e-mail message I got as part of a Freedom of Information Act request. You can read that message a couple of ways, but I think the most plausible reading is that the fellow who sent it—who used to the executive director of this foundation—was basically admitting to some people that he had been avoiding reporters’ questions about the full story about how Obama got chosen. I wish the press would follow it up, but at least it begins to look as though there might have been a cover up there about Ayers’ rule and choosing Obama in that—to be head of that foundation."

-- Stanley Kurtz, on one of the questions the press won't investigate (during a discussion on how the Obama campaign has used intimidation tactics to try and silence him) on Townhall.com.

"Ayers was the only individual,...with legal authority to select board members. He relied on advice from Leff, Graham and Simmons but only he had the legal authority to approve board members. Thus, legally, Ayers approved the selection of Obama as a result of meeting with him prior to the board meeting (in fact, even if they had not met or first met at the board meeting Ayers’ silence would be deemed approval). Thus, Ayers was “involved” and in fact had to have been given his role as the legal agent of the Collaborative.

If Ayers objected to Obama, Obama could not have become a member of the CAC board because no one else had the legal authority to approve his selection. If Ayers had come out of that lunch with Obama and expressed an objection Leff, Simmons and Graham would have had to go back to the drawing board.

While I have speculated that Ayers and Obama knew each other before the CAC, it is nonetheless clear to me that Ayers appointed Obama to the board and thus helped Obama’s career at a very significant point – just in advance of his first political campaign which as we know was launched at Ayers’ house a few months after these events. That impact stands apart from whether they shared a pre-95 history."

-- Steve Diamond, in an e-mail to the The New York Times "reporter" that interviewed him three times (but without the NYT printing his answers, or documents, revealing the multiple business connections between Obama and Ayers) while the rest of "the press" continues to act like Diamond doesn't exist - with his left-wing blog Global Labor and Politics.