Bob Murphy:
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Sure he’s changed. He quit the Weather Underground and became a law-abiding teacher.

He hasn’t repented enough to satisfy many people (including me) and he’s still on the far left of the political spectrum. Ayers can be criticized on those accounts, but the question is whether Obama can be criticized effectively for his associations with Ayers.

I think Ayers is morally guilty of injuring and murdering policemen, but the Republicans have been in charge of the Justice Department for 20 of the last 24 years and haven’t produced enough evidence to put him on trial. So, my personal opinion about Ayers’ guilt is debatable. Obviously, most people who deal with Ayers don’t consider him to be a cop-killer. Again, the issue is whether Obama will be blamed effectively for associating with a cop-killer, and I think the answer is no.

Most people have associated with other people who have committed crimes in their past. Nobody wants themselves to be blamed for such associations. Obama was serving with Ayers in an organization that was trying to improve public education. The organization can be criticized as stupid, but Obama cannot be blamed fairly for a moral failure simply because he participated with Ayers in this organization.

The general election is only two and a half months away. In that remaining time, the Republicans better talk a lot less about McCain being a POW and Obama being a terrorist-associate and better talk a lot more about controlling the budget, reforming our health-care system, nominating good judges, preventing the development of weapons of mass destruction abroad and other major, important issues.