THEY’RE STILL COVERING FOR HIM, but The New York Times has a story on the Bill Ayers / Barack Obama connection. It ran on Saturday, natch.

Yeah, of course it’s a whitewash, but that’s better than the black hole that the NYT’s coverage has been so far. Now they’ve admitted it’s a story.

More on the Times whitewash from Stephen Green (“I don’t know of anyone with a substantive worry that deep in his heart, Obama wants to blow up the Pentagon or even just stick it to the man, baby. Instead, the worry is that Obama has had some kind of relationship with an unrepentant domestic terrorist, which even Shane must admit Obama has downplayed.”) and Tom Maguire. (“Mr. Shane closes with various acquaintances of Mr. Obama assuring us that he is not likely to be making bombs in the basement of the White House. Glad we cleared that up. Now, how about the question of whether Bill Ayers has a hard-left educational philosophy shared by Barack Obama? My guess is that soccer moms (and dads) would be interested to learn about that.”) Both posts are must-reads.

UPDATE: More thoughts from Fausta Wertz.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Sarah Palin seems to be making this an issue, by accusing Obama of “palling around with terrorists.”

MORE: Reader John Vecchione:

I think you do your readers a disservice by quoting the idea that Obama is hiding the Ayers relationship is the real problem. He’s running for President, I’d down play it too! I’d also apologize. Here is the thing that eats at me. What did Ayers see in him? How did such a young man come into Ayers circle and why was he embraced? Dorhn, Ayers, Wright all saw something in Obama that made them want to be with him and promote him? These are not people who like promoting pro-America candidates.

What do they know about Obama that we don’t?

Maybe he just suckered them. But then, that takes us back to the perennial “who are the rubes?” question. . . .