"If a Republican candidate had launched his political career at the home of an abortion-clinic bomber"

[Robert Sheridan]

Didn't Justice Black do as much, or more, in accepting the endorsement  
of the KKK, of which he became a card-carrying member?  The KKK gave  
him his start in no small way.  He had to put out the fire after FDR  
nominated him to the high court by denying and repudiating.  He went  
on to a creditable career, as I understand.

The claim is not that Obama joined the Weatherman, which predated his  
maturity by a decade, as someone kindly pointed out.  Or that he  
endorsed any of its activities or that of Ayres, the professor who now  
serves on civic boards and whose father is a very prominent civic,  
business, and civil rights leader in Chicago.

The problem wasn't that McCain's campaign pointed out the association,  
which, I suppose, is fair to do briefly, for what it's worth (not  
much, imho, but others are free to disagree), but that according to  
some reports, it was going negative and making this a very big deal as  
though Obama had done something wrong.

He may have done something politically naive, but I don't see what he  
did that was morally wrong.  In politics, you take your support where  
you can find it and ask the voters to endorse you with their vote.   
You don't, in accepting support from nearly all comers, endorse the  
views of your supporters, necessarily.

It's up to the viewer, but McCain's campaign seemed out to smear Obama  
by association.

The reason for the criticism is that a lot of people object to McCain  
taking the low road when we thought he was made of better stuff.  The  
comparison to the racist Willie Horton campaign (and to the unfair  
Swiftboating of Kerry) has caused people to react against this sort of  
baiting and pandering to the worst instincts of the mob.

Are we really going to decide this election on this guilt-by- 
association?

On the other hand, JFK had some acquaintances who couldn't bear the  
light of day.

rs
sfls



On Oct 13, 2008, at 3:56 PM, Volokh, Eugene wrote:

> 	Charles Krauthammer implicitly asks an excellent question, which
> another list member pointed out to me:  What would people's reaction
> have been "If a Republican candidate had launched his political career
> at the home of an abortion-clinic bomber," and if the candidate's
> Democratic opponents had accused him of palling around with  
> terrorists?
>
> 	Eugene
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