It turns out that Sean Hannity of Fox was the one who got ABC to ask Obama about William Ayers last night, according to thinkprogress.org. Stephanopoulos appeared on Hannity's radio program on Tuesday:
"HANNITY: There are two questions that I don’t think anybody has asked Barack Obama, and I don’t know if this is going to be on your list tomorrow. One is – the only time he’s ever been asked about his association with Bill Ayers, the unrepentant terrorist from the Weather Underground who on 9/11 of all days in the New York Times was saying “I don’t regret setting bombs. I don’t think we did enough.” When asked about it by the Politico, David Axelrod said that they have a friendly relationship, and that they had done a number of speeches together and that they sat on a board together. Is that a question you might ask?
"STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, I’m taking notes right now."
And, here's the question Stephanopoulos asked last night:
"STEPHANOPOULOS: A gentleman named William Ayers, he was part of the Weather Underground in the 1970s. They bombed the Pentagon, the Capitol and other buildings. He’s never apologized for that. And in fact, on 9/11 he was quoted in The New York Times saying, 'I don’t regret setting bombs; I feel we didn’t do enough.'
"An early organizing meeting for your state senate campaign was held at his house, and your campaign has said you are friendly. Can you explain that relationship for the voters, and explain to Democrats why it won’t be a problem?"
Even dating back to his time with the Clintons, Stephanopoulos' problem has been an excessive desire sometimes to ingratiate himself. But: Does he understand how bad it looks to be a funnel for a partisan of the right? Or, does he actually think Hannity is a journalist? Will he take questions from Bill Maher the next time he interviews McCain?
Here's video from someone who didn't think he did a very good job last night:
Via Atlantic.
Comments (3)
Seems like a fair question to me. It also seems like Obama knew it was coming given his response. I'd rather have this issue out now than in October.
Do you understand how unprofessional it looks for a journalist to be concerned about how they are perceived by one specific portion of the electorate? Kudos to George for being willing to consider questions of interest to the entire spectrum of voters, unlike some so-called journalists whose only interest is to advance the agenda of the candidate or group that they personally favor.
Bill Maher? come on. Hannity has a legitimate talk show and Maher is just a liberal weasel that stacks all of his shows with those fringe nuts who agree with his twisted point of view...can you say Janine (sp?) Garofalo?