Verifiable facts about Obama complete with sources and references

Background: William Ayers was a member of the Weather Underground, a radical leftist group that from 1969 to the mid-'70s
conducted several bombings of government institutions. Ayers served on the group's Central Committee. The Weather Underground
bombed the U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon, military installations, and police stations. In all, seven people were killed. In 1981, two
police officers and one security guard were killed by members of the Weather Underground in the robbery of a Brinks truck in New
York state. After Ayers married Bernardine Dohrn, also a member of the Weather Underground (who was described by FBI Director
J. Edgar Hoover as "the most dangerous woman in America"), they settled in Chicago.

Fact: Bernardine Dohrn had this to say in response to the Charles Manson
murders, which she romanticized as a revolutionary coup at a Flint, Mich.,
Weatherman War Council in December 1969: "Dig it! First they killed those
pigs, then they ate dinner in the same room with them. They even shoved a
fork into the victim's stomach! Wild!" Dohrn later stated this was meant as a
"joke."

Fact: In 1969, Bernardine Dohrn and other members of the Weather

Underground traveled to Cuba and met with representatives of the North
Vietnam and Cuban governments.

Fact: In 1970, Ayers explained what the Weather Underground was all about:
"Kill all the rich people. Break up their cars and apartments. Bring the
revolution home; kill your parents; that's where it's really at."

Fact: Both Ayers and Dohrn lived on the run from authorities from
approximately 1970 to 1980. The case against Ayers and Dohrn was dropped
due to illegal wiretaps and prosecutor misconduct. The FBI was conducting
"black bag jobs," or illegal break-ins, in their pursuit of the Weather
Underground. Some of these black bag jobs were authorized by Mark Felt,
later to be known as "Deep Throat" of Watergate fame.

Fact: Shortly after turning themselves in, Dohrn and Ayers became legal
guardians of the son of former members of the Weather Underground, Kathy
Boudin and David Gilbert, after they were convicted of murder for their roles
in a 1981 armored car robbery. Two police officers and one Brinks guard
were killed in the robbery.

Fact: Starting in the mid-'90s, Ayers and Obama served on the board of the
Chicago Annenberg Challenge Project. They served together on the board for
approximately seven years. Ayers and Obama were tasked with the oversight
of a $100 million budget. The board, under Obama's chairmanship the
Annenberg project gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to Bill Ayers'
projects promoting alternative schools.
 ["Anderson Cooper 360," CNN, Oct. 6, 2008]

Fact: From 1984 to 1988, Bernardine Dohrn was employed by the prestigious
Chicago law firm Sidley Austin. She was hired by Howard Trienens, the head
of the firm at that time and someone who knew Thomas G. Ayers, Bill's father.
However, Dohrn's criminal record has prevented her from being admitted to
either the New York or Illinois bar. "Dohrn didn't get a [law] license because
she's stubborn . . . She wouldn't say she's sorry."

[Chicago Tribune, May 18, 2008]

Fact: In 1991, Dohrn was hired by Northwestern University School of Law in

Chicago, as an adjunct professor of law, with the title "clinical associate
professor of law." Thomas Ayers was a long-time member of the
Northwestern Board of Trustees, and was named life trustee in 1987.

[Source: Feb. 7, 2008 speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC]

Fact: In 1994, Dohrn was quoted on her political beliefs: "I still see myself as
a radical."

[Chepesiuk, Ron, "Sixties Radicals, Then and Now: Candid Conversations

With Those Who Shaped the Era," McFarland & Company, Inc]

Fact: In 1995, Obama's first autobiography is released. In it he writes of his

years in college, associating with radicals. "To avoid being mistaken for a
sellout, I chose my friends carefully. The more politically active black
students. The foreign students. The Chicanos. The Marxist professors and
structural feminists and punk rock performance poets . . . When we ground
out our cigarettes in the hallway carpet or set our stereos so loud that the
walls began to shake, we were resisting bourgeois society's stifling
constraints. We weren't indifferent or careless or insecure. We were
alienated."

[Obama, Barack, "Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance,

Random House, Pages 100- 101]

Fact: In 1995, Ayers and Dorn opened their Chicago Hyde Park home to host
a political coming-out party for Barack Obama, when he ran for the state
Senate. Someone who was at this party for Obama wrote that Ayers and
Dohrn were launching him, "introducing him to the Hyde Park community as
the best thing since sliced bread."

[Politico.com, Feb. 22, 2008]

Fact: From 1999-2002, Ayers and Obama served together on a second

charitable foundation, The Woods Fund. While at the Woods Fund, they gave
money to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's church, which Obama attended, and a
children and family center, where Dohrn worked.

["Anderson Cooper 360," CNN, Oct. 6, 2008]

Fact: In a 1996 interview, one year after hosting Barack Obama's coming-out
party in their home, Ayers and Dohrn were profiled by "The NewsHour" on
PBS. Ayers was asked, "Looking back, would you do it differently now?" He
stated, "I doubt it . . . probably not."

Fact: Question to Obama in 2000, during his run for the U.S. Congress:
"What is your argument, based on the one term that you served in the [Illinois]
Senate so far, that makes you prepared for the Congress?"
Answer: "I would argue . . . my experience previous to elected office equips
me for the job . . . I've chaired major philanthropic efforts in the city, like the
Chicago Annenberg Challenge that gave $50 million to prompt school reform
efforts throughout the city."

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-45A6I-N5I&NR=1]

Fact: In 2001, Ayers made a $200 campaign contribution to Illinois state Sen.
Barack Obama.

Fact: In promoting his book "Fugitive Days" Ayers told The New York Times
on Sept. 11, 2001, "I don't regret setting bombs. I feel we didn't do enough."
When asked if he would "do it all again," he said, "I don't want to discount the
possibility."

Fact: Just days after 9/11, Ayers was quoted in The New York Times
Magazine: "This society is not a just and decent place . . . We're living in a
country where the election was stolen, and we didn't have a mass uprising.
It's incredible. We're all asleep. The pundits all pat themselves on the back:
'God, what a great country'. . . It makes me want to puke."

Fact: In 2001, Ayers posed for a photograph

in Chicago magazine, accompanying a profile
of his book, which shows him stepping on an
American flag.

[www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/August-
2001/No-Regrets/]

Fact: In a 2001 profile, a writer quotes Ayers as saying, "I think there will be
another mass political movement, because I believe that the kind of injustice
that is built into our world will not go quietly into the night."

[Chicago magazine, August 2001 online edition]

Fact: In his 2001 memoir, "Fugitive Days," Ayers writes of the time he took
part in bombing the Pentagon. "Everything was absolutely ideal on the day I
bombed the Pentagon. The sky was blue; the birds were singing. And the
bastards were finally going to get what was coming to them."

Fact: In 2008, Ayers again denies he was ever a terrorist, writing on his blog:
"The September 11 attacks were acts of terrorism, and the U.S. bombings in
Viet Nam for a decade were acts of terrorism. Terrorism is never justifiable,
even in a just cause . . . I've never advocated terrorism, never participated in
it, never defended it. The U.S. government, by contrast, does it routinely and
defends the use of it in its own cause consistently."

[billayers.wordpress.com/2008/04/page/2/]

Fact: In the 2008 presidential race, Obama downplays his association with
Ayers, saying that he is just a "guy who lives in my neighborhood."

[The Washington Post, Oct. 7, 2008]

Fact: David Axelrod, Obama's chief strategist, attempted to downplay the

Obama/Ayers relationship: "Bill Ayers lives in his neighborhood. Their kids
attend the same school . . . They're certainly friendly; they know each other,
as anyone whose kids go to school together."

[Politico.com, Ben Smith, Feb. 26, 2008]

Fact: Obama's children never attended school with the Ayers children.
Obama's children are ages 9 and 6. Ayers and Dohrn have two adult children,
and they adopted a son from their fellow Weather Underground terrorist Kathy
Boudin. That son was born in 1981.

Fact: Chicago's Hyde Park residents speak of Obama and Ayers'

relationship. "Neighbors said it's only natural that Obama would know Ayers
and Dohrn, who often open their homes for gatherings filled with lively
discussions about politics, arts, and social issues. Obama and his wife 'are
part of our neighborhood and part of our social circle,' said Elizabeth
Chandler, a neighbor of Ayers'."

[ChicagoTribune.com, April 17, 2008

Background: The driver’s license issue emerged in September 2007, when then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer ordered New York officials to
grant driver’s licenses to illegals. During the Oct. 30, 2007, Democratic primary debate at Drexel University, Sen. Hillary Clinton
fumbled a question from the late Tim Russert over whether she supported Spitzer’s plan. As for Obama, he has supported driver’s
licenses for illegals since his days in the Illinois Senate, and continues to maintain that training illegals to drive, and insuring them,
enhances public safety.

Fact: Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff called then-Gov. Elliot Spitzer
in October 2007, warning his plan to grant driver’s licenses to illegals would
undermine federal plans to enhance security. Spitzer withdrew the plan two
weeks later.

[Source: The New York Times, Oct. 31, 2007]

Fact: During the Democratic presidential debate held in Las Vegas in

November 2007, moderator Wolf Blitzer asked Obama if he supported driver’s
licenses for illegal immigrants. Obama answered: “Yes.”

[Source: Debate transcript, Nov. 15, 2007, Las Vegas]

Fact: Obama also addressed the licensing of illegals during the October 2007
debate. Asked if he favored Spitzer’s plan, Obama replied: “I think that it is
the right idea. And I disagree with [Sen.] Chris [Dodd], because there is a
public safety concern. We can make sure that drivers who are illegal come
out of the shadows, that they can be tracked, that they are properly trained,
and that will make our roads safer. That doesn’t negate the need for us to
reform illegal immigration.”

[Source: Debate transcript, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pa., Oct. 30, 2007]

Fact: The 19 terrorists involved in 9/11 obtained 13 driver’s licenses, as well

as 21 federal or state-issued ID cards. Eight of the 9/11 terrorists were
registered to vote.

[Source: Wall Street Journal column by John Fund, Nov. 2, 2007]

Fact: The day Gov. Spitzer withdrew his driver’s license plan, Clinton
released this statement: “I support Governor Spitzer’s decision today to
withdraw his proposal. His difficult job is made that much harder by the failure
of the Congress and the White House to pass comprehensive immigration
reform.

“As president, I will not support driver’s licenses for undocumented people,
and will press for comprehensive immigration reform that deals with all of the
issues around illegal immigration including border security and fixing our
broken system.”

[Source: Hillary Clinton statement dated Nov. 14, 2007]

Fact: A full 77 percent of American adults oppose granting driver’s licenses to

people who are in the United States illegally.

[Source: Rasmussen Reports, national telephone survey, November 2007]

Fact: There are 203 million licensed drivers in America, according to the
Federal Highway Administration. Approximately 1 in 5 fatal car accidents
involves a driver who, for whatever reason, does not have a valid driver’s
license.

[Source: “Outrageous! Cracking Down on Illegal Drivers”

by Michael Crowley, Readers Digest, September 2008]

Fact: Sen. John McCain’s online policy statements do not specifically

address driver’s licenses for illegals. McCain is on record, however, opposing
any benefits for those who “have come here illegally and broke our laws.”

In one speech he pledged, “It would be among my highest priorities to secure

our borders first, and only after we achieved widespread consensus that our
borders are secure, would we address other aspects of the problem in a way
that defends the rule of law and does not encourage another wave of illegal
immigration.”

[Source: Feb. 7, 2008 speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC]

Fact: In February, Obama told ABC’s David Muir, “If [McCain] wants to try to
parse out this one issue of driver’s licenses, an issue of public safety, my
response is that we have to solve the overall problem and this driver’s license
issue is a distraction.”

[Source: “Obama Defends Illegals’ Driver’s Licenses,” ABC.com]

Fact: When he served as a member of the Illinois state Senate, Obama voted
to train, insure, and license illegals to operate motor vehicles in order to
“protect public safety.”