No, I’m not referring to Linda Darling-Hammond, but to William Ayers, the “distinguished professor” at the University of Illinois-Chicago who first distinguished himself by blowing up a Greenwich Village townhouse while building a bomb. as a terrorist.* The media has been looking into Senator Obama’s connections to this former Weatherman for at least a week, and last night George Stephanopoulos brought it up at the Philadelphia debate. Obama’s response:

George, but this is an example of what I’m talking about. This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood, who’s a professor of English in Chicago, who I know and who I have not received some official endorsement from. He’s not somebody who I exchange ideas from on a regular basis. And the notion that somehow as a consequence of me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago when I was 8 years old, somehow reflects on me and my values, doesn’t make much sense, George.

But he’s not a professor of English, he’s a professor of education. What other institution would give a former Weatherman a full professorship?

Nor are we late to this story; see Checker’s take on Ayers from 2001.

ADDENDUM: Sol Stern has covered the Bill Ayers story too.

* Multiple sources have informed me that Ayers wasn’t in the Greenwich Village townhouse that blew up, though he was implicated in several terrorist activities.