Paul Berman is the author of a two-volume history of the generation of 1968, A Tale of Two Utopias and Power and the Idealists.

Over 3,000 fervent supporters have signed a statement emblazoned "Support Bill Ayers," describing the former leader of the Weather Underground, Chicago educator and Obama associate William Ayers as a victim of McCarthyite slurs by the McCain campaign. The naivete and self-delusion of the signatories heats up the already boiling Ayers issue on the day of the final debate between Obama and McCain.