Bill Ayers Speaks

The election is not quite over, but Bill Ayers has broken his long silence. There's no 25th hour confirmation of conservative insinuation about his relationship with Barack Obama, however. In an interview with David Remnick, Ayers says "I think my relationship with Obama was probably like thousands of others in Chicago and, like millions and millions of others, I wished I knew him better." He bemoans his treatment during the election: "They made me into a cartoon character, they threw me up onstage just to pummel me." And, he insists, contrary to many reports, that he has not said that he wishes he committed more attacks. "I wish I had done more, but it doesn’t mean I wish we'd bombed more shit. ... I wish I had been wiser," Ayers says, "I wish I had been more effective, I wish I’d been more unifying, I wish I'd been more principled."