So for the most part I try to avoid the generic partisan controversies like this Ayers business. For the most part both sides in the debate (even when one side is totally correct) tend to generate more heat than light and there is rarely anything useful of substance to be said. However, the more I hear the McCain campaign and it’s supporters harping about Obama’s relationship to Ayers the angrier I get. Not that I care that much about the McCain campaign exaggerating the facts to serve their political ends. Every candidate for a major office has to do this and I try and avoid falling into the trap of being outraged at the other guy’s misrepresentations while thinking those of my own canidate are no big deal.

What bothers me about this Ayers business is that even if Obama and Ayers got together for dinner once a week we shouldn’t be criticizing Obama for treating someone with a checkered past like a human being. For all the Christian rhetoric one hears the Republican party use you might think it would occur to them that forgiving sinners is a virtue. No one is suggesting Ayers has done anything but virtuous scholarship and charity work for the past 20 years so why shouldn’t Obama overlook his prior bad acts and make the Christian gesture of giving Ayers a second chance?

I suspect the people pushing this attack on Obama would agree that forgiving sinners is a virtue but would try to differentiate this case based on the lack of an (sufficient?) apology from Ayers about his behavior in the 60s. But does anyone really believe that the right way to treat someone who acted badly in their youth is to alienate them until they accept your judgments about their culpability? Is that really a better way to behave than making it clear you don’t approve of their past behavior but overlooking it and treating them like a (imperfect) human being? Do the pro-lifers who buy into this Ayers criticism really think it’s wrong to be friends with anyone who had an abortion as a teenager until they admit to having done murder?

Besides, if we didn’t look past people’s idiotic moral beliefs on a daily basis we wouldn’t get anywhere. Surely we don’t think Obama is obligated to give the loony philosophy prof who, despite being a total pacifist himself, thinks the members of the weather underground may have been morally justified in their actions. So how could it be that when the loony prof and the former radical are the same person it suddenly becomes immoral to associate with them?

Alright, so those making the Ayers critique might grant that as a private citizen it’s appropriate to overlook Ayers past but that as a candidate for public office Obama needs to hew to a higher standard. But this argument only works if you think it’s merely acceptable, though undesirable, to overlook someone’s past bad acts. If you believe that it’s actually a virtue to be kind and friendly even to those who have behaved poorly then as a candidate for public office Obama should set a good example and, if anything, be more willing to interact with Ayers. Christ, I understand the McCain campaign is desperate for material to use against Obama but do they really have to suggest that it’s unacceptable to forgive others and interact with them despite their (major) imperfections?