My friend Kevin

I have this friend, whom I met when I was a college student at Mizzou, named Kevin. He's a great guy, he works hard, has a good sense of humor, and is dependable.

However, he is also a lousy drunk. Kevin has twice been arrested for drunk driving.

And yet I'm still friends with him. Why? Don't I know it will tarnish my image if I associate with known criminals?

So when the GOP (and by "GOP" I mostly mean right-wing local media outlets who constantly pleaded with McCain to attack Obama last night and stop being so nice in the political ads that unbeknownst to them McCain doesn't personally direct) goes after Obama over some guy whom Obama is/was friends with who had a dark past, I have to chuckle.

Someday, when TAE runs for public office, and they bring up my friend Kevin, with whom I worked for a summer and with whom I drank on many occasions, I'll chuckle then too. You see, we all have friends, or coworkers, or associates, or ministers, and we can't control them. I'm not happy with Kevin for drinking and driving, which he did many more times than he was actually caught, but I do not judge him. Nor did I stop being friends with him when he did those things. I expressed no disappointment in him to his face. All I could do was offer my condolences on the tough time he had brought upon himself and offer encouragement and hope that he'd not do it again.

So maybe Obama's chum Bill Ayers is/was an anti-war activist amongst many anti-war activists in the late 1960's, and he did some stupid things. But I don't see where Obama should be ashamed to know the man. Obama was...8?...or something like that, maybe he was in 8th grade, when Ayers was lobbing Molotov cocktails at government buildings, or whatever he did that was so terrible.

The point I guess I'm trying to make is that our associations should not condemn us.

And also, I'm proud of Obama for being friends with Ayers, solely based on Ayers' awesome mustache!