You ask whether criminals are capable of reform. The answer is yes. But, Ayres is not reformed. He claimed as recently as 2001 that he had no regrets and wished he had done more. His wife said the same thing even more recently than that. Remember, the Weather Underground killed at least one police offier and set fire to a judge's house in the middle of the night, attempting to kill the judge, his wife, and his child. To sit back now and say, gee, I wish more people had been blown up and died seems rather strange to me. But, as Mayor Daley says, he and Obama are certainly friends. How come?

Furthermore, I did not have death threats in mind re: "silliness." I had in my mind the guy I saw on youtube who called Obama a socialist swine. As I said before, the only death threat I have heard anything about was one person in the entire country who uttered the word "kill" at a rally and was picked up in papers everywhere. If that guy is a Democratic plant, he deserves a medal from his party. If he is genuinely disturbed, I think McCain/Palin were right to draw back from some of the rally rhetoric re: Ayres, which they apparently did today.

Detroit has some self inflicted problems. They vote for people like Kwame Kilpatrick and then wonder businesses don't want to invest there. The city has had chronic underemployment going back as far as anyone can remember. It is a welfare state, with very grim prospects.

Chicago is another city where tent cities could emerge, but not for the reasons you might imagine. They tore down the eye sore public housing - the Robert Taylor Homes and Cabrini Green - several years ago to clean things up for Chicago's Olympic bid. Where did all the people go? Who knows, there are lots of anecdotes about it.

Folks, first let me apologize for any sarcasm in prior post on the death threat thing. I hate this sort of discussion, and should not have been flippant in commenting on it.

Second, a brief response to paulpsd7's points.

Ayres was just not a Vietnam protestor. The fire bombing of the judge's house - while he and his family slept at night - came during a black panther trial. These guys were just violent, period. Come on, people. How can you defend it?

I don't know what the context was for Ayres saying he wished he had done more, but I picked this quote up as well from Mrs. William Ayres: “We’d do it again,” Dohrn told ABC in 1998. “I wish that we had done more. I wish we had been more militant.” What is "it"? More fire bombing? More murder? I have a hard time relating to these people. Evidently, Barack was not similarly constrained.

You also asked about Mayor Daley's comment. Google in Ayres, Obama, and the term "They're friends, so what?" You'll get plenty of hits for the quote. Substitute "friends" for "pals" and you've got Sarah Palin's tag line. Sorry, folks, but if you believe the mayor, then Sarah Palin is right.

You evidently know Detroit better than me. I am simply saying, it is not going to improve with people like Kwame at the helm. The investment in downtown Detroit has indeed been substantial, but only a fraction of what you see in places like Chicago. And, as you know, the Greektown casino investment which forms a major anchor for downtown has been pretty tentative, with both solvency problems and potential for suburbanization. It is a wonder you got Ford Field and still have the GM headquarters, as poorly as the city is mismanaged. My only point is that it could be a much more attractive place for investment, with the proper leadership.

The Sopranos? Oh, come on. Salon has been hosting posts for the last several days claiming Republicans are foaming at the mouth over Ayres/Obama. And now, it reports on troopergate by comparing Todd and Sarah Palin to murderous mafia hitmen?

Can you imagine taking this story to Francis Ford Coppola and pitching it as the screenplay for Godfather IV? At least Talia Shire would finally get to star in one, assuming she gets the role inspired by Sarah. :) This is utterly ridiculous. Troopergate is a farce. The people who pursued it have embarrassed themselves; there is risk here too for those who take it too seriously.

You might be right on all counts, that there is not much here. Actually, I think the interesting thing is how Obama, at age 35 and fresh out of school, got to be the president and chairman of the board of a 100 million foundation backed by Ayres. My guess is, Barack posed as a chameleon and convinced Ayres he was at least fairly left/radical, and Ayres bought his act. Same thing goes for Ayres getting Barack started with his political career back in '95. These things don't just "happen" to one lawyer out a gazillion in the middle of a major city.

If the points above are true, there is probably a slight chance Barack really is a far left radical (not violent, just way left), and his hope and change schtick is the real "act." But, I think it's the other way around. Now that he is a state wide office holder in Illiois, his present chameleon inclination led him to become the man he is today, and he probably believes in color blind hope and change to some extent.

Finally, I think all of this should have been aired out in the primaries - when do you meet him, how did all this come about? But, the Democrats pushed hard to shut down debate after Wright popped out and Barack looked inevitable; anyone remember MSNBC's volcanic diatribes against Hillary to drop out? So, we're dealing with it now. Who knows what it all means, if anything.