Karl Rove, a moment ago on Fox News: “Ronald Reagan was behind at this point in the 1980 election… There were doubts as to whetehr or not Reagan was up to the job. He was being potrayed as this out of touch Hollywood star. There are deep and persistent doubts about whether Obama is qualified to be president.

hussein and ayers

Beginning in 1995, Barack Obama and Bill Ayers served together on the board of the Annenberg Challenge Project. Before it closed in 2003, CNN reports, it had given hundreds of thousands of dollars to social change projects promoted by Ayers.  1

Ayers was the person responsible for getting the Annenberg grant for Chicago. 2 He was one of the three founders of the Project. 3 The Project’s minutes note that Ayers and Obama wrote its bylaws together. 4 Ayers was the co-chair of the Project’s “Collaborative”, which shaped its educational policy. 5

In 1995, a few months after Obama became chairman of the Annenberg Challenge, his political career began when state Sen. Alice Palmer introduced Obama to a dozen-or-so folks gathered in the Hyde Park living room of Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn as the person to take her place in the Illinois State Senate. 6

In 1997, Obama wrote a glowing review in the Chicago Tribune for one of Ayers’ books. 7 CNN also reported that he was listed with Ayers as a panelist at a forum organized by his wife, Michelle Obama. 8

From 1999 to 2001 9 , Ayers and Obama also served together on the board of the Woods Foundation of Chicago, and grants were made from it to Obama’s church, Trinity United Church of Christ, and to the Children and Family Justice Center, which is run by Ayers’ wife, Bernadine Dohrn. 10