A quite controversial ad shown today in Michigan and Ohio claims that Barack Obama’s character is tainted because he has spoken positively about Bill Ayers, an activist formerly involved in radical anti-government activities but yet was involved in Obama’s political beginnings.

Ayers was involved with a group known as the “Weathermen” whose ideological targets included capitalism, the government in general, and the U.S. atrocities committed during the Vietnam War.

Ayers openly wrote about being involved with bombings in his memoir, and had Federal charges against him sought and dropped due to prosecutorial misconduct. The American Issues ad quotes Ayers saying, “We didn’t do enough”, in relation to the bombings. This specific quote was clarified in Ayer’s blog posted April 21, 2008.

Ayers writes, “I said I had a thousand regrets, but no regrets for opposing the war with every ounce of my strength” and also, “I told her that in light of the indiscriminate murder of millions of Vietnamese, we showed remarkable restraint, and that while we tried to sound a piercing alarm in those years, in fact we didn’t do enough to stop the war.”

In a Politico article that the ad cites Obama and Ayers’ relationship is spelled out to be nothing “more than the casual friendship of two men who occupy overlapping Chicago political circles and who served together on the board of a Chicago foundation.”

The ad ends with a characteristic loaded claim. “Why would Barack Obama be friends with someone who bombed the Capitol?” Though this is an interesting question, it should also be phrased, “Why would Barack Obama be friends with someone who he served with on the Board of Directors of the Woods Fund of Chicago, “whose goal is to increase opportunities for less advantaged people” and “[support] nonprofits in their important roles of engaging people in civic life, addressing the causes of poverty and other challenges facing the region, promoting more effective public policies, reducing racism and other barriers to equal opportunity, and building a sense of community and common ground.”

In addition to what Obama says of Ayers in the ad Obama said to The New York Times, Ayers is “somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8 years old.