In 1995, State Senator Alice Palmer introduced her chosen successor, Barack Obama, to a few of the district's influential liberals at the home of two
well known figures on the local left: William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn.
While Ayers and Dohrn may be thought of in Hyde Park as local activists, they're better known nationally as two of the most notorious - and unrepentant -
figures from the violent fringe of the 1960s anti-war movement.
Now, as Obama runs for president, what two guests recall as an unremarkable gathering on the road to a minor elected office stands as a symbol of how swiftly
he has risen from a man in the Hyde Park left to one closing in fast on the Democratic nomination for president.
"I can remember being one of a small group of people who came to Bill Ayers' house to learn that Alice Palmer was stepping down from the senate and
running for Congress," said Dr. Quentin Young, a prominent Chicago physician and advocate for single-payer health care, of the informal gathering at the
home of Ayers and his wife, Dohrn. "[Palmer] identified [Obama] as her successor."
Obama and Palmer "were both there," he said.
Obama's connections to Ayers and Dorhn have been noted in some fleeting news coverage in the past. But the visit by Obama to their home - part of a
campaign courtship - reflects more extensive interaction than has been previously reported.
Neither Ayers nor the Obama campaign would describe the relationship between the two men. Dr. Young described Obama and Ayers as "friends," but
there's no evidence their relationship is 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.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8630.html
More about Bill Ayers
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=2169








