Column: Beware Of Obama's Relationships

This story was written by David Hughes, The Daily Gamecock

In the next few weeks we will decide who will be the next commander in chief of the United States. In uncertain times like these we need a president with good judgment. One way we can see a candidate's good judgment is the company he keeps, making Barack Obama perhaps the most risky choice ever for president.

For 20 years, Obama sat in the pews of Trinity United Church of Christ - a radical church that adopted a theology called Black Liberation Theology. Obama called the pastor of Trinity, Jeremiah Wright, his spiritual mentor. This was the man who presided over Obama's wedding, baptized his two daughters and was the inspiration for Obama's second book "The Audacity of Hope."

Around March, videotapes of Pastor Wright's more controversial sermons came to light. Sermons where Pastor Wright was quoted as calling this great country the "U.S. of KKK A." I encourage readers to go onto Youtube and type in Jeremiah Wright and watch some of these radical sermons. The sad thing is that when the controversy broke, Obama gave his now famous "A More Perfect Union Speech" where he said, "I can no more disown him [Reverend Wright] than I can disown the black community."

Then weeks later, when it became politically expedient for his campaign, he decided to dump Wright and recall his membership to the church. He said, "This isn't the man I knew for 20 years." Well either Senator Obama was asleep a lot in church or he showed poor judgment by being a member of Trinity.

One bad association isn't enough to write a candidate off. But wait - let's take a trip back to the early 90s when Obama kicked off his political career with a fundraiser in the living room of William Ayers.

In the 70s, Ayers was the leader of an Anti-War terrorist group that bombed the Pentagon and the Capitol building to show their dislike for the War in Vietnam. Obama's relationship with this former terrorist goes way beyond a simple fundraiser; it goes much deeper than that.

Sen. Obama sat on two boards with Ayers, the Chicago Annenberg Challenge and the Woods Fund. Both groups gave money to far left educational groups and pushed radical ideas onto schools in the Chicago area. Once again, when the relationship with Ayers started to become a political liability to Obama, he disclaimed friendship with Ayers, saying, "He is just a guy who lives in my neighborhood."

As a child, I was always taught that you are judged by the company you keep. If this saying holds true, there is no way we should elect Obama. I urge you to research on your own all of these associations I have raised. Can you really trust a president who chooses to call these people his friends?