CHICAGO - Vietnam-era radical Bill Ayers broke his silence and took to ABC’s “Good Morning America” yesterday, shilling a new edition of his book, and claiming he doesn’t know President-elect Barack Obama any better than “thousands of other Chicagoans.” In the new afterword to his 2001 memoir, “Fugitive Days,” the college professor and former member of the 1960s terrorist group the Weathermen, he describes himself and Obama as “family friends.” “I would really say that we knew each other in a professional way, again on the same level as, say, thousands of other people,” he said. Ayers helped found the radical group the Weathermen that carried out bombings that killed several police officers and security guards. His name came up repeatedly in the presidential campaign, when GOP veep candidate Sarah Palin accused Obama of “palling around with terrorists.” - Noah David Simon from Bookmarklet

Ayers hosted a fund-raising coffee early in Obama’s political career at Ayers’ home in the Chicago neighborhood where the two live. They also served together on a Chicago school reform board. - Noah David Simon