Yesterday I put forward the words of Rabbi Wolf of Chicago, "We held the first coffee for Obama," and asked why no one was challenging the McCain/GOP's attack line about Obama launching his political careeer in the living room of Bill Ayers:

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/astral66/2008/10/obamas-political-career-was-la.php

Today Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun Times has a piece up called

McCain misleading public in role Ayers played in Obama political career

I quoted Rabbi Wolf in my piece:

That was one of several such neighborhood events as Mr. Obama prepared to run, said A. J. Wolf, the 84-year-old emeritus rabbi of KAM Isaiah Israel Synagogue, across the street from Mr. Obama's current house.

"If you ask my wife, we had the first coffee for Barack," Rabbi Wolf said.

Lynn Sweet writes:

"I was certainly (hosting) one of the first," said Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf, rabbi emeritus at Chicago's KAM Isaiah Israel--located across the street from the Obama home.

Coincidence? No one has looked into this issue of the coffees that were hosted at the beginning of Obama's political career, which is why I posted my query into it here at TPM and cross-posted at Daily Kos yesterday. I also emailed my post to some of the major news organizations, mainly in the hopes that someone would take a look and do the real work to flesh out this story, and to counter the McCain smear-machines false statements.

Maybe Lynn Sweet arrived at the same place I did yesterday, after hearing the Ayers living room smear one too many times. Or maybe someone did see my post here, and thought it was worth looking into a bit more. Maybe the work we do here day after day, posting our thoughts and concerns, really can effect some kind of change?

I hope so. Either way, thanks to Lynn Sweet for her in-depth piece on this topic today, it goes a lot furthur than mine did, as she called and emailed many of the parties involved. Make sure you check it out.

excerpt:

I was certainly (hosting) one of the first," said Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf, rabbi emeritus at Chicago's KAM Isaiah Israel--located across the street from the Obama home.

"There were several every week," he recalled on Tuesday night when we spoke. "I remember what I said to him: 'Someday you are going to be vice president of the United States.' He laughed and said, 'Why not president?'''

~snip~

"As a starter, I know that Barack went to Alice Palmer," Martha Ackerman told me. "...Then the question was, 'how do you go about doing this in the Hyde Park way," she said, a reference to the personal touch needed in the Hyde Park- Kenwood neighborhoods, at the time immune to the dictates of the remnants of the Chicago machine and Mayor Daley's City Hall.

"...the way to launch the campaign was to have coffee, and not one coffee, as in 'this is the start of everything.' Barack went around to a number of people and requested that they hold coffees for him."

But the Ackerman's did not want to host an event for Obama without meeting him first. So he came over to their house and spent more than an hour with the couple.

When Obama left, "I said to Sam, 'this guy could be the first African American president of the United States."

Martha Ackerman, said "I know there were a number of coffees. It wasn't just one or two."