I’m one of those who doesn’t think the Ayers relationship will be enough to defeat Barack Obama, but his campaign has certainly done an odd job responding to the criticism, and now, via the AP, I see that they’ve making an outright bizarre charge:

In an e-mail to reporters, the Obama campaign said Ayers is a “distinguished scholar” at the University of South Carolina, where Sanford serves as the ex-officio trustee while governor.

“By Governor Palin’s standards, that means Governor Sanford shares Ayers’ views,” the e-mail read.

What an absurd story. If Sanford monitored speaking invitations from a state university and intervened to revoke the invitations to those speakers who he found objectionable, he’d be attacked for violating free speech. Further, Sanford ran for governor and overseeing the university system is one of his many duties — Obama specifically luanched his political career with a fundraiser held at Ayers’s house, and voluntarily chose to serve on a board with him.