Where Have You Been Billy Boy

Here's the start of a piece in The Hollywood Reporter:

Bill Ayers, the former Weather Underground far-left radical who Sarah Palin made famous in 2008 by suggesting he was a "pal" of President Barack Obama...

So that's what made him?

I'd say Bill Ayers was famous--or infamous--in the late 60s as a far-left activist who became leader of the Weather Underground. And I'm guessing he remained "famous" in the early 70s when he was a fugitive and his picture could be found in post offices around the country.  Then he was famous for having his charges dropped due to what could be called a technicality.  He also wrote a book in 1973, Prairie Fire.

Perhaps he was forgotten for a while as the memory of those days of rage faded.  But boy did he jump back into the headlines when he wrote his book Fugitive Days: A Memoir.  The New York Times did a piece on him where he was quoted saying "I don't regret setting bombs" and "I feel we didn't do enough." The piece was published on September 11, 2001.

He also had a relationship with Barack Obama.  This was reported in mainstream newspapers and discussed quite a bit among conservatives.  Then Sarah Palin mentioned it.  I guess she's the first celebrity to be involved in the story, so, to The Hollywood Reporter, that means he finally became famous.

Let me try to explain it in a way that they can understand:

Mel Gibson got headlines around the world when he was arrested for drunk driving.  But he did some things of note before then, wouldn't you agree?