The New York Times splashed the Barack Obama-Bill Ayers "connection" story on the front page of Saturday's paper. Obama's practically non-existent ties to former Weather Underground figure William Ayers have been the subject of endless speculation among folks like right-wing yakker Sean Hannity, who suggested to ABC'sGeorge Stephanopoulos that he should ask about Obama about Ayers in a debate (whichStephanopoulos subsequently did). So with a little more than a month left before the election, the Times grants2,100 words to explaining… well, that "the two men do not appear to have been close." So why write the story in the first [...]