Northwest Indiana Discussion

CHICAGO | Vietnam-era radical Bill Ayers says he knows President-elect Barack Obama no better than thousands of other people in Chicago.

In an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America" Friday morning, Ayers distanced himself from Obama. He said, for example, the two didn't even meet before Ayers hosted an event at his home for Obama and that it was one of many similar events Obama attended that day.

During the campaign, Republican presidential candidate John McCain's camp, referring to Ayers, accused Obama of "palling around with terrorists."

In the new release of his 2001 memoir "Fugitive Days" the afterword refers to the two as "neighbors and family friends."

But Friday Ayers said their relationship was based on things like improving schools in their Chicago neighborhood and not on Ayers' political views.