What did Obama know about Ayers?

And, more to the point, when did he know it?

Lynn Sweet in the Chicago Sun-Times reports on this curious exchange between ABC's Jake Tapper and Obama campaign manager David Axelrond:

"So, when did Obama find out that Ayers had been a member of an organization the FBI called a "domestic terrorist" group, and had been, for years, a fugitive from the law?

"I don't know," Axelrod said and Tapper reported.

"I mean it was sometime after their first meetings. And you know, he became aware of it. I don't know the exact moment."

He wasn't aware of who "Ayers" was?

"Yeah," Axelrod said, "I mean, the fact is that like a lot of people who, you know, didn't live through that era -- particularly those who didn't live though that era in Chicago -- It just wasn't. I mean, when he came to Chicago, Ayers was advising Mayor Daley on school reform issues, and that was his profile, was that he was an expert on education."

So, did he know who Ayers was when he went to his home in 1995?

"My understanding is that when he went there, he did not," Axelrod said.

Reporters noticed that clause -- "my understanding is" -- and pressed further. Did Axelrod ask Obama if he knew Ayers' history when he first met with him?

"Yes," Axelrod said.

And he did not know?

"Yes," Axelrod said. "That's what I've said -- I answered the question when I was asked the other day. But no one's suggesting that he never knew. I mean that's not -- we weren't offering that. I wasn't offering it -- I was asked a question that you just asked me and just answered it. I wasn't making an argument about it."

As the picture above makes clear, Ayers isn't proud of his country and what its flag stands for.

Is Obama? At this point, that seems not just a fair question but also, perhaps, the crucial one of this election.