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William Ayers: 'I get up every morning thinking ... today I'm gonna end capitalism'

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  AP

  In this Nov. 14, 2009 file photo, William Ayers addresses an education group in Omaha, Neb.

William Ayers, in a pep talk to an Occupy Wall Street gaggle, said he wakes up every morning thinking about how he's going to end capitalism -- though he acknowledged he goes to bed "every night disappointed."

The co-founder of the radical, Vietnam-era Weather Underground was videotaped chatting up what was identified as an Occupy Union Square group this past week in New York City.

In the tape, he told the crowd that he doesn't consider himself an optimist or a pessimist.

Rather, he said: "I get up every morning thinking, today I'm gonna make a difference. Today I'm gonna end capitalism. Today I'm gonna make a revolution. I go to bed every night disappointed, but I'm back again tomorrow. That's the only way you can do it."

Ayers' past ties to President Obama stirred trouble for the Democratic candidate when he was running in 2008. The two worked together on a charitable board starting in the mid-1990s, and Ayers once hosted a campaign event for Obama when he first ran for the Illinois Senate.

Obama, though, distanced himself from Ayers. And Ayers himself wrote in late 2008 that the two were not close.