Looks to me like your rationalizing. I still judge the act of killing, whether today or 45 years ago, as killing.
Yes. I am rationalizing.
Here are some better ones for you-
I judge someone who kills another human being during war differently than I do someone who kills another human being during a robbery or drug deal...
I judge a doctor who killed immovable quadrapalegic patients during the madness and chaos of Katrina 5 minutes before their nursing home flooded differently than I do if it was on a typical day and was done for evil purposes...
These are rationalizations...
I do not condone what Ayers did. Bombing people or government property is illegal and wrong. But I see it differently given its true context- the revolutionary period of the Vietnam War. And as such- I am not troubled by the "association". Ayers did what he did. This is undeniable. But during the time Obama "associated" with him Ayers was a professor at a prestigious local university, he was living in Obama's neighborhood and he served on numerous boards of respected organizations advocating education. Ayers did the bad things when Obama was 4 years old.