Associations

I think it is so interesting that so many people claim that associations are not important. Now, if I am applying for a job, my associations are important, I need recommendations, past experience and all of those things matter.
If you want a future career in law enforcement, etc, associations matter. In fact, you would need to pass an FBI test for many of those careers.
Associations matter in our families. It matters in a marriage, for example. If one spouse associates with friends who encourages him/her to break their marital vows or make bad decisions, it will affect that person, their spouse, children, and extended family.
In a world where so many things you do can be posted on the internet and become knowledge to so many, choice of friends and associations matter.
From a religious perspective, associations always matter. In fact, anyone who has ever read the Bible can see that it does matter and that associating with certain people can drag you down also. We all know what happened with Lot's wife, who turned back to associate with the people of the city whom she could not fully leave.
As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I know that associations matter. The more I allow bad associations, the easier I will fall into temptation. Not to mention specific interviews where there is a specific question on associations.
With all of these thoughts it makes me wonder how Barrack Obama and his supporters can claim that his associations with Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers and others don't matter. Bill Ayers is a friend of Obama who is an admitted terrorist and is not sorry for what he has done. Do you honestly think that the FBI would let you work for them if you had that kind of close association? Yet so many seem to think that it will be ok for him to be President of the United States when one of his close associates (which he has never explained) stomps on the American flag and hates America? Or his church pastor who continually claims that America is a horrible place and claims that it is the US of KKKA? Does it really not make a difference in someone's life when one sits in a church for 20 years hearing that America is an evil place, that whites are horrible, suppressive people and that the government created the HIV virus to kill African Americans? And yet we dismiss it so easily when Obama says "He's not the man I knew". Is it really too high an expectation to expect someone who might possibly be the president of the greatest country on earth to love this country? Or to stand up for it? Please, let's not go through 4 years of apologizing for America, for the values we stand for and the freedom we represent. Associations matter in life and should matter to him.
I sincerely hope this is not offensive to anyone, I am simply stating my thoughts on the subject.