If I said to you, "my attitude is that I believe in the market, I believe in
entrepreneurship, I believe in opportunity, I believe in capitalism and
I want to do what works."
Then I proceeded to say that we need to double the capital gains rate, increase the top marginal rate to 39%, raise the minimum wage, strengthen labor unions, and roll back free-trade provisions would you call me a hypocrite? Or just a politician?
If I called for all those proposals in the above paragraph, would it be fair to call me a liberal? Or should I get defensive and try to avoid being labeled?
All those statements come from Sen. Barack Obama in an interview with Maria Bartiromo of CNBC.
And those are just the ones he’s willing to discuss at this point.
What surprises might he have hidden in the bag?
BARACK OBAMA: AN AUDACIOUS RISK
Before Obama ran for U.S. Senate in 2004, he was virtually unknown even in his own state. Polls showed fewer than 20 percent of Illinois voters had ever heard of Barack Obama. Yet just a little more than five years later, Senator Obama is well-poised to become out next president. He has managed to fend off the serious vetting applied to every other candidate in modern history while capturing and maintaining a growing base of supporters.
Research into Obama’s record, the accuracy of his words, and some former close associates raises a number of concerns. First, the review of his record proved that he is running a campaign based on words, and not a record of deeds. It seems that every week, a new piece of evidence suggests that Obama really is just another good politician, one who will say anything to advance his image and interest, even if his words clash with reality. Eventually, if people begin to demand proof that his words are back by facts, his Teflon reputation will fail quickly.
Chris Matthews, the MSNBC political pundit, recently grilled Texas State Senator Kirk Watson for supporting Obama despite knowing nothing about the candidate’s legislative record:
Matthews: “Can you name any — can you name anything he’s accomplished?”
Long silence
‘No, I’m not gonna be able to do that,’ Watson finally admitted.”
Review his record and decide if you believe Barack Obama is ready to become President of the United States in 2008.
I. RECORD AS ILLINOIS STATE SENATOR (1998-2004)
A. HIS ACHIEVEMENTS AS A LEGISLATOR ARE SUSPECT: Obama’s rise in the State Senate was not propelled by his own achievements. His legislative record during his first six years was unremarkable. However, Senate Leader Emil Jones believed that Obama had the charisma and background to make a run for the U.S. Senate. So Jones became Obama’s “kingmaker” by putting Obama’s name on high-profile work that was actually done by his colleagues. In fact, almost all Obama’s success, in terms of getting bills signed into law, came during his last two years – while he was campaigning nearly full-time for the U.S. Senate. Jones’ moves infuriated colleagues who had devoted enormous time and energy toward guiding the bills through the legislative process. But for Obama and Jones, the ends seem to have justified the means: Barack became a U.S. Senator. And his appetite for credit-grabbing seems to have increased.
Perhaps we should carefully consider what this means for our country: At best, it raises concerns about what Obama achieved through his own efforts. If the answer is “not so much,” the how many deals were made with the legislators whose work and potential careers were stolen in order to put a man in higher office? What will Emil Jones seek in return? How many and what sort of promises is Obama bound to?
II. RECORD AS U.S. SENATOR (2005-2008)
A. LEGISLATIVE RECORD: It’s inherently difficult to measure the performance of a first-term U.S. Senator. Obama has been in office for 39 months, 15 of which have been devoted to his presidential bid. His name is on a large amount of legislation relative to freshmen senators: According to the Congressional Record, he has sponsored 265 bills and co-sponsored 802. Just two have become law: one naming a post office and one supporting the Democracy of Congo.
He votes closely along party lines. In 2007 he was named “The Most Liberal Senator” by the National Journal – maybe his heart was the purest or he simply followed the Party leaders straight down the line.
David Ignatius of the Washington Post summed up our research well in a March 2nd column:
“What I hear from politicians who have worked with Obama, both in Illinois state politics and here in Washington, gives me pause. They describe someone with an extraordinary ability to work across racial lines but not someone who has earned any profiles in courage for standing up to special interests or divisive party activists…[H]e also gained a reputation for skipping tough votes.”
C. PATTERN OF EXAGGERATION PERSISTS: On March 13th a Washington Post described several attempts of his attempts to embellish his record as a U.S. Senator:
? APRIL 6th 2006: After weeks of arduous negotiations, a bipartisan group of senators emerged from a room just off the Senate chamber with a deal on new immigration policy. The group was headed to a press conference to announce their plan. On their way, they met Obama, who asked if he could “come along.” When they arrived, Obama joined them in line for the microphone, and after he took the microphone he said:
“I want to cite Lindsey Graham, Sam Brownback, Mel Martinez, Ken Salazar, myself, Dick Durbin, Joe Lieberman . . . who’ve actually had to wake up early to try to hammer this stuff out.”
The staff members who had been arriving at 7 a.m. each morning for weeks were shocked. Those morning sessions had attracted just three to four senators a side, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) recalled, each deeply involved in the issue. Obama was not one of them.”
? MARCH 13TH 2008: Just after the fall of Bear Stearns, Sen. Christopher Dodd and Rep. Barney Frank unveiled their legislative proposals to help homeowners facing foreclosure. Obama did not write or help formulate any of the bills. He did not attend the afternoon press conference. Nonetheless, the next day he sought top-billing on Dodd’s proposal: Obama announced to the press: “At this moment, we must come together and act to address the housing crisis that set this downturn in motion and continues to eat away at the public’s confidence in the market. We should pass the legislation I put forward with my colleague Chris Dodd…” Dodd, an Obama supporter, pulled the candidate aside and told Obama he was could not assign authorship to him – because he had not been involved. Translation: Sen. Dodd — who recently endorsed Obama — politely said that had Obama lied.
IV. RADICAL, ANTI-AMERICAN, RACIST, HATE-MONGERING RELIGIOUS LEADERS
PASTOR JEREMIAH WRIGHT, Obama’s pastor for twenty years. The story has played out, and shocking as the comments were, Obama’s ability to frame his own bad judgment in the context of a “talk about race in America” and bring people back proved he has a Teflon skin. But would his supporters feel the same way if they knew more about the other characters he has been close too?
REVEREND AND ILLINOIS STATE SENATOR JAMES MEEKS is the pastor of the combined 22,000-member Salem Baptist Church and House-of-Hope mega-church on Chicago’s South Side. In 2006 he ran for governor of Illinois. Meeks and Senator Obama are long-time friends, and Obama describes him as one of his “closest religious advisors.” The reverend is also a “super-delegate.” He is also a radical race-baiter that has declared homosexuality an “evil sickness.”
Meeks was recently caught on video while discussing the topic of race. Meeks said: “You got some preachers that are house niggers. You got some elected officials that are house niggers. And rather than them trying to break this up, they gonna’ fight you to protect this white man!” When asked about his usage of the “N-word,” Meeks replied: “No one will be offended, except an individual that it applies to.” Meeks’s sermons have also called white mayors “slave masters” and denigrated moderate black politicians with the “n” word. Nor is he backing away from those slimy views. He has reiterated and defended them in recent interviews with Chicago’s local news media.
REVEREND MEEKS AND OBAMA
Mar 04: Meeks’ church was Obama’s last stop on the night he won the Democratic primary election for U.S. Senate.4
Apr 04: Senate campaign Meeks appeared in televised campaign ads for Obama Senate campaign2 and Obama campaigned at Meeks’ Salem Baptist church2.
Jan 05: During the critical period in enacting Illinois’ ENDA-like law, Obama was apparently unable or unwilling to convince Meeks to at least not vote against the bill – which would have failed had it received one less vote.12
Nov 05: OBAMA APPOINTS MEEKS TO HIS EXPLORATORY COMMITTEE FOR THE PRESIDENCY.3
Jan 06: Meeks’ church choir performed at a rally for Obama the night he announced he would run for president.5
May 06: Obama delivers a fiery speech at Meek’s church: “I’ve had enough of folks not telling the truth. I’ve had enough of people manipulating intelligence, fudging numbers and distorting what’s happening,”
2008: Meeks is listed on Obama’s campaign website of influential black supporters.
ILLINOIS STATE SENATE SPEAKER EMIL JONES: Obama’s second problem is his most important patron in Illinois politics: his “kingmaker,” Illinois State Senate Leader Emil Jones. Jones engineered Obama’s rise in state politics and into the U.S. Senate. Now that Obama is on the national stage, his ties to Jones raise uncomfortable questions about his years in Illinois politics. Jones is an old-fashioned, wheeler-dealer from the days of the Cook County Democratic machine.
NEW BLACK PANTHER PARTY LEADER MALIK ZULU SHABBAZZ — has endorsed Obama for president; an endorsement carried on Obama’s own website. These are the same Black Panthers who proclaim:
“We believe that Black People should not be forced to fight in the military service to defend a racist government that holds us captive and does not protect us. We will not fight and kill other people of color in the world who, like Black People, are being victimized by the white racist government of America. As our political objective, we want NATIONAL LIBERATION in a separate state or territory of our own, here or elsewhere, ‘a liberated zone’ (‘New Africa’ or Africa), and a plebiscite to be held throughout the BLACK NATION in which only we will be allowed to participate for the purposes of determining our will and DIVINE destiny as a people. FREE THE LAND!”
MINISTER FARRAKHAN – How close is he to Obama’s church, and his former Pastor of 20 years? Just months before Oprah endorsed Obama, the Church published an open letter by ALI BAGHDADI, Farrakhan’s Middle East adviser, to America’s richest woman in advance of her trip to Israel with ELIE WIESEL: “I must tell you that Israel was the closest ally to the White Supremacists of South Africa. In fact, South Africa allowed Israel to test its nuclear weapons in the ocean off South Africa. The Israelis were given a blank check: they could test whenever they desired and did not even have to ask permission. Both worked on an ethnic bomb that kills Blacks and Arabs.”
THE CLEVELAND DEBATE offered some genuine insight into the integrity between Barack and Hillary as well as the difficulties Obama will face regarding his past associations. Moderator Tim Russert asked Obama if he would repudiate the endorsement of his long-time constituent and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. Farrakhan’s has a long record of vicious racial attacks, from denigrating the Holocaust to accusing Jewish people of victimizing African Americans. Obama offered a hedged his words carefully: “I have been very clear in my denunciation of Farrakhan’s history of anti-Semitic remarks,” adding that Farrakhan is free to “say that he thinks I’m a good guy.”
Senator Clinton suggested Obama’s comments weren’t good enough, citing her record of rejecting controversial support. “There’s a difference between denouncing and rejecting,” she countered, “And I made it very clear that if I did not want their support, I rejected it,” she said, “I would not be associated with people” that make such comments. Only after being pressed in the spotlight, Obama buckled and said: “I would reject and denounce.”
V. “IS AMERICA SAFE WITH PRESIDENT OBAMA?”
Two of Obama’s most senior advisors, Samantha Power and Austin Goolsbee, have been forced to resign after explaining to foreign audiences that Obama doesn’t actually mean to follow through on what he says on the campaign trail. Every day more and more facts bring to light glaring inconsistencies between Obama’s image and his record. We may be just a few close votes away from handing the White House to an inexperienced, untested, overly ambitious candidate that has glossed over major flaws in his resume.
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1 http://www.barackobama.com
2 http://www.hillaryclinton.com/coalitions/lgbtforhillary/watchparties/lgbtrights.pdf
3 http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/lgbt.pdf
4 http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/ObamaBlueprintForChange.
5 http://www.lugar.senate.gov/services/pdf_crs/Introducing_a_Senate_Bill_or_Resolution.pdf1
6 http://www.ilga.gov/
7 http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid50021.asp
8 http://www.gop.com/News/NewsRead.aspx?Guid=6033e21b-b101-4e18-9ae9-b076c1ba4fab
9 http://www.thomas.loc.gov
10 http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-02-28/news/barack-obama-screamed-at-me/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/23/AR2008032301706.html?sid%3DST2008032401106&sub=new