Pajamas Media

39 Comments

1. chicago:

At the end of the day, it is clear to the whole nation that Obama is still stuck with the mentality of racial division in America….definitely in line with Rev. Wrights principles…those 20 years sitting in that church does have an impact on Obama’s principles, if there’s any doubt at all.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a Republican and pro-lifer, is turning in his grave….as Obama tries hard to INCREASE the racial divide that Dr. King tried so hard to eliminate.

Aug 19, 2008 - 1:38 am 2. Cletus:

What is he talking about he wants to see America’s violent racial history acknowledged? It is acknowledged, all the time, every day. They teach it in schools, they air programs about it on the history channel, the info is readily available and most if not all Americans are aware of it.

Someone should tell Obama that you can only beat a dead horse so long before the crowd gets bored and walks away

Aug 19, 2008 - 2:34 am 3. JoshC:

Not being American I don’t have any particular interest in the Presidential race but if I were I’d be extremely annoyed (to put it politely) about how certain Obama supporters are claiming that if their candidate loses it will be because of the racism of people who voted for McCain.

From what I’ve seen the only people making an issue of Obama’s colour is Obama’s supporters in an effort to get people to vote for him out of fear of being branded a racist otherwise.

Aug 19, 2008 - 3:01 am 4. Rachel Peepers:

Well, Obama is again barking up the reparation tree, calling on America not just to offer words, but deeds. And so this voice of hope and change is now finally defining for Obama’s pay grade what those two words mean.

People of color are hoping for make-goods, reparations, and Obama has an action plan to deliver them. Special taxes on such things as private home sales that take profits out of the average white homeowners’ pockets and convert them to transfer payments into the bank account of the descendants of slavery.

Hope and change.

Change to right past wrongs. Obama is not for a minute going to let past racial wounds heal; on the contrary, the wrongs done to blacks Obama plans to throw up in people’s face at every opportunity. Forgive the wrongs down to blacks? Never. List the accomplishments to improve race relations by whites? Never.

And not for a minute to remember the sacrifices all Americans have made in two world wars to save the world from tyranny, oppression and, yes, slavery.

Obama has the kind of leftest agenda that, after four years, would leave this country more deeply divided than it’s been for 200 years, squandering all the good will that’s been built up over the years, especially since the civil rights bill of 1964.

If Obama were elected, and America survived his four years, I wouldn’t be surprised if there wasn’t another Democrat elected in our lifetime.

I believe that he is so full of venom and hate, lying hidden just beneath his seemingly friendly, mild exterior that he’ll leave a black mark on American politics that will take generations to be removed.

Listen to his speeches to black groups and one walks away with the distinct impression that Barack Obama is a hate monger of the first degree.

While I can’t believe that’s true, words have meaning, and the words he speaks are clear. Reparations. Denunciations. Repercussions for people who don’t think like Democratic Obamatons.

Which means the Fairness Doctrine enacted to remove what Obama calls hate speech; what most Americans call conservative talk radio.

Purge the internet from anti-Obama websites.
Purge comedy clubs where whites use the “N” word.
Purge schools that refuse to teach the victimization theory of blacks.
Purge the constitution of the second amendment; enact a law that restricts gun ownership to special black police organizations, and approved white militia.

Yes, Barack, for a little man, has some big plans for this country. We can love it and think Barack’s way, or Barack says, We can go someplace else.
“Misfits and malcontents aren’t welcome in Barack’s and Michelle’s America. ”

As Barack implies when he speaks to Black Organizations especially, rich Republicans don’t put you first, they put themselves first. “Thus, I will pledge to fight for you previous wrongs are righted.”

Discontented citizens of no color will be put on a list of home transfer candidates that will be forced to give up their homes on the basis of need.

I could go on and on but you get the point. Obama who claimed he was a uniter is actually anything but. You might not mind it if one day Muslim is the official religion of America, but it doesn’t sit well with me. Yet, Barack says it’s the kind of thing that people are afraid of happening. It’s not an America we grew up with. And it’s surly not an America most of us would be comfortable growing old with.

Aug 19, 2008 - 3:14 am 5. RE:

The premature promotion of Obama has seriously damaged race relations.

Woefully inexperienced and unqualified for the position he seeks, Obama validates and reinforces the ‘diversity hire’, ‘affirmative action’ suspicions long held by honest, decent, hard working people. Objective analysis would have one doubting Obama’s suitability for a school board position, let alone president of a nation.

It’s quite amazing how completely mindless, delusional, and unserious the Democrat party has become.

Aug 19, 2008 - 3:33 am 6. Ron, NY:

The Democrat party is racially driven no doubt. They claim to be the party of unity but why all the race baiting?? They claim to be the party of diversity also but they have a strange way of embracing it with all the divisive rhetoric on display. If one doesn’t agree with their ideologues are they inherently racists as many liberals/leftist automatically claim also? Surely having the clarity and maturity of mind to not vote for a candidate purely on their their weak experience, their suspect political ideas and policy plans, their penchant for exaggerating and embellishing ones self worth and poor track record, plus their poor judgment in general are not grounds for declaring racism and bigotry?

It would also be interesting to see for all his holler for reparations as such, whether Obama would hold accountable his own party’s sordid history of disenfranchising minorities in the USA. It’s quite lengthy indeed.

Would a Democratic party of cowards truly own up to their history and agree to the kind of reparations Obama states are necessary for healing old wounds?

I think not. Hypocrites.

Aug 19, 2008 - 3:45 am 7. Lisa:

He used his race like a sword going back to at least January.

He was NEVER the post racial candidate… he just said that while beating us over the head with his skin color.

His campaign has been all about his race.

Aug 19, 2008 - 4:45 am 8. jeff:

it’s the people of color that continually play the race card.

can you imagine, white journalists convention? could you imagine it in 2050, when whites are supposed to be a minority in the US?

Obama is way behind the times.

Aug 19, 2008 - 4:48 am 9. Boris:

Another in a long series of poorly thought out pajamas media posts.

First

“Neither Barack’s name nor his appearance will scare practically anyone,”

Please. Tell this to the Republican talking heads who constantly remind us that Obama’s middle name is Hussein. You need only look in the comments section here to find uninformed ideologues who have been duped by the claim that Obama is a secret Muslim.

As for “demeaning” our country’s history–really? You just want to whitewash injustices against African Americans and Native Americans? I suppose most people here believe that poverty is rampant in African American communities only because of some flaw in the people themselves and that centuries of oppression have left no mark. What does that sound like to you?

Aug 19, 2008 - 5:27 am 10. Qulmos:

Those who fail to learn from the lessons of history may be doomed to repeat them, but those who allow themselves to be stuck in said history get nowhere.

Aug 19, 2008 - 5:34 am 11. George Clarke:

We can argue who is creating more racial divisiveness — Obama in insulting Clarence Thomas in claiming he was too “inexp-” I mean, not yet qualified, or Rush Limbaugh in his [maybe] unintentional racial slur against Obama in saying he isn’t qualified to shine Thomas’s shoes. As Robert DeNiro might say, “I think he insulted you a little bit.” But funny none the less.

Hey, people. Let’s get over the skin pigmentation thing and just treat everyone as Americans. This country is too much of stew, unmelted in the Melting Pot most ways that I can see, to worry about where anyone came from, one or two of five generations back. We are post-racial, aren’t we? Well, we better be.

Aug 19, 2008 - 5:50 am 12. AJ:

“”There’s not a red America or a blue America or w hite America or a black America…” (Obama, July 2004, DNC)

Has there EVER been a more divisive candidate in US history? Not in my lifetime.

Aug 19, 2008 - 6:17 am 13. misanthropicus:

RE: George Clark “Obama in insulting Thomas in…[...]”
George, I beg to differ a bit here – Obama’s words weren’t an insult, but a an arrow for long in the liberas’ scabard: when going for Clarence Thomas, Obama tried to steal Ward Connerly’s thunder, in a manner that would satisfy both liberals, and those of anti-affirmative action persuasion. (I leave aside the fact that Obama’s judicial competence is, well… let’s review his papers on issues, his case history & pleadings, let’s interview his former clients – that will clear this matter.)

As far as racial undertones of this campaign – of course they are there and who on the earth would deny that. The problem is, Obama’s candidacy for the very beginning has been wrapped in political correct untouchability – and this was the wrapper that made the liberals hope that will protect someone who is so dramatically bellow his paygrade.

Aug 19, 2008 - 6:23 am 14. JAY:

The ironic thing is the Jim Crow laws he talks about are from the Democratic Party, they had to be dragged kicking and screaming from their racist ways and they are not away from them yet. Plus why don’t we ask Michael Steele or Clarence Thomas who they think are the racists here.

Aug 19, 2008 - 6:29 am 15. rocketeer:

JoshC – For not being an American, you are very observant and right on the mark. While not being terribly excited about the Republican’s in this race, they have gone out of their way to make sure that race is not an issue and have condemned every attempt to inject race into the debate. Obama and his cronies have made multiple references to the imaginary racism of the Republican’s and I frankly find it disgusting.

Boris – It is McCain’s official position not to use Obama’s middle name as an invective, or to accuse Obama of being a Muslim. Sure, there are some comedians that like to point that out, but they are not part of the mainstream party. As to “white-washing” our past as Americans, sure, we’ve had injustices in the past, no one is trying to run away from that. We have, as a country, made more effort to make amends for our past then any other on the planet. If you can name another that has made a similar effort to overcome these issues, I’d like you to name it.

As far as reparations are concerned, that would be complete PC madness to it’s furthest extreme. Who is going to be paid, who is going to do the paying, what is a payment going to do for anyone other then buy big screen tv’s? Can someone please explain how the 5th or 6th generation decedents of slaves would be made whole again by a payment of a few thousand dollars? Can someone explain why it’s fair that someone who had nothing to do with slavery would need to pay money because of it? If our government goes down that road, I’m opting out of paying taxes anymore.

Aug 19, 2008 - 6:36 am 16. JAY:

You bring up valid points about reparations rocketeer, I would take it a step forward and say whites would have to work to pay blacks reparations so that would give them what they really want, white slavery, that is really what it’s about. Whites work to pay blacks. Some people would say it was a racist thing to say that but deep down we all know it’s true.

Aug 19, 2008 - 7:00 am 17. Obama the Divider « Count Us Out:

[...] http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/obama-the-divider/ [...]

Aug 19, 2008 - 7:03 am 18. ex-democrat:

i really appreciate the way “boris” manages on almost every thread here to personify the very problem being addressed, by trotting out – in tart, finger-wagging tones, naturally – precisely the same long-debunked tropes being addressed. It’s a gift.

Aug 19, 2008 - 7:06 am 19. Paul From Hamburg:

“Another in a long series of poorly thought out pajamas media posts.”

Gee Boris, don’t be so hard on yourself. You occasionally formulate a cogent argument.

Aug 19, 2008 - 7:17 am 20. pappy:

reparations=affirmative action without any work being involved for the recipients. give them a one time payment of a hundred bucks and call it even. how about reparations for the damage and looting that took place after inumeral riots through the years? don’t forget the union soldiers snd their families. i could spend hours thinking of stupid ways to give money away, but this has to take the prize.

Aug 19, 2008 - 7:59 am 21. tanstaafl:

Whatever happened to the candidate once touted as a post-racial uniter?

He’s using the device of bringing up his own separatism to both denigrate his critics and appeal to his listeners, at the same time.

…baritoned out the same pap about not resembling “the presidents on the dollar bills and the five dollar bills.”

And more (paraphrased):

“They’ll say…he’s got a funny name…”

More recently…”they’ll tell you he’s more European than American…”

No, they’ll tell you Barack Obama is resorting to the lowest common denominator of pure D emotional nonsense.

They’ll tell you that using such devices indicates weakness of character.

Aug 19, 2008 - 8:00 am 22. Zach:

Unfortunately for all our guilt-riddled Democrat countrymen, the Constitution is in the way of their schemes:
Article 1, Section 9 (on limitations of the power of Congress) clearly states “No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.” (READ IT)
A “bill of attainder” is a legislative act condemning a person or group of people of a crime WITHOUT a trial by jury.
An “ex post facto law”, in the words of Justice Chase in Calder v. Bull (1798) is “Every law that makes an action done before the passing of the law, and which was innocent when done, criminal; and punishes such action.” Literally, “ex post facto” means “after the fact.” You can’t convict someone of a crime which was NOT a crime when they committed it- no matter how heinous the crime (I’m not denying the despicableness of slavery).

Simply put, a reparations bill would be unconstitutional on SO many levels as both a bill of attainder (condemning whites without a fair trial) and as an ex post facto law. How do you even begin to prove that any one person is guilty of slavery and fine them to atone for this?

SURELY Obama, the Great Constitutional Scholar, recognizes this small problem already and we’re all blowing his rhetoric out of proportion. He couldn’t actually believe what he’s saying about “deeds”, right…?

Aug 19, 2008 - 8:11 am 23. Wolf Pangloss:

Boris, it was not the Republican party that imposed Jim Crow laws, or founded the Ku Klux Klan, or defended slavery to the death, but the Democrat party. The first Republican president was Abe Lincoln. Republicans passed the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. Democrat uber-president Woodrow Wilson fired all the black faces who worked for him and replaced them with white workers. FDR also had terribly racist hiring policies and did a lot to impoverish blacks during the Depression. Eisenhower, who learned his lesson on the irrationality of racism after desegregating the US Armed Forces, wrote the 1957 Civil Rights act, which was voted down by the Democrats including LBJ and JFK, and after being watered down by LBJ was passed in 1964 as a great Democrat civil rights victory.

If Democrats want reparations for blacks they should be paid from Democrat party funds, not from national funds. The Democrats were responsible for Jim Crow, the KKK, and the worst examples of racism in the last 200 years. The nation already paid with hundreds of thousands of war dead in the Civil War, with affirmative action, and the modern welfare state. It’s time for the Democrats to man up and admit their own sins. But they won’t, because there is nothing manly or honorable about them.

The rampant poverty in black communities doesn’t happen with Sudanese who were actual slaves in Sudan and emigrated to the US then made good. Nor does it hold for Soviet emigres who were impoverished and nearly starved to death by the USSR, but made good in the USA when given the liberty to do it. It only happens to those who have been turned into wards of the state (a new type of non-agricultural serf) by the Great Society and the New Deal. Those who see personal responsibility at the root of the black community’s problems and the solutions to them are not the blinded ones, but the ones with clear vision.

Read more about the Democrats’ terrible and hidden record on racism and segregation at the WSJ.

Aug 19, 2008 - 8:24 am 24. Jim:

It really is weird that Obama supporters of whatever color refuse to acknowledge the many shortcomings of their candidate. My liberal neighbor was genuinely astonished when I told him that I planned to vote for McCain, warts and all. When he asked me why, I said because Obama is grossly inexperienced and also happens to be a Chomskyite Marxist and a race hustler. (Duh) My neighbor replied, “bah, that’s all just ‘black church’ rhetoric.”

Aug 19, 2008 - 9:55 am 25. Javelin:

This con cult of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. needs some revision too. I am not talking about his personal peccadillos either, which we all have. He too favored race based remedial as well as socialist policies.
It would be nice to hear Obama actually make some case that things have improved so much over the decades. But the trouble is the race hustlers review stats about education, AIDS & std rate, crime, housing, and even swimming and internet access rates and to them, these vindicate their paranoid conspiracy views. Instead of acknowledging that their own behavior causes the problems.

Aug 19, 2008 - 10:09 am 26. rvastar:

I suppose most people here believe that poverty is rampant in African American communities only because of some flaw in the people themselves…

Not at all, Boris! I put the blame squarely where it belongs…on Leftists such as yourself!

Prior to the 1960s, black Americans had relatively high marriage and employment rates.

Then, enter the 1960s and the Leftists!

Wherever you see majority black populations, you’re going to see majority black local governance – i.e. Democrat governance. And as black Democrats solidified their control of local governments in these areas during the 1970s, they did what Democrats always do: they began raising the taxes on businesses in order to fund their social engineering projects.

And what was the all-too-predictable result? Large employers (factories, manufacturers, etc.) left and moved to areas with lower tax rates and small employers were simply driven out of of business when the jobs left. The net effect was that by the 1980s, these policies had created economic dead zones that left huge amounts of people caught in chronic unemployment.

And what was the all-too-predictable result of that? Huge increases in substance abuse and criminal activity, both of which eventually lead to huge increases in incarceration. Currently, the trends indicate that almost 33% of black American males – that’s 1 IN EVERY 3 – are likely to be incarcerated at sometime in their lives.

And the all-too-predictable result of having that many people in a population either locked up or with criminal records is that you’re going to have huge amounts of children growing up in poverty and in single-parent homes.

Forty years ago, 25% of black children were born out-of-wedlock. Today that number is above 70%. Why are 70% of black children born out-of-wedlock today? Because the majority of the fathers of these children – the first generation of “welfare babies” – were themselves born out-of-wedlock. They never learned to be fathers because they didn’t have fathers. And why didn’t they have fathers? Because their fathers were unemployed, addicted, and/or incarcerated, mainly as a result of Leftist social tinkering.

And thus, the vicious circle is constructed. A black male child is born into poverty, mother on welfare and father in prison. Child grows up without a steady male influence, but since he is male, he’s going to yearn for male relationships. What does his reality offer him for that bonding and sense of belonging? Gangs and “thug” culture. And when he reaches sexual maturity, he fathers a child. Then, during an argument, he pulls out a gun, kills someone, and goes to prison for 15 years. The mother of his child goes to Social Services and signs up for public assistance. Soon, a black male child is born into poverty, mother on welfare and father in prison…

None of this is the least bit surprising…at least not to those of us whose brains haven’t been ravaged by the mental disease of Leftist thought. Take one generation of children; have them grow up with no fathers and mothers who simply get a check in the mail each month from the govt; stir it all together and what do you get in 20 years?…a giant fu@king mess!

In 2006, Ugandan journalist Andrew Mwenda’s answer to the question “How can rich nations help Africa?” was this:

“The best thing the West can do is nothing.”

Words of wisdom that Leftists have been refusing to understand since the late 1700s.

Aug 19, 2008 - 10:13 am 27. Ciscokid:

Boris: “I suppose most people here believe that poverty is rampant in African American communities only because of some flaw in the people themselves and that centuries of oppression have left no mark. What does that sound like to you?”

Well Boris, you’re correct this has nothing to do with the “people” themselves—- but has everything to do with the “failed” policies & programs their so called passionate leaders keep control of them under. If it wasn’t for promises of government hand outs, there wouldn’t be anything left the Democratic Party stands for. I’m sick of all your Liberal blame game that implies conservatives couldn’t care less about the disadvantaged. Think for a second if that’s possible “we do care” and have a better way to ameliorate poverty. Obama’s made speeches that the sky will open up and a light will shine down and you’ll have an “epiphany” that you must vote for Obama. Well here’s an epiphany for you and anyone looking to get ahead.—Conservatives do care and we care enough not to continue following “failed policies”, keeping poverty static or making it worse. McCain said it best – we want “everyone to be successful” so they don’t need to rely on government programs.

Aug 19, 2008 - 10:30 am 28. Javelin:

rvastar,
thanks for rehashing the party line. Boris has a point, even before the bad old Leftist took over, blacks were the poorest element in the society, usually consigned to the menial services and agricultural laborer segment of the work force. They were always poorer than the equivalent whites. But at least most of them were employed and they had more stable families, which mitigated the worse aspects of being poor.

Aug 19, 2008 - 10:30 am 29. JAY:

rvastar,
We have known about what you’re telling us for years but the left and minority leaders will not admit it. The way you wrote it clearly lays it out for us in a way that maybe even the democrats can understand, though I doubt it, anyway good job.

Aug 19, 2008 - 10:32 am 30. tanstaafl:

Ugandan journalist Andrew Mwenda…

I remember that.

Such a refreshing answer beside all the Bono types and self-righteous hand wringers everywhere who (from their own comfortable and overly wealthy aeries) find it fashionable to emote over the plight of Africans.

Aug 19, 2008 - 10:36 am 31. CornFedBeauty:

“Most of us are repelled by conspiracy theories and revere the land in which we were born.”

But not Senator Obama. According to his famous 2002 anti-war speech, Bush was manipulated into the Iraq war by Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle, who were pursuing an unnamed “ideological agenda,” according to the Anointed One. Hmmmmmm…..wonder what that agenda could be?

But the Messiah speaks only in parables. We members of the uninitiated and masses cannot handle the direct truth.

As for the notion that we haven’t yet talked about what happened to the Indians or the blacks, I was at the hairdresser the other day when the stylist informed me she did not allow her family to celebrate Thanksgiving because of what hypocritical Americans had done to them.

Wanna hear something funny? This dumbass is a Serbian national!

Think we’ve talked about it enough yet? Even Serbians know about it.

Aug 19, 2008 - 10:57 am 32. Clyde:

If the polls remain close, or if McCain is ahead come November, this will just be the tip of the iceberg. Obama will play the race card at every press conference. He will frame it as “If you DONT vote for me, you must be a racist and America is still a racist country”. And get ready…when McCain wins, come Wednesday night, Detroit, LA, Cleveland will be in turmoil. It will be Rodney King, 10 fold.

Barack is right about one thing. He isnt like those people on the one and five dollar bills. They had courage and were steadfast. If he was President then, we would be a British colony, divided in half!

Aug 19, 2008 - 11:32 am 33. rvastar:

thanks for rehashing the party line.

Please, Javelin…point us to this mythical “party line” that I’ve rehashed.

And while you’re at it, please refute the FACT that the 70s/early 80s saw a wave of business flight from urban areas due to high taxation.

And please refute the FACT that when jobs dried up due to this flight, small businesses in urban areas began to go under.

And please refute the FACT that when chronic unemployment set in these areas, levels of substance abuse and criminality exploded.

And please refute the FACT that when the black community began being hammered on the crucibles of unemployment, substance abuse, and criminality, there was a subsequent explosion of out-of-wedlock child births as millionsblack men were either too broke, too strung-out, or too locked up to be fathers to their children.

And please refute the FACT that a lack of strong, consistent male presence in black households has lead millions of neglected and forgotten young black males to desperately seek out and embrace the only supply of “maleness” that’s being offered to them in their communities – namely, the nihilistic culture of the “thug” and “gangsta”.

And please refute the FACT that when millions of black children have grown up in households where no one has ever worked, that those children are not going to have the work ethic that’s a necessary starting point for pulling one’s self out of poverty.

And then, considering all of the above, please explain how what we’ve seen happen in the black community over the past 40+ years is a mystery.

…blacks were the poorest element in the society, usually consigned to the menial services and agricultural laborer segment of the work force. They were always poorer than the equivalent whites.

Replace “blacks” with any other ethnic group that’s arrived in this country, and you’ve got the same story. The difference is that those groups were left alone to pull themselves up with their own hard work and through the resiliency and support of their families and communities…aspects of personal and community life that weren’t decimated by Leftist do-gooding, all so that underprivileged whites could “feel” good and “progressive”.

But at least most of them were employed and they had more stable families, which mitigated the worse aspects of being poor.

And which, if they had simply been left alone, would have been more than enough to begin a slow but steady integration into American society…much more so than has occurred with the “help” of the Left.

Aug 19, 2008 - 3:12 pm 34. Brian:

I was taken in by Obamas speech when referring to Natives.But i expected more.The problem the way ive seen it over the years from Canada is that Liberals would constantly throw money around thinking that would be enough.I think the Conservatives last year tossed money towards the natives.With one difference.Harper publicly apologized to the NATION for the treatment of Natives by schools in the past.
Money does not solve all problems.Dialogue and understanding does.It takes a big person to admit ones wrongs.This is something liberals in Canada never did.Partisan sniping was the order of the day.Even today,former liberal PM sniped at Harper about not attending the Olympic games.Harpers answer?Hes running the country.OMG!What did he say?His country came first over an international event?Good.Its about time a PM finally decides to sit down , and actually work for the country.

I used to live on the streets for two weeks while i got a job ,then used my first check to get an apartment.Minimum wage to start.Ive lived on welfare for four years under a socialist govt the NDP of Ontario during the nineties and didnt get another job until Mike harris came in ,a conservative.He slashed welfare and raised the minimum wage.Ive never looked back and have been working ever since.Socialist states encourage welfare and if it becomes totalitarian ,theres a sure resource of fighters for the military.Just my story amongst millions on the world.

Aug 19, 2008 - 3:17 pm 35. tanstaafl:

Thanks for taking the time to lay it out so well, rvastar.

Aug 19, 2008 - 6:35 pm 36. chicago:

Obama and the Chicago Machine
by Editor
http://www.obamascon.com/2008/08/19/obama-and-the-chicago-machine/

One of the more puzzling developments in Obama’s career is how he has been able to position himself as a reform style politician – as an outsider who can come in and clean up the mess politicians have made. This simply doesn’t match reality. And yet the media seems uninterested in exploring and explaining Obama’s past.

At the start of his career you could make the argument that this is the kind of politician Obama was seeking to become, but his ambition seems to have quickly pushed this idealism aside. Making his career in Chicago, and Cook County Illinois, gave Obama the chance to put some substance behind his words. But at practically every opportunity he has chose the safe route rather than the route of reform; of challenging the system. Back in July Michael Van Winkle, a Chicago resident, offered a quick rundown of this rarely talked about aspect of Obama’s career:

He has a track record of putting party over principle.

In 2006, he endorsed the re-election of Rod Blagojevich, despite very real concerns about the Governor’s ethics. Since the endorsement, Blagojevich has come very close to full blown indictment, so close that some Illinois Democrats tried to have him recalled. But Obama’s voice has been silent on the matter.

In 2007, incumbent Cook County Board President and long-time Machine candidate, John Stroger, faced a tough challenge from a reform candidate in the Democratic Primary. Obama refused to make an endorsement.

When John Stroger was incapacitated by a stroke two weeks before the election, Obama was silent. When the Machine told us Stoger was fine and only admitted the seriousness of the stroke once the deadline for candidate filings had passed, Obama remained silent. And when the Machine replaced John Stroger with his inexperienced and unimpressive son, Todd, well Obama endorsed him.

Since Obama’s endorsement, Todd Stroger has gone on to break promises, lie to the public, and raise taxes to support six-figure salaries for his family and friends.

Even now, Obama is putting politics over principle in Illinois. Illinoisans have a chance to reform state politics by voting “yes” for a consitutional convention on a November ballot question. But Obama’s own campaign mastermind, David Axelrod, has been hired to oppose the effort.

I’m not blaming corruption in Illinois on Obama; let’s be clear. But he’s done very little to stand up for principles and good governance in a state that deperately needs principled and bipartisan leadership.

Tom Bevan provides further details on the consequences of Obama refusing to take a stronger stand in the Cook County Board election:

Whether Obama’s endorsement would have mattered or not is beside the point. Endorsements are, as a matter of practical politics, mostly symbolism. By choosing to stay neutral in the race and to not go the extra distance to endorse Claypool, Obama signified that he was for reform and change – but only up to a point.

As it turned out, there was a bizarre epilogue to this race – and one that proves these kind of decisions have real world consequences. A week before the primary, Stroger suffered a severe stroke. The resulting outpouring of sympathy played at least some part in the final outcome: the reformer Claypool lost by six points, 53 to 47.

Stroger stayed out of sight for weeks and eventually it came to light that after recognizing he would not be able to stand for re-election, he engineered a deal from his hospital bed to install his son, Todd Stroger, on the ballot.

The move was decried by many, including Claypool, for what it was: a bald act of nepotism. Despite Todd Stroger’s youth, inexperience, and his reputation as a corrupt, machine-style ward boss, Obama not only endorsed Stroger in the general election but heaped praise on him as a “a good progressive” – a claim that no one who knows him could make with a straight face.

In the end, Todd Stroger won election in November 2006. Since taking office as Cook County Board President, however, he has been an unmitigated disaster. With runaway tax increases and the county hospital system in crisis, Stroger has been busy packing the County payroll with allies at the expense of taxpayers, including more than a dozen friends and relatives making more than $100,000 per year.

As I noted yesterday, Obama likes to talk about his stance against the war in Iraq as difficult and courageous when it was really just smart politics. Here was a true chance to be courageous, to put real political capital on the line, and Obama refused to stand up to the political machine. And there were real world consequences in the form of continued corruption, nepotism, and bad government.

Only those who view Obama through rose colored glasses, however, will be surprised by any of this history. Obama’s political mentor, and the politician who gave Obama what little legislative accomplishments he has, was a member of the Chicago machine and continues to treat public office like a family business.

Nobody expected Obama to become a one issue crusader against corruption in Chicago. Even most anti-machine politicians attempt to work within the system. But it is one thing to remain silent and another to use the system to climb the ladder and then claim to be something different. Obama’s record is the record of a politician accommodating himself to the system not challenging it. But of course, it is hard to win elections running as just another politician.

Obama’s reformer image is an illusion and a dangerous one because it hides his real record and masks his real character.

Aug 19, 2008 - 9:01 pm 37. hp:

rachel said “I believe that he is so full of venom and hate, lying hidden just beneath his seemingly friendly, mild exterior that he’ll leave a black mark on American politics that will take generations to be removed.”

try ending up on the “other” side of any of his immediate righthand supporters, people who he cannot possibly not know who they are and exactly what they are doing, and see what kind of personality these peeps in his know have.

you are what you eat.

and the company you keep.

friendly and mild, my fat fanny.

Aug 20, 2008 - 6:25 am 38. Judy, NYC:

we are being so mean. barry just wants to be held aloft so he can show off his his new fluffy hat and sceptre. expect a baby tantrum from the netherworld when his fantasy implodes in the voting booth. he will then immediately spiral down from whence he came, and if we are touched by the gods, vanish from any memory that he was ever here. if he could take howard dean with him, that would also be good.

Aug 20, 2008 - 8:45 am 39. Ed Wallis:

(it’s from an old post admittedly but I couldn’t leave it be…)

BORIS PART I: “Neither Barack’s name nor his appearance will scare practically anyone.”

STATING A FACT IS DIFFERENT FROM HAVING FEAR OF SOMETHING, REAL OR IMAGINED, fool.

BORIS PART II: “I suppose most people here believe that poverty is rampant in African American communities only because of some flaw in the people themselves and that centuries of oppression have left no mark. What does that sound like to you?”

Aside from the well-stated liberal “Great Society” comments above, MY answer to your “(w)hat does that sound like to you?” bleating is: PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY. Y’know, that thing which CAN be learned and CAN BE passed down from parent/neighbor to child…IF DESIRED.

NOT that I expect Leftists to be high on “responsibility” when they can whine on about transferring it in guilt-n-payments to others….

Aug 21, 2008 - 1:51 pm

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