As the Presidential campaign heats up, efforts by Obama to attract new voters have to be matched by measures to keep his base intact and maintain internal cohesion in the face of John McCain’s attacks along his seams. With Obama losing momentum in the past few weeks, the game seems to have switched, to use a basketball metaphor, to defense. Although Obama is sure to use the Denver convention as a platform to attack his opponent and his policies, he is not neglecting measures to keep his troops in line. One priority is to blunt any attacks before they open up a gap that can be exploited. If sweet talk won’t work, then threats will be employed. The Politico reports that Barack Obama’s campaign has written the Department of Justice demanding a criminal investigation of the “American Issues Project,” which sponsored an ad linking the candidate with William Ayers. Obama general counsel Bob Bauer argued “that by advocating Obama’s defeat, the ad should be subject to the contribution limits of federal campaign law, not the anything-goes regime of issue advocacy. …”
Bauer’s letter called on the Justice Department to open “an investigation of the American Issues Project; its officers and directors; and its anonymous donors, whoever they may be.” … “The Obama campaign plans to punish the stations that air the ad financially, an Obama aide said, organizing his supporters to target the stations that air it and their advertisers.” … Obama’s campaign has written a pair of letters to station managers carrying the ads. The letter calls the ad’s attempt to link Obama to terrorism “an appalling lie, a disgraceful smear of the lowest kind on the senator’s patriotism and commitment to the rule of law.” Airing the ad “is inconsistent with your station’s obligations under Federal Communications Commission regulations,” the letter continues, saying Simmons’ group lacks formal incorporation.
Within the Democratic party itself, the process of “healing the rifts” may mean in practice mean cracking the whip to get people back in line. In Denver, an African-American Illinois woman delegate for Sen. Hillary Clinton, Delmarie Cobb, accused Emil Jones, a supporter of Sen. Barack Obama, of calling her an “Uncle Tom”. Jones later explained she mistook the term “Doubting Thomas” for “Uncle Tom”. Cobb recalled:
“There’s this feeling out here that we’ve somehow betrayed the race,” Cobb said. “The attitude (from Obama supporters) is that they’re going to beat you into submission and make you admit you were wrong for supporting Hillary.”
The National Organization of Women has called on Jones to resign from the Illinois State Senate, where he was widely known as Obama’s “political godfather”. But I think it’s just plain wrong to accuse Jones of sexism. He would have called Cobb a “doubting Thomas” even if she were a man.
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64 Comments
1. Charles:Hnmm. Napolean retreats from Moscow. Yeah that looks about right to me–cutting every which way but loose.
Aug 25, 2008 - 4:06 pm 2. Presbypoet:Seems like Obama sounds more and more like: vote for me or I’ll kill you. All the more reason to make sure we never have to worry about him taking vengence on those who oppose him. He may be a one vote democracy. Anyone recently read “It can’t happen here” by Sinclair Lewis. Liberals think Bush is the danger. They don’t see the danger in their ranks.
Aug 25, 2008 - 4:19 pm 3. NahnCee:I think that as long as Obama refuses to divulge where his campaign contributions are coming from, he should watch out about calling for investigations to unearth the names of other people doing other things.
Aug 25, 2008 - 4:20 pm 4. Lifeofthemind:This reminds me of an earlier effort to warn potential contributors to McCain that they could be prosecuted.
Aug 25, 2008 - 4:24 pm 5. wretchard:A lot of insurgencies, including political ones, start out as revolts against an entrenched machinery. While Obama was fighting the Clintons, he could tap into the resentment generated by 10 years of high handed cynicism. But now he’s the Man. And just as the ordinary man eventually discovers that insurgents are just hungrier versions of the old soldados, it’s possible that the rank and file of the Democratic Party have traded one set of Bosses for another.
If Obama is to succeed in unifying the party, a lot will depend on his ability to keep his “base” in line. But as those of you who have been following the Pajamas Media coverage of Denver probably know, that is a little bit like herding a deckful of loose cannons. The Old Guard, seedy as they were, are being dissed. Even Jesse Jackson was humiliated. A really good operator knows how not to humiliate his vanquished political opponents. When Obama chose Biden, as when he chose Solis Doyle, he revealed a particular streak of vindictiveness against the Clintons that may be his greatest weakness.
Aug 25, 2008 - 4:30 pm 6. slade:RE: Cowboy Luck Never Ends (CLNE) – heard on Jim Cramer today that House Speaker Pelosi owns quarter of a million dollars worth of the natural gas stock.
Back to the subject.
Aug 25, 2008 - 4:32 pm 7. slade:insurgents are just hungrier versions of the old soldados
The story of unionization in this country – and a few others.
Saw it happen in my lifetime. That should be a short enough turn-around time to get peoples’ attention.
Aug 25, 2008 - 4:37 pm 8. E. Nigma:But..but…but… I heard on the radio today an interview with a delegate from Ohio who said that the Democrat Party was united, and this was “typical” and one of its great strengths.
This was also her first Party Convention.
Somebody must believe something, I guess.
Aug 25, 2008 - 4:45 pm 9. whiskey:Obama’s ability to unite the Party is directly proportional to his ability to hand out MONEY.
Since he’s burned through a lot of his money, and is still tied, I expect ZERO unity because Obama will be handing out ZERO money to various people.
Obama did not help pay off Clinton’s debts, which would have created Party Unity. He is a neophyte and will likely lose, all things being equal. Clinton has now no incentive to help Obama win and every incentive to assist him in losing.
As far as defense goes, McCain can now ask for a Federal Investigation into West Bank and Gaza terror groups funding Obama and making direct (and illegal) campaign donations.
Aug 25, 2008 - 4:58 pm 10. buddy larsen:Boone is playing a big game –the transmission lines for the prairie wind corridor will have to be along the lines of Eisenhower’s Interstate Highway project, in order to get electricity to southern California (which he wants to do). So he’s spending a lot of time courting politicians. He’s spending $60mm –said to be personal money –on all those PSAs you see if you watch tv. Nancy Pelosi is no doubt enamored of the wind power, and after that the cleanliness of natgas. i’d say the drilling part she figures she can moot via the other two. Also, she no doubt wants to make a buck. Lastly, Boone can sell. He’s got a track record –lotsa folks over the years have done very very well investing in/with/through/around him and his ideas.
Aug 25, 2008 - 5:22 pm 11. slade:Point of clarification:
On tonight’s MAD MONEY on CNBC, Jim Cramer said that a stock you can buy that didn’t even have to buy off politicians to do well is Clean Energy Fuels Corp. (NASDAQ: CLNE). This turns out that it was a rather large holding of Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her husband that was disclosed last week in the amount of $50,000 to $100,000 for their own investments back in 2007.
The $250,000 was an estimated future value.
Back to the subject.
Aug 25, 2008 - 5:31 pm 12. Doug:If viewers aren’t frightened by this Freak Show, all hope is lost.
Aug 25, 2008 - 5:36 pm 13. Teresita:—
“A deckful of loose cannons”
Nice Visual!
Whiskey: Obama did not help pay off Clinton’s debts, which would have created Party Unity. He is a neophyte and will likely lose, all things being equal. Clinton has now no incentive to help Obama win and every incentive to assist him in losing.
Watch Bill Clinton’s speech for me on Wednesday night (I’m girlcotting the Hate America Convention). Dollars to doughnuts Bill’s endorsement of B. Hussein Obama’s qualifications to be President will consist of little more than “He’s at least 35 years old!” and “He was born in the United States!” Hillary’s only path to the White House now is through a single McCain term. Two terms of Obama and people will be so sick of Democrats that Larry Craig could run and win.
Aug 25, 2008 - 5:41 pm 14. buddy larsen:tivo it and watch in two minute chunks –any more than that you’ll get an urge to join Osama bin Laden.
Aug 25, 2008 - 5:48 pm 15. jafco:So the theme song for the Dem Convention is The Who’s “Won’t Be Fooled Again”?
…meet the new Boss, same as the old Boss…
Aug 25, 2008 - 6:15 pm 16. fred:Obama is slick in that when he wants to reassure the Hard and Soft Left he does not do it by making speeches intended for the general public. He goes right to their gatherings and uses the coded socialist catch phrases that they understand the meanings of. He can’t do this with a wider audience. It would blow his cover.
So, what you have is, as Wretchard described it a few threads ago, someone who is a true Leninist: a deceiver. The Middle Muddle of America is never going to see the true Obama until after he’s administered the oath of office in January. By then it’s too late.
But, it’s frustrating for those of us who know the code talk of the Left. We try to tell people who he is and what he’s about and not enough believe us.
Aug 25, 2008 - 6:19 pm 17. Dan:As a Denver native, I have to add…
This freak show couldn’t happen to a nicer city.
Much has been lost in what once was a very beautiful, very family-oriented, very close city. On my last visit, this was very evident.
And very sad.
Aug 25, 2008 - 6:24 pm 18. Doug:bobal said…
Aug 25, 2008 - 6:32 pm 19. slade:jeez, they have Gavin Newsom, mayor of San Francisco, speaking as the DNConvention? Glad I’m not watching.
—
You don’t even want to know this the depth of this man’s perversity if you don’t already know.
RE Denver. I was told by a long time insider that the reason behind the screwup of of Denver International Airport baggage handling system was interference by then Mayor Wellington Webb who thought he was a design engineer. My source never provided details so I happily pass this along as urban legend. But I notice that a number of design firms are still recruiting for “baggage handling” designers in Denver. I couldn’t make this up if I tried.
Aug 25, 2008 - 6:35 pm 20. NahnCee:WHiskey – you act like who-ever has been contributing to Obama’s campaign in an effort to buy their very own President of the United States won’t keep funneling him just as much money as he needs to make it through November.
Aug 25, 2008 - 6:38 pm 21. Doug:Teresita’s photo of the Democrat Convention,
Aug 25, 2008 - 6:38 pm 22. Fat Man:“Obama did not help pay off Clinton’s debts, which would have created Party Unity.”
The Hatfields and the McCoys or the Clintons and the Kennedys. Same thing. Mayor Daley’s father stole the 1960 election for JFK, now the Kennedys* are returning the favor to Daley.
I assume that the failure to pay the debts is a deliberate slap designed to kneecap the Clintons. The Clintons will slap back by throwing the election to McCain. McCain will pay the Clintons back by retaining Patrick Fitzgerald as the prosecutor in Cook County Federal court, who will throw lots of Daley’s toads into the slam. It’s the Chicago way.**
*Remember that the Kennedy family’s most valuable property is the Merchandise Mart in Chicago.
**
Malone[Sean Connery]: You said you wanted to get Capone. Do you really wanna get him? You see what I’m saying is, what are you prepared to do?
Ness[Kevin Costner]: Anything and everything in my power.
Malone: And *then* what are you prepared to do? If you open the can of these worms you must be prepared to go all the way because they’re not gonna give up the fight until one of you is dead.
Ness: How do you do it then?
Malone: You wanna know how you do it? Here’s how, they pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That’s the Chicago way, and that’s how you get Capone! Now do you want to do that? Are you ready to do that?
The Untouchables (1987) directed by Brian De Palma and written by David Mamet
Aug 25, 2008 - 6:47 pm 23. Teresita:Watch an endless parade of “celebrities” worship Obama in song.
Aug 25, 2008 - 6:49 pm 24. Dan:Aug 25, 2008 – 6:49 pm
Please. I had just made dinner. That is completely unfair, and cruel and unusual punishment. I should sue you for the loss of my dinner.
Aug 25, 2008 - 7:17 pm 25. section9:McCain will pay off the Clintons by serving only one term, thus leaving an open seat for a “free for all” donnybrook in 2012.
BTW, you heard it here first, Bill Clinton will serve as JMC’s Secretary of State. After Jesus Hussein Christ runs out of loaves and fishes on election night, McCain will need to find a way to give the embittered Democrats some skin in the game in foreign and defense policy.
Thus; the Clintons. In the end, they always win.
Aug 25, 2008 - 7:18 pm 26. Lifeofthemind:PBS serves an important function by distributing the official talking points so the Democrats can stay on message. For example we now know that Jimmy Carter is not only an Elder Statesman but that he admits his real problem was that he was to conservative and he tried to govern from the center when the Democrats in Congress wanted more Change faster. Presumably they also wanted a side order of Hope.
Aug 25, 2008 - 7:18 pm 27. Zim:Saw today that Madonna (the pale, veiny, talentless one) showed a picture of McCain along side Hitler in a concert in London. I swear some of these celebs. have to be double agents working for the repubs. they can’t be this stupid, can they?
Aug 25, 2008 - 7:23 pm 28. 2x4:Zim, “Yes they can!”
Aug 25, 2008 - 7:32 pm 29. Teresita:Section9: BTW, you heard it here first, Bill Clinton will serve as JMC’s Secretary of State.
McCain’s dilemma is how to get more of Hillary’s disgruntled voters on board without alienating his base. He has to make certain promises before the election or there’s no payoff. The way to do this is to campaign on National Unity. His first move is to pick Lieberman as VP. Then every week before the election, he needs to name two cabinet members, one Democrat and one Republican. Okay, Bill at State (Foggy Bottom is a lost cause anyway), but Petraeus for SecDef. Sam Nunn for Homeland Security but Steve Forbes at Treasury. And so on.
Aug 25, 2008 - 7:32 pm 30. Leo Linbeck III:As the great Jim March once wrote (as a means of stimulating debate):
The first axiom of life in an organization is that you can have power or autonomy, but not both. The price of being powerful is giving up freedom, for no social system can tolerate autonomous power. It is a lesson that is very hard to learn if you are new to power, for you imagine that power will make you free. It doesn’t. Having power often feels good. It often allows you to affect the course of events around you, perhaps even make them better. But power is not a route to freedom. Power attracts power. It entangles you in a web of social attention and responsibility that robs you of independence. Most of all, it is inextricably linked to the pursuit of allies, and the pursuit of allies inexorably destroys autonomy.
To win, Obama needed to pick Hillary as his running mate. That would have given him real power. Instead, he exercised autonomy, declaring his independence from the Clintons.
He chose freedom over power. Admirable in a way. A James-Dean-rebel-without-a-cause way.
L3
Aug 25, 2008 - 7:57 pm 31. Lifeofthemind:Teresita,
Aug 25, 2008 - 8:04 pm 32. Mike Sylwester:No,
$
Full stop.
(He’s making millions on tour.
But I could see him taking an ambassadorship to Ireland.)
Politico article:
“How much do your really know about Barack Obama? What does he really believe? Why would Barack Obama be friends with someone who bombed the Capitol and is proud of it?”
————–
It seems to me that Obama’s lawyers are correct when they say this advertisement does not fall into the category of “issue advocacy.” Could someone here briefly explain the relevant law?
Criticizing Obama for his relationship to Ayers is fair game, but I would prefer to see the money spent on advertisements contrasting the parties’ solutions to large problems — the budget, regulation, judge nominations, and so forth.
The Obama campaign’s counter-advertisement — “With all our problems, why is John McCain talking about the ’60s, trying to link Barack Obama to radical Bill Ayers?” — will get a lot of agreement from the voters who still are undecided.
Aug 25, 2008 - 8:09 pm 33. bobal:7:57PM–Ralph Waldo Emerson said the President was the most unfree man in the nation.
Aug 25, 2008 - 8:25 pm 34. Bob Murphy:But the answer to Obama’s counter-advertisement is that Bill Ayers’ spots haven’t changed.
Aug 25, 2008 - 8:31 pm 35. Lifeofthemind:He still is a leftie elitist who hates America and the empowerment the Constitution and Bill of Rights gave normal people, the great unwashed (from an elitist point of view). God, they hate it.
Ayers hasn’t changed, Obama is involved with him.
That’s got something to do with here and now not the 60s.
Thinking about the Big 0’s half brother. Here is how the internally coherent left wing meme could go to explain the “George” issue.
Aug 25, 2008 - 8:52 pm 36. Ricardo:Everyone is entitled to their own culture to seek their authentic place and avoid the Marxist state of sin called “anomie.” The natural cultures of Anglo-Americans and Jews however are inherently racist and colonialist so they do not get the same safe haven for expressing themselves as others. Examples of authentic native cultures that are protected include Latin American’s ignoring borders, Muslims expressing Millenarian supremism, Arabs expressing Anti-semitism, Russians ignoring laws and invading people, Chinese and North Koreans engaging in Mass rallies worshiping a Leader, French asserting that Americans are unwashed pigs with undrinkable wine and Africans being allowed to live in huts without plumbing under an incompetent dictatorship that is dependent on foreign aid. To attempt to change any of the conditions that produce these behaviors is evidence of an oppressive colonialist mentality that can only be attenuated in part by purchasing carbon offset credits from Al Gore.
Obama…LOL
Aug 25, 2008 - 8:57 pm 37. 2x4:The great american (maybe not) unifier (who can’t).
LOTM, coherent? C O H E R E N T?
Aug 25, 2008 - 9:08 pm 38. ambisinistral:I am sending you a bill for a new keyboard!
The Obama campaign’s counter-advertisement — “With all our problems, why is John McCain talking about the ’60s, trying to link Barack Obama to radical Bill Ayers?” — will get a lot of agreement from the voters who still are undecided.
He tried shrugging his shoulders to deflect a controversy once already. I think his handling of the Rev Wright issue takes a lot of the wind out of that approach.
Aug 25, 2008 - 9:16 pm 39. RAH:Liberals are constantly espousing self-destruction. They did in how to raise children with no rules. They did it to education. They are doing it to energy. Now they are doing to themselves. They are purifying the party. No respect for a rare two term Democratic president. Trash Hillary by the Obamicans throughout the primary on the liberal blogs. Force her to end the race before it is done when she is winning primaries.
They hated that she was winning all those Democrats. They hate the union democrats. The guns and god crowd. They are driving even the feminazis into McCain’s arms. One on Hillary’s big donors has gone over to McCain. The Illinois NOW President is furious at being called an Uncle Tom.
A gay guy forced from a gay website since he is for McCain and saying why does being gay I have to be for Obama?
This is like Stalin purges. Obama only won 50% of the Democrats so that is about 20% of the entire electorate. Assume 40 % democrats and 40 % Republicans and 20 % Independents. His supporters are killing his chances. His arrogant attitude and that he do not need the Clintons and her supporters to court them and not call them “Sweetie”. His supporters are there worst on personnel issues and just infuriate a major Democratic base.
He is clueless on how he enrages people and his supporters do not care, they just want to rub Hillary’s people faces in the dirt.
McCain probably could not lose at this point. With the deranged “Bring back 1968” crowd outside. The total lawlessness of the Democrat Convention is scaring the rest of the country into becoming McCain’s supporters who carefully manage their egos and massage them into fundraising and supporting MCCain since he is the maverick.
Aug 25, 2008 - 9:43 pm 40. Mike Sylwester:Bob Murphy:
<>
———
Sure he’s changed. He quit the Weather Underground and became a law-abiding teacher.
He hasn’t repented enough to satisfy many people (including me) and he’s still on the far left of the political spectrum. Ayers can be criticized on those accounts, but the question is whether Obama can be criticized effectively for his associations with Ayers.
I think Ayers is morally guilty of injuring and murdering policemen, but the Republicans have been in charge of the Justice Department for 20 of the last 24 years and haven’t produced enough evidence to put him on trial. So, my personal opinion about Ayers’ guilt is debatable. Obviously, most people who deal with Ayers don’t consider him to be a cop-killer. Again, the issue is whether Obama will be blamed effectively for associating with a cop-killer, and I think the answer is no.
Most people have associated with other people who have committed crimes in their past. Nobody wants themselves to be blamed for such associations. Obama was serving with Ayers in an organization that was trying to improve public education. The organization can be criticized as stupid, but Obama cannot be blamed fairly for a moral failure simply because he participated with Ayers in this organization.
The general election is only two and a half months away. In that remaining time, the Republicans better talk a lot less about McCain being a POW and Obama being a terrorist-associate and better talk a lot more about controlling the budget, reforming our health-care system, nominating good judges, preventing the development of weapons of mass destruction abroad and other major, important issues.
Aug 25, 2008 - 9:44 pm 41. Mike Sylwester:I was responding to Bob Murphy’s comment:
Aug 25, 2008 - 9:45 pm 42. fred:“But the answer to Obama’s counter-advertisement is that Bill Ayers’ spots haven’t changed.”
Mike Sylvester,
You make some good points about how McCain needs to remain focused on his policy differences with Obama. In the main, I think that’s the right way to go about it. HOWEVER, it really, really bothers me that Obama has been allowed to get away with hiding who he really is. Since I come from the Left (a long time ago) I harbor some very bad feelings towards the Marxists/Socialists, who I believe are a very dishonest lot of people, overall. It was honesty and earnest searching for the truth, and being open to the other side’s arguments, that turned me. I hate deceitfulness, and I sense a lot of it in Obama. He is allowed to say one thing to various Hard and Soft Left groups, away from the scrutiny of the press, and another kind of language code designed for the Middle Muddle. It just shows one of the qualities about the Left that eventually turned me off.
Aug 25, 2008 - 10:06 pm 43. trangbang68:Sylwester, Ayers is a freebird because his daddy was an executive at ConEd and could hire the kind of lawyers that get pampered radical pseudo revolutionaries off.
Aug 25, 2008 - 10:14 pm 44. bobal:Here’s some irony. In the sixties, rich white stooges sucked up to the thuggish Huey Newton and the Cleavers(Eldredge and Kathleen not Ward ,June, Wally and Beaver). Now the elite Black guy vamps off the white radical to get a little more street cred.
Free Huey!
Huey’s ass is finally free.
Aug 25, 2008 - 10:50 pm 45. whiskey:Mike Sylvester –
Obama’s “counter” was profoundly stupid. On all levels. Most people suspect: Obama is a hard, Angry, Left, Black Nationalist, due to his Racist Church, Minister, long-time association with Louis Farrakhan (who controls South Side Chicago), and his angry, Black Nationalist meets entitled Yuppie Affirmative Action beneficiary ($300K salary) wife.
Most people were not aware of Ayers, his association, his stomping on the Flag, his proud boast on 9/11 that he didn’t set enough bombs, and that Obama lied about “he’s an English professor who lives in my neighborhood.”
If Rev. Jeremiah Write and Father Pfleger made most people think Obama was anti-American, and his “citizen of the World” Bono-style rockstar European tour strengthened those feelings, why make them aware that Obama worked for DECADES with Ayers? Got his start with Ayers (in the Annenberg Challenge) in a failed, Marxist attempt to reprogram the Chicago School system into a Che-like ideologue factory?
At this point, the only smart move was to ignore the charges, allow the media to cover, and hope to be a fad back in fashion by November.
Obama’s problem is that one only gets one introduction, and his was mostly negative (rock star celebrity, anti-American Black Nationalist “God Damn America” or “God Damn Whitey!” mentors/pastors/churches etc). People know Obama is a celebrity, he’s foreign, his closest people all hate America and Whites. That’s it. He doesn’t have for better or worse a long history of good and bad deeds and impressions like Hillary, Bill, or McCain, Rudy, and Fred. Heck all Obama could do was pull shopworn Biden from the deck. If he wanted to win he would have picked Hillary. He’s arrogant and unschooled in how real, contested elections where dirty tricks don’t make your opponent drop out work.
The smart move was to say nothing about the ads and let the Media fly cover. Now everyone knows: “Obama’s best pal and OTHER mentor is a terrorist.” All kinds of stupid, like calling out McCain on his houses when his brother lives on $12 a year in abject poverty in Kenya.
But that is what running around the so-called “hipster” crowd will get you. No skills for most Americans.
Aug 25, 2008 - 11:18 pm 46. weSwinger:@ Mike Sylwester: A man is known by the company he keeps. A little americanism for y’all. It would do McCain well to keep reminding voters of this simple wisdom. Also check this out: http://sniff.numachi.com/pages/tiPIGINEB4.html
Aug 25, 2008 - 11:47 pm 47. Kirk Parker:section9 and Teresita,
Thénardier, oops, I mean Clinton as SoS? Please tell me you’re joking!
Aug 26, 2008 - 12:11 am 48. Mike Sylwester:Whiskey:
“Most people suspect: Obama is a hard, Angry, Left, Black Nationalist, due to his Racist Church, Minister, long-time association with Louis Farrakhan (who controls South Side Chicago), and his angry, Black Nationalist meets entitled Yuppie Affirmative Action beneficiary ($300K salary) wife.”
———–
Now we are in August 2008, and the election will be in about ten weeks.
Obama is a graduate of Harvard Law School. He has been a state senator, and now his a US senator. He has been traveling all around the USA for the past couple of years giving speeches and answering questions about his political opinions. He is the Democratic Party’s nominee to become the President of the United States.
And in this dire situtation, a lot of Republicans are determined to squander the remaining time, to squander millions of advertising dollars and to squander the public’s rare, full attention to political issues by whining that Obama’s denunciations of Bill Ayers, Jeremiah Wright, Louis Farrakhan are insufficient, by insinuating that Obama is a secret Black Panther.
I’m one Republican who thinks that all this squandering of time, money and political attention is stupid. I’m one Republican who thinks that the Republican Party better get serious really fast about arguing the merits of the major issues.
Aug 26, 2008 - 4:28 am 49. Mike Sylwester:fred:
“it really, really bothers me that Obama has been allowed to get away with hiding who he really is. Since I come from the Left (a long time ago) I harbor some very bad feelings towards the Marxists/Socialists, who I believe are a very dishonest lot of people, overall.”
————-
Barack Obama has written a couple of autobiographical books, and he has spent the last couple of years publicly answering questions from journalists and from ordinary citizens.
Anyone who wants to know who he really is can start by reading Obama’s two autobiographical books. Anyone who has not bothered to read them does not have a lot of credibility when he spouts an opinion that Obama has not discussed his own past frankly.
What about McCain’s past sins? Should the entire public indulge itself in a continuing, critical, unforgiving national discussion about the moral merits of his divorce from his first wife?
During the 1980s, McCain took a lot of money from Charles Keating and then tried to impede subpoenas and indictments of Keating. Eventually McCain’s pal Keating was sentenced to four years in prison for stealing more than a million dollars from investors by means of fraud.
Just like Obama’s pal Ayers is not really repentant, so likewise McCain’s pal Keating is not really repentant. Here’s a paragraph from the Wikipedia article about McCain’s unrepentant pal Keating:
—
Keating remains unrepentant, maintaining that it was not his mistakes or criminal deeds but regulators’ actions that were responsible for the losses. He repeated these claims in an interview in 2006. The 2004 book “The Savings and Loan Crisis: Lessons from a Regulatory Failure” makes similar claims and presents Keating in a favorable light.
—
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Keating
In the ten weeks between now and the general election, should we the US public be arguing about Ayers and Keating? Or should we be arguing about our federal budget, our national defense, our judge nominations, and other such issues?
Aug 26, 2008 - 5:27 am 50. wretchard:But I think you will allow that the relationship between Ayers and Obama is more than simply between a politician and an “unrepentant” friend. Obama served on CAC with Ayers. Chaired it in fact. Had his candidacy launched from his house. Had a long-term political relationship with Ayers. Ayers is important because he is a marker for what Obama may truly believe in. That’s why the CAC papers are so interesting. Because they reveal what the two men jointly aimed to achieve in Chicago educational politics. It is a record of correlation between Ayers and Obama.
We may not care a hoot about Ayers. But Ayers gives us a window into how Obama thought, before he came under close media scrutiny. The other difference, even admitting a parallel between Ayers and Keating, is that while Keating might have been sleazy, he was no ideologue. He was not committed, as Ayers avowed he once was, to the principle of destroying America.
Should McCain be taken to task for Keating. Doubtless he will be. And there are probably many voters who will say, “any friend of Keating is no friend of mine”. But why then can’t the same be said of Ayers?
Aug 26, 2008 - 5:40 am 51. Mike Sylwester:Ayers lived part of his life as a terrorist and now is living a different part of his life as a radical educator. Obama intersected only the second part of Ayer’s life.
The television advertisement attempts to link Obama to the first part of Ayer’s life. The advertisement talks about Ayers and bombings, not about Ayers and educational policies.
Bombing buildings never has been Obama’s gig. Rather, Obama’s gigs have been studying and teaching constitutional law, engaging in public politics, and developing legislation. Now he wants to get into another gig as the chief enforcer of the nation’s laws.
What more do you demand that he say about Ayer’s terrorist past? Would anything more that Obama said about that subject satisfy you, or do you just want to pick on this scab forever and ever?
Aug 26, 2008 - 7:16 am 52. Lifeofthemind:No statute of limitations for murder.
Can someone come from a shady place and achieve things for themself? Sure they can. Harry Truman came out of the Prendergast machine and spent years establishing his credibility. Truman was fiercly partisan but personally clean. Prendegast knew that and made sure everyone else knew it also. Americans love that story, think of Manhattan Melodrama or James Cagney in G Men.
The problem with Obama is that he has no meaningful record beyond his association with Ayers and Rezco and Wright. The ugly wound under the media gauze is all there is. So yes we will keep picking at it. That is what media do in a free society.
Aug 26, 2008 - 8:11 am 53. Mike Sylwester:Lifeofthemind:
“No statute of limitations for murder.”
—–
Barack Obama didn’t murder anybody.
I think Bill Ayers was involved in murdering someone, but the US Department of Justice, which has beeen headed by Republicans for 20 of the past 28 years, has not prosecuted Ayers for murder or even for sedition.
Obama’s involvement with Ayers is that they were involved in a mutual project to make changes in the public school system in Chicago.
Obama’s involvement with Ayers happened many years after Ayers quit the Weather Underground and became a law-abiding citizen.
But go ahead, if you insist, and applaud the squandering of millions of dollars on television advertisements trying to insinuate that Obama is responsible for Ayer’s involvement in terrorist bombings. I myself wish that the money was being spent on other issues.
Aug 26, 2008 - 9:59 am 54. Mark:Mike S. writes:
“I’m one Republican who thinks that all this squandering of time, money and political attention is stupid. I’m one Republican who thinks that the Republican Party better get serious really fast about arguing the merits of the major issues.”
Yes.
On the other hand, the U.S. is the only country I have.
Ayers wanted to destroy it. He still seems to want to destroy it.
Keating wanted to rip it off. He went to jail.
There’s a big difference between the two kinds of men, and people, via an ad, should be asked to note the difference.
Aug 26, 2008 - 11:19 am 55. fred:I read Obama’s books. I wasn’t impressed with them and he leaves a lot out by way of explanation about the important people in his life. He doesn’t tell us he believes in socialist goals, just states what he believes by way of covering it all under the “progressive” label. No, Mr. Sylvester, he hides a lot. I find his two books interesting in parts, but strangely not reflective enough about who those people were who formed his thinking.
I still don’t like socialists/Marxists who call themselves “progressives” in public, but privately admit to each other what I, in my time, openly and honestly told people outside of the fellow-traveling circles: we are socialists who believe in Marxist analysis and are serious about the works of the the Frankfurt School Marxists.
I’m a more honest person that Obama is. Not bragging – just a fact. I’ve already judged him unfit for command. No one is going to change my mind about this.
Aug 26, 2008 - 1:36 pm 56. buddy larsen:I just watched, on Jill Claman’s Fox Business News show, Obama’s economist Austan Goolsbee do again what I’ve seen a dozen of O’s people do exactly similarly: totally lie about their tax plan. It’s always the same two things, a false statement of who will pay, and a false statement about how much they’ll pay. IOW, the two fundamentals, who and how much, they lie about. So i wrote Ms. Claman –I’ll just paste it:
—– Original Message —–
From: buddy larsen
To: feedback@foxbusiness.com
Sent: Tuesday, August 26, 2008 4:14 PM
Subject: Hi, Ms Claman, re your interview w/ Austan Goolsbee
Hi Ms. Claman,
Just now watched your interview with Obama’s tax expert Austan Goolsbee, and wanted to mention that the $250k he kept implying is an individual threshold for various hefty tax increases, is in the actual Obama plan as a “family” limit –meaning $250k by both earners, if both spouses have paid jobs.
He even embroidered, smiling “not very many people make over that” or somesuch.
Grrrrr…..No, but many many COUPLEs do. Big, big difference –which I would not be making this effort to correct, except that the Obama team is doing exactly the same thing everywhere, clearly conspiring to fool us rubes who never get the wise-up.
Further, his statement –oft repeated –that the plan is a “net tax cut” is another howling fibberooski. The plan has a trick where direct payments to favored individuals (in return for certain approved behaviors) are run through IRS rather than HHS, and called a “refundable tax credit”.
What this means is, these payments get subtracted from IRS receipts.
This is how the plan can be sold as a “net tax cut”.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
The ”credits” are paid by the government.
The money will be collected by taxation.
So, new taxes, only juggled off the plan (tho as Enron learned, impossible to juggle off the actual ledger).
Grrrrrr….it ain’t the $ so much as the deceit!
Anyhoo, here’s a WSJ quickie on it, from August 19, by Peter Farrara:
http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB121910303529751345.html
Thanks!
buddy larsen
Aug 26, 2008 - 3:14 pm 57. CPT. Charles:Buddy L @1722hrs.
Actually, it’s better than that: http://www.dcexaminer.com/opinion/columns/TimothyCarney/T_Boone_Pickens_wants_your_water.html
Sorta like the bad olde days when the Railroad trusts romped all over the Western US…
All we need now is a 21st century Jesse James to make Picken’s life miserable and the stage will be set. Hmmm…I wonder which politician [shareholder...] is running cover for him?
Aug 26, 2008 - 7:00 pm 58. CPT. Charles:RAH@2143hrs[082598].
I don’t think it’s a matter of cluelessness with Obama, I suspect it’s more of a ‘Chicago machine’ mindset. In that city you either do things exactly the way your told to or else. Most people can’t comprehend that level of corruption unless they’ve read enough history to know who ‘Boss Tweed’ was. Obama’s behavior is the result of existing within a zone of ABSOLUTE POWER. While he may not be the master of that power, he ‘grew up’ politically enfolded in it.
Obama is a ‘made man’ of the Chicago machine. As long as he’s useful, he’s untouchable. As long he holds the promise of becoming a conduit of power to the machine and does not threaten it’s existence he’s free to do as he will.
That’s the main part of the conflict unfolding: the Clinton machine vs the Chicago machine. Since it’s transpiring in America, it’ll just be political careers ending and beginning. If it were Moscow, there’d be Benz’s full of ex-Spetznaz toting AK’s, engaging in conflict resolution, Moscow-style. Fortunately, events in Denver won’t reach that level of excitement.
I will agree with you on the ruthlessness issue though…I suspect that comes the Alinsky side of his political pedigree. Marxists have a tendency to not leave any intact rivals in their wake.
Aug 26, 2008 - 9:37 pm 59. Watcher of Weasels » Watcher’s Council Nominations During Week of DNC Madness:[...] 2. Pajamas Media/Belmont Club – Unity [...]
Aug 27, 2008 - 10:23 am 60. buddy larsen:CPT, don’t let the snarky press lead you astray –Boone is all-American. Yes, he fits the initial glance as a robber baron, but –look deeper. you’ll like what you see. the water gig is, Dallas needs it (will soon anyway), and no one else is making any move to help. But –he has shareholders and investors, and he does plan to make a buck. but –his type makes it all work in the end, far better than waiting for an emergency to bring in the gov’t bureaus. He’s a wiley bidnessman, but his rep is for sterling honesty & keeping his word. Confess, my dad did some geological work for him back in the 70s and 80s and i got to know him a little, just thru visiting mom & dad in Amarillo and tagging along a few times on dad’s projects. first time i met Boone, he asked about my family — i related wife’s name and 3 kids names, where we lived in Victoria — a 5 minute conversation. Saw him again 2 or 3 yrs later, another short converstion –he remembered names and ages of my whole crew, plus everything i’d told him about my own piddly life & career, too. it was as if i was the billionaire world figure, and he was the wet behind the ears faceless pissant oilpatch techie. Impressive dude –more so all the time.
Aug 27, 2008 - 12:41 pm 61. Vengeance:With all our problems, why is John McCain talking about the ’60s, trying to link Barack Obama to radical Bill Ayers?”
With all of our problems, do we really want a President who’s loyalty to his fellow citizens can be thrown in doubt? Our Founding Fathers were particularly concerned about foreign influence and the loyalty of the executive. That is why the Constitution designates the Presidency as requiring native citizenship.
Ayers is not in the past, he has malevolent goals now — “we did not do enough”. And putting a light on the cockroaches that surround Obama
– outreach advisor to muslims forced to resign
– An undeclared $3.5 million (£1.8 million) payment from a Iraqi-British businessman has landed Barack Obama’s former fundraiser behind bars.
–Bob Biersack, a spokesman for the Federal Election Commission (FEC), confirmed to investigative reporters that donations from foreigners are illegal and donations from individuals cannot exceed $ 2,300 for a single election. The $ 29,500 donation from the Palestinians clearly violates the law on both fronts.
This is how Republics perish, read our Founding Father’s words.
That’s why we are talking about Ayers.
Aug 27, 2008 - 7:21 pm 62. Bookworm Room » Quality reading for Thursday:[...] 2. Pajamas Media/Belmont Club – Unity [...]
Aug 28, 2008 - 8:37 am 63. Watcher of Weasels » Watcher’s Council Results: From Russia With Love!:[...] (Tie) Pajamas Media/Belmont Club – Unity 2/3 [...]
Aug 29, 2008 - 12:09 pm 64. Bookworm Room » Results in from the Watcher’s Council:[...] (Tie) Pajamas Media/Belmont Club – Unity 2/3 [...]
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