Blogging “The Case Against Barack Obama” – Chapter 2

While Chapter One of David Freddoso's "The Case Against Barack Obama" shows us that Barack was not, in fact, a reformer (though he regularly plays one) and was instead part of the infamous Chicago political machine, Chapter Two focuses on Obama's rise to senator through the state senate in Springfield, Illinois. On the first page of this chapter, Freddoso introduces us to Illinois State senate president Emil Jones, who is described by the Associated Press as Obama's "political godfather." Freddoso describes Jones's political connections and Machine activities, including such beauties as landing his son an unadvertised high-paying job with the state for which he may not have been qualified, and fighting hard to keep the state utility company from having to lower its rates, apparently in return for giving his stepson's company a large consulting contract. The best example, though, was getting his friend, the Democrat governor of Illinois, to remove the common-sense requirement that the Director of Mental Health for the state be an actual doctor. This opened the door for Jones's own wife (someone has no shame) to take the job, for which she received $186,000 per year, a 75% pay increase.

Obama had told Jones he wanted to run for the federal Senate seat, and Jones set about helping him in any way he could. Mostly this meant creating a resume for Obama as quickly as possible. He put Obama in charge of committees and, thus, legislation that was not controversial and that would put him in a position of being owed political dividends by powerful state unions. To me the most egregious favors involved taking high-profile legislation away from other state senators – sometimes right before it was to be passed by the legislators – and giving it to Obama to pass, a nasty little process called "bill-jacking". Freddoso quotes a state legislator who in 2002 almost went to blows with Obama outside the senate chamber over another matter (this is also detailed in the book), about this practice:

"No one wants to carry the ball 99 yards all the way to the 1 yard line, and then give it to the halfback who gets all the credit and stats in the record book." Years later, in the Houston Press, Spivak [a reporter] wrote that Henden [the legislator] had been the original sponsor of two bills that Obama often writes and speaks about as if they had been his own.

In this chapter, Freddoso also introduces us to Obama's famous habit of voting "present" instead of yea or nay, so that he could not later be attacked over his stand on controversial issues. While in the state senate, Obama did this approximately 130 times (Here I'm reminded of a television ad that John McCain did earlier this year, in which he points out rightly that "when you're President, it's not enough to be 'present.'"). With Emil Jones's high-powered help, Obama managed to sponsor over 800 bills in the state senate during 2003-2004, a dramatic increase for him and a truly remarkable number in its own right (depending on the actual number of days involved during that two-year period, you're talking about at least two bills per day, every weekday).

Mr. Obama Goes to Washington

Once in Washington, DC of course, Obama was in a perfect position to repay so many favors to Emil Jones. One of the beauties that Freddoso recounts at this point proves – yet again – that Obama is not the reformer he claims to be. Last year, an Illinois state senator wrote to Obama to ask for his help in getting Emil Jones to stop holding up a package of 7 reform bills she wanted to have put up for debate. She wrote to Obama both because he was connected to Jones, and because the seven reform bills under consideration were very similar to reforms that Obama had promised to pass during his run for the presidency. It seems logical to believe that, given these circumstances, Obama would be in a perfect position to help out. However, according to Freddoso, "Obama did not even respond." Obama would later add that the state senator's request was "irregular." As a result, six of the seven bills are still stuck in committee. Great job, Obama.

The end of this chapter (a short one) briefly describes the first few times that Obama was referred to by black leaders as "not authentically black." Freddoso quotes Congressman Bobby Rush, a longtime black democrat leader in Chicago, who, if I recall correctly, was part of the Black Panther movement in the 1960s and who beat Obama badly in the 2000 election. Rush is a big name in Chicago politics.

My Thoughts

Freddoso spends much more time in chapter one discussing Obama's political career in Chicago before getting to Springfield. But it seems clear, nonetheless, that Obama was able to learn how to play the political game in Chicago very quickly, and apply those lessons to the same game on a bigger scale at the state level. He obviously has not tried, or needed to try, to play these games at the Federal level, but then he was only a sitting senator for less than 140 days before he announced his bid for the presidency. So far, to me it seems that Obama's "claim to fame" is that he has been a very effective politician, but I have yet to see any evidence whatsoever that he has been or could be an effective reformer at any level. Moreover, the ease with which he seems to travel in these politically-connected (and corrupt) circles really strikes me as dishonest, certainly not the image of the clean-cut Harvard-educated "community organizer" that he's selling, and that everyone seems to be buying. He'd be a senator I'd want to keep an eye on as a guy who might end up with cash in his freezer one day. The idea that he could, in less than two months, be the President of the United States is truly frightening.

And I'm only on Chapter 2.

Blogging David Freddoso’s “The Case Against Barack Obama”

I purchased David Freddoso's "The Case Against Barack Obama" tonight and plan to blog it as I read through it. There are 11 chapters, so it shouldn't take very long. My hope is that I can learn more about who Barack Obama is, what he really believes, and get the facts on troublesome areas of his past. Unlike some other conservative books that have been written about Obama, I believe Freddoso's book to be accurate, and can see that it is thoroughly documented.

Chapter One - Chicago

This chapter deals with Obama's political life in Chicago. It begins with his very first-ever election, to state senator. In this election, in 1996, Obama was to run against three other opponents, including the heavily favored incumbent. So how did Obama win? He basically cheated. He hired a guy whose job it was to disqualify each of Obama's opponents from the ballot. This operative examined every single signature in the petitions of each of the candidates, looking for any technicality that could be used to disqualify that signature. Since each candidate was required to have at least 757 signatures to be qualified to run, all he had to do was discredit enough signatures to get that candidate below 757 signatures, and the candidate would be disqualified from running in the election. Somehow, Obama's operative was able to do this. All three of Obama's opponents in this, his first election, were disqualified from running, and Obama thus won by default. The really scary thing about this episode is that, when asked about it in 2007, Obama felt no remorse about winning in this fashion. Instead he said, "I think they ended up with a very good state senator." In other words, the ends justified the means.

The next section of this chapter deals with the infamous "Chicago Machine." Freddoso is making the point that Obama is not just a lone liberal trying to get elected using these types of tactics. In his short time in Chicago politics, Obama was part of the Chicago Machine, supported it, and was even involved in saving its life in 2006. The Machine has always been about maintaining a pyramid of corrupt politicians in power in Chicago by providing good government jobs and contracts to constituents willing to sell their votes for a little piece of the pie and some upward mobility. Freddoso runs down the most recent history of John Stroger, the head of the Machine, and his son Todd, who took over for him after a stroke. He describes how, in 2006, when Obama was very popular nationwide, a "friend" of his, a popular liberal reformer, was running against the head of the Machine and looked like he might win the election, knocking down the empire. Barack "Change We Can Believe In" Obama not only didn't lift a finger to help his friend (and Chicagoans), but instead co-authored a letter with fellow lib senator Dick Durbin, heaping praise on Stroger and encouraging voters to cast theirs for this "good progressive Democrat, who will bring those values and sensibilities to the job." Showing just how gullible Chicago voters are, Stroger won and the chance for reform died.

Freddoso continues this theme by next focusing on Richard Daley, the 20-year mayor of Chicago. He demonstrates that Daley is even more corrupt than Stroger by running down several funny anecdotes about the administration, then describing how Obama has supported Daley politically, endorsing him for re-election as recently as January of 2007, in the midst of a federal investigation of his office for cronyism and corruption, complete with indictments. Again, taxpayer representatives work for reform, Obama interferes with it. We even learn that Michelle Obama briefly worked in the mayor's office. Freddoso winds up this section with the story of Obama chief strategist David Axelrod, who apparently has worked for Daley for over 15 years. As Freddoso runs down a number of the kind of corrupt government scams you see in movies actually happening in Daley's administration, he quotes Axelrod in what are just patently deceitful statements defending Daley. Here you have friends and contributors of Daley's setting up front operations to secure hundreds of millions of dollars of city funding by faking minority-run operations. Or, in the infamous "hired truck scandal," trucking contracts were literally sold for bribes by a Daley appointee, and Daley and his brother apparently received some of these bribes. Again, in the midst of all this craziness and corruption, Senator Obama the Reformer chose not to reform anything, but to instead endorse Daley, "as somebody who is constantly thinking about how to make the city better."

Implied, but left un-asked in this chapter, is this: How much more powerful could a guy like Daley become with a friend like the President of the United States on his side? But of course, this book is about Obama, and this summary quote from Freddoso is excellent: "If Barack Obama is a reformer, he may be the first reformer ever to become president of the United States before doing anything serious in the name of reform."

Has anyone in the national media bothered to investigate Obama's claim to be a reformer? Or have they just accepted it as a legitimate talking point and moved on? In a race where they send legions of investigators to Alaska to dig up dirt on Sarah Palin, who's not even running for president, you would think that an unbiased, legitimate news organization would put somebody on Obama's past.

The First Presidential Debate

Obama and McCain met onstage for the first time in this election. The stakes were high, and McCain is behind in the polls. He needed a big win here.

Moderator Jim Lehrer, of PBS, started out with a question about the current financial crisis, then moved into the Iraq war, and then he brought up Afghanistan. He tried many times to get the two candidates to engage each other directly after answering their questions. This fell flat because McCain demonstrated no interest whatsoever in even looking at Obama, much less speaking to him directly. In my opinion this was a mistake that made him look bad. That and his frequent filibusters definitely annoyed Obama throughout the event.

The questions covered all the major areas of national security, and the candidates didn't seem to really say anything new. They each leveled the same attacks they've been using for the past several months against each other. To me this made it fairly boring to watch. And because McCain would not look at Obama, he also wound up not challenging him directly, either. Obama said a number of things that McCain should have challenged right away, but because he waited for his turn and kept his gaze on the moderator, the few counterpunches McCain threw seemed to just drift off instead.

One item, in particular, near the beginning of the debate was when Obama actually raised the issue of "how did we get here," referring to the current debacle. He thew out the old liberal canard about the cause being de-regulation and that he, Obama, has been pushing for more regulation and oversight for years. McCain should have taken this statement and rammed it down his throat, pointing out that he, McCain, had sponsored a bill 3 years ago to significantly tighten FNMA and FHLMC regulation, but that he was thwarted by a party-line vote, including by Obama and Biden. Instead, the best he could do was proclaim that he, too, had been for greater regulation. Golden opportunity just passed over. Obama and the Dem's deserve to be hit hard on this.

A big area of difference was on the Iraq war. McCain was actually fairly aggressive, here. He talked about his love for the veterans and the great job that they and Petraeus in particular are doing over there, and pointed out that Obama just refuses to admit he was wrong about the surge. Obama stuck to his old explanation that, "we were wrong to go there in the first place," and described how he opposed it at the time. Of course, at that time he wasn't even in the U.S. Senate, so exactly what difference an Illinois state senator's opinion means on such an issue is really nil. He didn't have to cast a vote on it, so he's just not credible. For his part, McCain fired off a good one, stating that the next president doesn't have to worry about how we got there, but what we're going to do now that we're there and winning. His point: Quit fighting 6-year-old battles that were decided well before you were even elected senator.

McCain finally came on strong at the very end, but for my money he should have done a much better job overall. I thought he came off as stubborn and irritating, and his refusal to make eye contact with Obama, or speak to Obama directly rather than refer to him in the third person, really bothered me. When Obama would speak and look directly at McCain, McCain would be looking down, scribbling something in his notes. As I recall, he did the same thing when he debated Romney in the primaries. As a Romney supporter it really got under my skin. Maybe that's his point.

I felt like McCain got hurt in this debate. But as I listen around, other conservatives seem to think McCain got the better of Obama or at least tied him. I think that's being generous. He certainly didn't hit a homerun, which I had been half-expecting given the subject matter.

Next stop: Palin / Biden on 10/2.

State of the Race and the Country, Sep 2008

The last time that I wrote a blog post, John McCain was behind in the polls and had not yet named his running mate for the 2008 election. Although only a month or two has gone by, a lot seems to have changed since then. In fact, a lot seems to have changed in just the past week. This race is fluid unlike any other I have ever seen.

Sarah
First, let me make a few comments about Sarah Palin. I was as surprised as anyone last month when John McCain chose Sarah Palin for his running mate, but I quickly came to appreciate the pick as a brilliant political move. I had seen pictures of Governor Palin before, since she was considered to be on McCain's short list, but I had never heard her speak, as I suppose most other people had not, also. When I watched her acceptance speech in Ohio that day, I came away with a giant grin on my face, knowing I had just seen the future of the Republican Party and the conservative movement. Governor Palin was amazing. Besides being very pretty, she was articulate and intelligent, devoutly religious and an outdoorswoman, and down to earth all at the same time. A conservative feminist in the truest sense of the term. Someone I could walk through fire for.

I was, of course, also impressed with Governor Palin's speech at the Republican convention the following week. On such a huge stage, and with a teleprompter malfunction, Governor Palin was flawless. The crowd loved her, and so did I. Her life experience and the person she is today provide a fantastic role model for both of my daughters.

Insane Media & Left Reaction
Of course, the reaction by the media and the Left to Governor Palin's appointment was unbelievably bad. I have never in all my life heard more evil vitriol, sexist comments, religious bigotry, and just downright nastiness directed at any one person, especially not a good and virtuous person. To this day, I still cannot understand how people who seem so normal in an ordinary conversation can spew such evil and hatred toward a truly good and moral person. Call me naïve, I guess. It has certainly been an education for all of us, that much is certain. I have to believe that Americans who lean to the left surely must have been as aghast at these attacks as I have been, and will have come to see what the left actually stands for, instead of what they have always claimed they stood for: Not for advancement of women, for example, but advancement of liberal women. Conservative women can go to Hell. I have finally come to realize that the left is truly evil.

The Polls
Sarah Palin is a decent and honorable person. She is the type of person who is so happy with her own life that her smile is contagious. She is the type of American who you feel like you know right away, someone who is a "regular" person. People sense this about her, just as John McCain must have. And so she is more popular than McCain himself. She has revitalized the Republican ticket like no one dreamed could have happened. For couple of weeks, the Republican ticket was ahead of Obama in every poll. That was the first time that had happened in this election cycle. Things have since died down a little, but the race is basically dead even at this date.

The Financial Meltdown & Crisis
During the past week, extremely bad financial news has been rolling in day after day. After having had Bear Stearns file bankruptcy a month or so ago, this week we had Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers, two huge investment banks, threaten to file bankruptcy unless they were bailed out. Merrill Lynch was in a similar position, and sold themselves to Bank of America to avoid having to go bankrupt. Goldman and Lehman are now being turned into banks, also, which will put them under the scrutiny of federal bank regulators and force them to invest much more conservatively than they have before. The era of investment banks is officially over.

The really interesting thing about this crisis, however, is the reaction of the public so far. Senator Obama has received a decent bump in the polls as a result of this financial crisis. Why? Because President Bush is a lame duck and unpopular, and because Senator Mccain is a republican just like Bush. People are having a knee-jerk reaction and blaming the president for this crisis, not knowing all the facts yet. As I understand them, and as the public will come to understand them during the next week, the democrats, not the republicans, are squarely responsible for this mess. It's not often that it's possible to blame just one side of the aisle, but in this case it certainly seems to be fair.

The reason we're in this financial crisis today is because there is significantly less liquidity in the financial markets now than there was a month ago. There is a crisis of confidence among investors that is paralyzing them and preventing them from investing in American financial Instruments. They're taking their money elsewhere to invest, because they see too much risk in American financial markets.

Why is this? Because the two largest providers of mortgage-backed securities in this country, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, have basically burned everyone who has been investing with them. They sell packages of mortgages to institutional investors, and the securities are considered very low risk because everyone knows that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are backed by the United States gov't. If, God forbid, large numbers of homeowners whose mortgages are packaged inside these securities stop paying their mortgages, a highly unlikely scenario, the Federal government would step in if necessary to make sure that investors in these mortgage-backed securities did not lose their investments.

Well, as it happens, large numbers of American homeowners did stop paying their mortgages when the housing bubble popped and they could no longer afford to pay their monthly mortgage bills. Lenders, egged on by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, encouraged low income families to buy their own homes, permitting them to put "zero down" and/or to borrow against unrealized capital gains (that never materialized). Home ownership, part of the American Dream, is believed by liberals to be extremely important in this society, and Democrats in Congress have done everything possible to encourage more homeownership, even (especially) among the poor. Since housing prices had been rising for years and years, this was seen to be a low risk venture. But eventually, housing prices peaked, and as they came down, more and more people got into more and more trouble.

Besides "zero down" loans, loan officers also offered "no-doc" loans (at higher rates), where you didn't have to provide any documentation of the financial situation you claimed. We're learning now that (surprise, surprise) a great many of these people lied on their applications, and their defaulting on their mortgages was just a matter of time.

Liberals in Congress have been so enamored with the idea of making it possible for every American to own a home that they balked whenever responsible Republicans tried to impose additional oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, or otherwise tighten up lending rules. For years, Republicans and conservative economists warned that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were getting too big; were not being regulated tightly enough; and were eventually going to cause a serious financial meltdown that would extend beyond the mortgage industry. Democrats pooh-poohed these notions (it's in the Congressional Record), pointing out correctly that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had been great successes, increasing overall homeownership and providing a ready market for mortgage-backed securities. With a Democrat majority in the Congress and party-line votes, Republicans pushing for greater regulation -- John McCain as one specific example -- were rebuffed and voted down by Dem's, notably by Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

Bottom line

1) Republicans saw this coming and tried to avert it years ago, but were blocked by Democrats.
2) Specific prominent senators from both parties were involved directly: John McCain sponsored a bill that would have tightened regulation and averted today's crisis. The bill was voted down by Democrats including Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
3) Americans in general are blaming the GOP for some reason, and McCain is being hurt by this. The truth must be put out there.

My Attitude Now
I continue to be hopeful for a McCain victory for a number of reasons. One, I love Sarah Palin and want to see her made Vice President and eventually President. Two, I can't think of one other person in Washington who I trust on the War On Terror more than John McCain. He is a true war hero and American patriot, and I believe he would do his absolute best for this country as President. Third, I believe Barack Obama is manifestly unqualified and unprepared to be President of the United States. He has never run a single thing, and has no accomplishments at all in his resume. He is a first term senator who has done absolutely nothing of note up until this point in his career. Why anyone would think that he is qualified to be president is absolutely beyond me.

Most importantly, he is a staunch defender of abortion, even to the point of voting against bills designed to prevent infanticide, and would stand an excellent chance of appointing perhaps four Supreme Court justices during his term(s) as president, and this would effectively cement Roe vs. Wade in the books, possibly forever. This last fact alone should be enough for any even marginally pro-life voter to make sure that Senator Obama never becomes president.

In short, as a devout Catholic, and as a person who believes that America occupies a special place in God's heart, I honestly do not believe that Our Lord will permit a radical leftist like Obama to be elected President. I believe that we will defeat him with God's help. I truly believe this. I don't worry too much from day to day, even when I see McCain down in the polls, because I believe this. I also believe, on the same grounds, that God has a special plan for Sarah Palin. We will see what it is over the next several years.

In the meantime, there are 40 days left until the election. We must all do what we can to get McCain/Palin elected. I know I will.