Posted on 10/23/2006 6:30:17 PM PDT by PghBaldy
If the Democratic National Convention failed to produce a bounce for John Kerry, the same cannot be said of Illinois State Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic Party’s candidate for United States Senator from Illinois. While this rising star in the Democratic Party spouted some conservative themes during his speech, the rhetoric may be deceptive. While Obama spoke of individual responsibility – such as stating that the government cannot teach kids to read, parents must – his ideology and voting record is quite different.
Obama is very liberal. Among his campaign contributors are George Soros, People for the American Way, pro-abortion groups and teacher’s unions. Soros got his money's worth from Obama, who turned out redmeat antiwar quotations during the run-up to Operation Iraqi Freedom. At an October 2002 antiwar rally, he repeated the false "economy and war" canard of fanatical antiwar liberals. Obama said:
"I don't oppose all wars…What I am opposed to is the attempt by political hacks like Karl Roves to distract us from a rise in the uninsured, a rise in the poverty rate, a drop in the median income...to distract us from corporate scandals and a stock market that has just gone through the worst month since the Great Depression."
When confronted with this quotation by Tim Russert on "Meet the Press," Obama shrugged it off, not choosing to repeat its conspiracy theories. Russert uncharacteristically did not press the issue. But the quotation would seem to indicate Obama's inclination to parrot the Michael Moore Left.
In fact, Obama has bristled at being referred to as a mainsteam Democrat. When he was accused by Black Commentator magazine as being co-opted by the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC). Black Commentator believes the more moderate rhetoric of the DLC and Bill Clinton's willingness to compromise with Republicans for political gain have harmed the party. It believes the DLC's candidates are corrupted by corporations, and refers to conservative black politicians as "black stealth candidates," which is how they characterized Obama.
Obama was so disturbed by this, he wrote a letter to Black Commentator stating:
"To begin with, neither my staff nor I have had any direct contact with anybody at DLC…I don't know who nominated me for the DLC list of 100 rising stars…I certainly did not view such inclusion as an endorsement on my part of the DLC platform…I spend much of my time with audiences trying to educate them on the dangers of both the Patriot Act, Patriot Act 2, and the rest of John Ashcroft's assault on the Constitution…In the last three months alone, I passed and sent to Illinois governor's desk 25 pieces of major progressive legislation, including groundbreaking laws mandating the videotaping of all interrogations and confessions in capital cases; racial profiling legislation; a new law designed to ease the burden on ex-offenders seeking employment; and a state earned income tax credit that will put millions of dollars directly into the pockets of Illinois' working poor."
His voting record certainly displays the ideology characteristic of an indulgent liberal. (Sorry, "Progressive.") Obama favors abortion, socialized medicine, and Affirmative Action. Obama sponsored a bill in the Illinois legislature requiring local police departments in Illinois to record the race of anyone stopped for questioning so that the data can be used to track the occurrence of racial profiling. He opposes a $2,000 tax credit for retirement and has voted against private gun ownership, mandatory sentencing and the death penalty. During his tenure as a legislator, he abstained from voting about an abortion parental notification bill and on legislation that would keep pornographic video stores and strip clubs from within 1,000 feet of schools and churches. He has also voted against laws requiring students to complete suspensions before being transferred to other school districts. He abstained from legislation requiring adult prosecution for students who fire guns on school grounds. He opposed legislation making it a criminal offense for accused gang members to associate with known gang members.
Ironically, Obama is the candidate of the racial segregationist. It is not because segregationists want him to be a Senator. It is because he is classified African-American using the standards of racial segregationists.
Obama is called an African–American. However, Obama is half-white. His father, who was black, abandoned him and his mother when he was about two years old. He lived with his white mother and white grandparents.
Considering a mixed race individual an African-American is a typical liberal practice. They routinely refer to anyone who is partially black as black. Tiger Woods, Halle Berry and Mariah Carey are all mixed race celebrities regularly referred to by the liberal media as black. Tiger Woods has had the gall to complain about this. (With good reason; his mother is Asian.)
Ironically, this custom by liberals and Democrats of referring to partially black people as black is simply a reiteration of the old racist, Jim Crow, "one-eighth law." In racist locales, such as segregation-era Louisiana, people with as little as one-eighth African-American ancestry were classified as black. This classification led to dramatic curtailments of freedom. In Missouri and Mississippi, "The marriage of a white person with a negro or mulatto or person who shall have one-eighth or more of negro blood, shall be unlawful and void." Obama is black only by the standards of white segregationists.
By insisting that mixed-race individuals be considered black, Democrats -- the party of the unreconstructed South -- are displaying their segregationist roots.
Obama the candidate is conservative only when addressing a national television audience. Ironically, the oddball Black Commentator magazine is partially correct. Obama is a stealth candidate -- a liberal stealth candidate.
My question is the motivation of the MSM to harp on this guy two weeks before the election. I posted earlier on the Mark Levin Lounge Thread that I think the Dems are behind this frenzy. Thought is that the Dems would push this lovable fuzz ball to assimilate the entire Democratic Party with Obama and his image. Dems hoping that American people will think all Dems are lovable, rock stars and just great candidates!
I know. George Clooney just endorsed him for President in 08. Amazing. Obama hasn't been a Senator for 2 years, yet prominent dems are endorsing him to run for Prez.
Damn, with a voting record like this, I would have guessed this guy was the senior democrat senator from Mass., not a junior fellow? Sounds like he has a lot of promise in the democrat party?????? Maybe not in the real world, but definitely in the democrat party.......
ho hum, just another democrat with grandiose self-aggrandizement aided by his liberal friends in the old media.
Ol' George Jefferson would characterize Osama-Obama as nothing other than a ZEBRA!
Black? Yeah, right.
This outburst of publicity for osama obama indicated to me that the RATS are very nervous about hillary's chances in '08.
Yeah, but -- but -- but OPRAH likes him and that's probably enough for the Clinton Soccer Moms still out there.
God save us...
And who could forget that proud day!
My thought is Obama feeding frenzy works for the Dem. Party now, for this election cycle. As for all the chatter lasting through to '08, not going to happen. I just think that the Dem Party is using Obama (and he is a faithful party loyalist) to change the subject off the individual analysis of current Dem runners. Why else would all the MSM be in lock step chattering away everywhere about this person now, two weeks before the election. Cover of magazines, every talking show and news show are just too eager to talk about a person that is not worthy, unless it is to distract. Just my thoughts!
The Dems appear to be dodging a bullet. The GOP has 3 African-American candidates for high office who looked like they could win (Blackwell, Swann and Steele) As of now, only Steele looks like he might win.
The Dems have Ford and Obama.
How do the Dems keep 90% or more loyalty from the African-American population if the perception is that they have at least an equal chance of power in the GOP?
Maybe by pretending to have an African-American presidential candidate? If it gets them through this election, it's good enough.
Other than the veneers on his teeth, I've seen nothing on him which is attractive. nothing.
After living through the Clinton year's and seeing how they connive to gain and keep power I never look at the original intent as displayed. Always am thinking what really is the reason.
Of course that is what he will do. I'll bet we will never ever hear him talk about his mother or grandparents that raised him. I'll bet he will mysteriously find the father that abandoned him as well.
That's actually a plausible analysis, a distraction, a nice "face" for the Democratic Party, blah, blah, blah. I think Obama wants to sell his books and is taking advantage of the opportunity, lol. But then again, there is always the possibility that the idiot is beleiving his own press.
Obama is too liberal, too young and too inexperienced for high office. IMHO, he shouldn't even be in the Senate.
I agree.
Remember that the Dems count on loyal voting blocs. They don't compete on issues. They count on Blacks, Seniors, Jews, Catholics, Labor Unions (although they seem to be losing votes in private Unions, they still win in Gov't and Teacher's Unions).
If any of those blocs start looking at issues instead of just being loyal, the Dems are in trouble.
There was another politician who had a meteoric rise in popularity, and was touted as the next presidential candidate, after an eloquent Dem Convention speech:
Mario Cuomo in 1984. He was even more qualified than Barack, having been Gov of NY. Fortunately, because of all the early hype, conservatives were given enough time to expose the *real* Mario, so nothing ever came of it. Hopefully, the same will happen with Obama.
What does Obama bin bama bring to the table that someone like LA Rep. Bobby Jindal does not?
(From Fred Barnes for the Weekly Standard by way of Powerline Blog):
Jindal has an extraordinary life story. His given first name is Piyush, but at age 4 he decided to change it to Bobby. In high school, he abandoned his parents' Hindu faith and converted to Catholicism. (His father is an engineer, his mother an assistant secretary in the Louisiana state labor department.) By the time he graduated from Baton Rouge High School, Jindal was a Republican. When he got to Brown--an eight-year medical program had attracted him--he naively asked about joining the College Republicans. There was no chapter at Brown. The Republican club Jindal subsequently helped found grew, he says, to 300 members, a surprisingly large membership for a liberal Ivy League school.
His post-Brown career has been dizzying. Instead of pursuing medicine, Jindal studied at Oxford for two years as a Rhodes Scholar, worked the next two years for McKinsey, the business consulting firm, and at age 24 returned to Baton Rouge to take over, at Foster's urging, the mammoth Department of Health and Hospitals. There, he transformed a $400 million deficit into a $220 million surplus...
He's issued lengthy position papers on health care, ethics, economic opportunity, the environment, schools, and religious faith. These were packaged together last week in a glossy 24-page booklet entitled "The Jindal Blueprint for Louisiana--A Bold New Vision." Most notable is the section on "defending the role of faith and values in our state." In it, he tells how a friend led him to Christian faith. "Today, my faith in Jesus Christ is central to who I am, and I pray regularly for God's wisdom in all the parts of my life," he says.
Jindal says he became a Republican as a teenager for two reasons. In Louisiana, with its history of political corruption, Republicans are the reform party. Also, they're the champions of opportunity. "I'd seen what great opportunity my father had [in America] as an engineer," he said in an interview. His mother has succeeded in state government, he said, and "I'm running for governor. This is an amazing country."
As Yogi Berra said of the election of a Jewish mayor of Dublin, "Only in America."
His bio from the biographical directory of the US Congress):
"JINDAL, Bobby, a Representative from Louisiana; born in Baton Rouge, East Baton Rouge Parish, La., June 10, 1971; B.S., Brown University, Providence, R.I., 1991; M.Litt., Oxford University, Oxford, England, 1994; secretary, Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals 1996-1998; appointed executive director of the National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare, 1998; president, University of Louisiana system, 1999; appointed Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, Department of Health and Human Services by President George W. Bush on March 7, 2001; elected as a Republican to the One Hundred Ninth Congress (January 3, 2005-present)."
Does anyone think that if Jindal had won the governorship of LA instead of Blanco the farcical handling of Katrina would have occurred?
Now here is Obama's bio (from the biographical directory of the US Congress):
OBAMA, Barack, a Senator from Illinois; born in Honolulu, Hawaii, August 4, 1961; obtained early education in Jakarta, Indonesia, and Hawaii; continued education at Occidental College, Los Angeles, Calif., and Columbia University, New York City; studied law at Harvard University, where he became the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review, and received J.D. in 1992; lecturer on constitutional law, University of Chicago; member, Illinois State senate 1997-2004; elected as a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in 2004 for term beginning January 3, 2005."
See the relative lack of accomplishment? And Jindal is a full TEN years younger than Obama!
The Republicans need to recognize a gem in their own party that could easily counter the hyped up Obama.
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