Posted on 08/26/2008 10:37:51 PM PDT by CedarDave
Continuing to follow up on what can be learned of Barack Obama's tenure as the Chairman of the Board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC), evaluations of the program during his tenure available on line demonstrate that in his only real executive test, Barack Obama was a dismal failure squandering millions of dollars on education programs which had basically no real effect. They also strongly suggest Obama's claim that un-repentant terrorist Bill Ayers is just a teacher who lived down the block is an outright lie. The structure and tone of the CAC, addressed in the documents, leave a strong impression the two men had to work together closely over a number of years. Also, as copies of CAC internal documents were given over to the evaluators, any notion that they now shouldn't be immediately shared with the public is an absolute farce.
Given Obama's significant lack of experience, aside from any Ayers connection which Stanley Kurtz continues to pursue, it's doubtful he'd want America to learn any details behind his obviously failed performance during the one time he was expected to perform as an executive in the real world.
Obama began his CAC board chairmanship in early 1995, and stepped down from the chairmanship in late 1999, though he remained on the board until CAC phased itself out of existence in 2001.
These evaluations cover precisely that period of time. At some points the criticism of the organization Obama led is scathing, particularly as it was primarily tasked with giving away millions of dollars....
~~snip~~
Reading through the documents gives the impression that as Chairman, Obama did little more than assist the most Leftist of activists in shuffling around millions of dollars, often to themselves in their own misguided initiatives, few if any of them producing real results. In fact, in many people's minds, they were never even designed to.
Obama as chair didn't even have the foresight to appoint an Executive Director until some two years on - and then it was only done in response to concerns from others, including the Annenberg Foundation itself. One portion of the document claims they gave money away so fast and so early, the effort may have been doomed from the start - all while Obama was Chair.
Another portion of the document demonstrates that a full two years in, relevant independent, concerned members of the education, political and business communities in Chicago didn't even have an effective idea what the challenge was about when asked by evaluators. But that didn't stop Obama and CAC from handing out cash to someone, apparently.
When those independent interested parties were asked what it was they believed the Chicago schools needed most, they generally responded in practical terms - improved test scores, better grades and improved overall performance. But the CAC didn't see those things as relevant. It was more focused on fuzzy-headed, presumably liberal ideals expressed as "time, size and isolation" - yet, said ideals were never more properly defined, making it impossible to even know what it is they set out to accomplish through spending all that cash. Is it a wonder Obama and his fifty million had absolutely no impact at all?
How's that for fifty-million dollars worth - ultimately under Obama's control? One can only imagine how much he might have squandered were the US treasury involved - God forbid.
~~snip~~
It cannot be emphasized enough that these evaluations speak directly to the only real world executive experience of a gifted rhetorician with incredibly light political experience, hardly any of it at the national level. That he suddenly somehow fancies himself ready and able to become the chief executive of the United States is a bad joke. Based on these evaluations, it's doubtful he is qualified for a mid-level administrative position within a school district in a mid-sized town. If the mainstream media doesn't follow up on this and the work of Stanley Kurtz and Steve Diamond, it's they who will be playing the worst of jokes on the American people. Now, Diamond has begun posting some of the internal CAC documents he already has - be sure and check it out here.
Evaluations relevant to Obama's apparently incompetent work as Chair are available on line through the Consortium on Chicago School Research at the University of Chicago.
Obama had his supporters flood the comment phone lines .
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