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Barack Obama wearing his professorial hat (Obama says Constitution is a flawed document)
wbez.org ^ | 06/30/08 | wbez/Obama/Josh Andrews

Posted on 10/26/2008 6:49:41 PM PDT by TornadoAlley3

There was a great article in the New York Times yesterday about Barack Obama’s time as a faculty member at the University of Chicago Law School. The timing was uncanny for me, as I had recently pulled some CD’s out of our archive room and been listening to some appearances that Obama made as a guest on Odyssey, the talk show I used to produce here at Chicago Public Radio. We had Obama, then a State Senator and Senior Lecturer at the Law School, on the program 3 times between 1998 and 2002. When he joined us, he was more than willing to set aside his political persona and put on his academic hat. He participated in discussions on the evolution of the right to vote, the politics of electoral redistricting, and the uneasy relationship between slavery and the constitution in early America.

Here’s an excerpt from the call-in segment for the Slavery and the Constitution show that aired in September of 2001. The other voices you’ll hear are the host, Gretchen Helfrich, and UIC historian Richard John.


TOPICS: Breaking News; Constitution/Conservatism; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: alinsky; antiamericanleft; antichrist; ayers; bho; bo; commies; constitution; democrat; democrats; dohrn; economy; founders; obama; obamabinlyin; rats; unamericanactivities
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To: Peter Horry

Peter,
It is PRECISELY that human component of our system that currently frightens hell out of me — just as it has those before us.

“Yes, we did produce a near perfect republic but will they keep it? Or will they, in the enjoyment of plenty, lose the memory of freedom? Material abundance without character is the path to destruction.” Thomas Jefferson

“Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; if it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it.” — Judge Learned Hand, 1944

We SEEM to have become a disturingly CHARACTERLESS people and SEEM to be poised to elect a deeply CHARACTERLESS, CORRUPT leader.

Join me in praying that my cynicism is unwarranted and that I am wrong.


61 posted on 10/26/2008 8:05:44 PM PDT by Dick Bachert
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To: gotribe
the Warren court interpreted it in the same way that generally the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties. It says what the states can’t do to you, it says what the federal government can’t do to you, but it doesn’t say what the federal government or the state government must do on your behalf

And now, for the counterpoint, Ronald Reagan from his farewell address:

"Ours was the first revolution in the history of mankind that truly reversed the course of government, and with three little words: 'We the people.' 'We the people' tell the government what to do, it doesn't tell us. 'We the people' are the driver, the government is the car. And we decide where it should go, and by what route, and how fast. Almost all the world's constitutions are documents in which governments tell the people what their privileges are. Our Constitution is a document in which 'We the people' tell the government what it is allowed to do. 'We the people' are free. This belief has been the underlying basis for everything I've tried to do these past eight years.

"But back in the 1960s, when I began, it seemed to me that we'd begun reversing the order of things--that through more and more rules and regulations and confiscatory taxes, the government was taking more of our money, more of our options, and more of our freedom. I went into politics in part to put up my hand and say, 'Stop.' I was a citizen politician, and it seemed the right thing for a citizen to do.

"I think we have stopped a lot of what needed stopping. And I hope we have once again reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There's a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts."

62 posted on 10/26/2008 8:07:32 PM PDT by Numbers Guy
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To: NationalConservative
How can he be permitted to take the oath of office?

He won't be. He can't win, stupid.

This will be our President?

Nope.

This is a nightmare. Is this America?

Yes. It is.

Furthermore, we are about to kick your boys a$$ in this election and there is nothing you can do about it!!!

houeto> LMAO!!!

63 posted on 10/26/2008 8:09:58 PM PDT by houeto ("Drill Here! Drill Now!" & "Go Palin, Go!")
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To: Dick Bachert

“Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; if it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it.” — Judge Learned Hand, 1944
HEAR! HEAR! Peter Horry 2008


64 posted on 10/26/2008 8:10:13 PM PDT by Peter Horry (Mount Up Everybody and Ride to the Sound of the Guns .. Pat Buchanan)
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To: steve0

It's for being a MARXIST and SOCIALIST, STUPID!!!

65 posted on 10/26/2008 8:12:11 PM PDT by Colonial Warrior (Never approach a bull from the front, a horse from the rear, or a fool from any direction.)
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To: doug from upland

Obama called our Constitution an “imperfect document . . . ” and stated that it shows ” Blind spot of framers,” which, Obama also said, continues today.


66 posted on 10/26/2008 8:16:28 PM PDT by TornadoAlley3 (John and Sarah are gonna change the plumbing in Washington!)
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To: TornadoAlley3

Article II, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution


67 posted on 10/26/2008 8:18:38 PM PDT by george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
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To: loveliberty2

In “The Audacity of Hope”, Obama noted the philosophy of Justice Stephen G. Breyer. “I have to side with Justice Breyer’s view of the Constitution—that it is not a static but rather a living document,” Obama wrote.


68 posted on 10/26/2008 8:21:38 PM PDT by TornadoAlley3 (John and Sarah are gonna change the plumbing in Washington!)
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To: frankiep
I surmise you didn't feel the need of a “sarq” ;o)

I wonder if any of the ‘purists’ - many of them Freepers - who used that brilliant philosophy in 2006 that gave us Pelosi and Reid and gang - ever feel a twinge, knowing they gave these dictators the wedge that brings us to the edge of the cliff today?

69 posted on 10/26/2008 8:28:17 PM PDT by maine-iac7 ("He has the right to criticize who has the heart to help" Lincoln)
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To: R0CK3T
But it'll be OK after he submits the new Declaration of Dependence.

Funniest (and saddest) post of the day!

70 posted on 10/26/2008 8:28:53 PM PDT by brewcrew
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To: maine-iac7
I surmise you didn't feel the need of a “sarq” ;o)

Yeah. I was kinda counting on the sarcasm being self evident :)

71 posted on 10/26/2008 8:32:12 PM PDT by frankiep (Every socialist is a disguised dictator - Ludwig von Mises)
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To: kesg
Listen to Obama's words again. This isn't typical liberal stuff:

It [The Warren Court] didn’t break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the founding fathers in the Constitution, at least as it’s been interpreted, and the Warren court interpreted it in the same way that generally the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties. It says what the states can’t do to you, it says what the federal government can’t do to you, but it doesn’t say what the federal government or the state government must do on your behalf.

A Harvard Law Grad knows why the Constitution was crafted this way -- it wasn't for the new socialist order Obama intends to impose on the USA.

72 posted on 10/26/2008 8:36:33 PM PDT by Niord
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To: perfect_rovian_storm

Did anyone record this to Youtube, this is damaging stuff.


73 posted on 10/26/2008 8:40:32 PM PDT by MikeFrancesa.com (www.war69.com)
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To: kesg

Pretty easy of HO-bama...he was niether BORN HERE, or RAISED HERE, yet has the AUDACITY to claim he’s the best to solve our “problems” that he and his own party GENERATED for an election issue.


74 posted on 10/26/2008 8:53:04 PM PDT by RasterMaster (DUmocrats - the party of slavery, sedition, subversion, socialism & surrender)
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To: gotribe

Obama has talked about “Court Packing” where Obama appoints two new justices to the Supreme Court without any current justices resigning.


75 posted on 10/26/2008 8:54:42 PM PDT by Thunder90
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To: ZULU
The only “flaw” there might be in the Constitution is that the Founding Fathers never thought a menace like him might have a crack at getting elected President.

The founding fathers never envisioned a mass media (TV, cable, and internet) that exists today. This menace could not have occurred 100 years ago. Lord Barack Øbama, the Most Merciful, came out of nowhere with Ø experience, and is purely a product of the mass media. In the olden days people didn't think with their eyes - they read their news and information. This guy could never be where he is without the eye candy put forth in the propaganda medai 24/7. The founding fathers would be turning over in their graves.
76 posted on 10/26/2008 9:09:07 PM PDT by Cheerio
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To: brewcrew

Yeah, but one man with a super majority in Congress certainly can.


77 posted on 10/26/2008 9:13:22 PM PDT by papasmurf (I ain't your Daddy's Conservative, OK?)
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To: TornadoAlley3

Bump


78 posted on 10/26/2008 9:20:51 PM PDT by ChowChowFace
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To: sgtyork
How very odd that you use the exact word that Obama uses in denying that he is advocating REDISTRIBUTION. Have you had a serious head injury on the left side of your head?

Coercive wealth redistribution -- "from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs" -- Marxism. Obama is a Marxist. That Orlando reporter who asked Plugs if Obama was a Marxist was dead on target.

79 posted on 10/26/2008 9:35:36 PM PDT by kesg
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To: TornadoAlley3
Flawed it may be, but it's still the highest law of the land, with millions sworn to support and defend it, against *all* enemies, foreign and *domestic*.

It's also the least flawed such document in the world.

80 posted on 10/26/2008 9:38:18 PM PDT by El Gato ("The Second Amendment is the RESET button of the United States Constitution." -- Doug McKay)
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