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Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda
Commentary ^ | Oct. 12, '08 | Jennifer Rubin

Posted on 10/13/2008 6:09:19 PM PDT by T.L.Sink

Don Freddoso, who knows more about Barack Obama than not just anyone but everyone combined in the MSM, remarks that it isn't just the fact of Obama's associations with a cast of bizarre characters: McCain must also point to Obama's failures of leadership in connection with these assiociations. As chairman of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, an educational reform project that Ayers founded, Obama presided over a waste of $160 million in donors' money. The project, under his leadership, failed to improve student achievement in the 210 Chicago schools where it operated, according to Annenburg's final report. And to this day, that project is Obama's ONLY significant executive experience. Obama's legislative leadership was similar, a case study in wasting other people's money. In Springfield, Obama wrote letters from his public position to get Rezko $14 million for his slum-development enterprise. Obama co-sponsored several pieces of housing legislation favorable to Rezko and other slum-developers, giving them hundreds of millions in subsidies and other tax advantages. They in turn funneled money to Obama's campaign and then let their buildings deteriorate. By his own account, Obama never bothered to follow up on how the money was spent, but the record shows that he worked in every legislative session to provide MORE for his developer friends. He then finds yet another conflict of interest involving a law client: The client, Robert Blackwell, had just paid Obama $112,000 in his capacity as a priate attorney for one of his corporations. State Senator Obama then helped Blackwell obtain $320,000 in state tourism grats to hold ping-pong tournaments. It's not as if executive skills and integrity aren't issues in a presidential campaign. So it remains baffling these were not front and center from the start in the McCain campaign.

(Excerpt) Read more at commentarymagazine.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: 2008; freddoso; obama
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It's interesting that Obama not only was associated with and sponsored radical organizations (and was politically funded by them), but could NOT even manage them competently.
1 posted on 10/13/2008 6:09:20 PM PDT by T.L.Sink
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To: T.L.Sink

Has ANYONE asked this guy if he thinks Obama was born in Hawaii?? Since they say he knows MORE than anyone, someone needs to ask him this question?/ HELLO??? SOMEONE....ANYONE.


2 posted on 10/13/2008 6:11:46 PM PDT by Ann Archy (Abortion.....The Human Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
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To: T.L.Sink
Ultimately, Ayers doesn't matter because the left think he's cool, and moderates of voting age probably remember their radical chic days with a certain amount of nostalgia.

Here's what McCain SHOULD hammer on, what I call "The Litany":

Senator Obama was given the opportunity to attend the prestigious Occidental College in Southern California, and he dropped out.

He was accepted to the prestigious Columbia University in New York, and we don't know what he accomplished because he refuses to disclose his transcripts.

He went to Chicago to become a community organizer and quit because, in his own words, "I wasn't accomplishing anything."

He was then accepted to the very prestigious Harvard Law School. We don't know what he accomplished there because he refuses to release his transcripts.

He was then named Editor-in-Chief for the Harvard Law Review, the most renowned law review in the country, and didn't write a single article.

He was then accepted to the post of Senior Lecturer at the prestigious University of Chicago. There again, he didn't write a single article.

As board member of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, he was responsible for disbursing over $100 million to improve Chicago's public schools. By the projects own admission, the money accomplished nothing.

As Illinois State Senator, he voted present 194 times and didn't have a single note-worthy piece of legislation to his name.

As US Senator, he hasn't once called a meeting of the one commission that he chairs.

When forced to take a postion, Senator Obama has consistantly chosen the wrong one.

When given a chance to vote to save infants born alive after an abortion, he voted against it.

When given the chance to take money from the "Bridge to Nowhere" and give it the victims of Katrina, he voted against it.

When given a chance to vote for the successful surge in Iraq, he voted against it.

When given the chance to condemn Russia's invasion of Georgia, he chose not to.

When given the chance to take a stand on the economic crisis currently facing us, he chose to "wait and see". "Call me if you need me." He said.

Never in the history of our Republic has a candidate for President been given so many opportunities and accomplished so little with them.

Do you really believe that if given the opportunity to lead this great nation he will all of the sudden start doing better?

You can vote for hope, and you can vote for change, but you can't simply hope for change.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2099724/posts

3 posted on 10/13/2008 6:14:11 PM PDT by PhilosopherStones
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To: T.L.Sink

Each school could have added an additional teacher indefinitely just on the interest alone, without touching the principal, but the goal was not learning but indoctrination, and that never did a whole lot for one’s critical thinking skills...


4 posted on 10/13/2008 6:18:06 PM PDT by madameguinot (Liberal Ideology: Peace and Torture.)
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To: T.L.Sink

Read more at
http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/10/why_obamas_communist_connectio.html

Paul Kengor is saying similar things and what is pasted below is a comment by one of Kengor’s readers.

actual executive experience that Obama has chosen to avoid highlighting
American Thinker ^ | October 11, 2008 | Joe in Colorado

Posted on Monday, October 13, 2008 8:49:31 AM by Presbyterian Reporter

WE NEED TO CHANGE THE BILL AYERS ARGUMENT NOW.....The current approach to the Bill Ayers “connection” or “association” is a WEAK ARGUMENT at best on a country that is absolutely drunk on Obama’s Kool-Aid. In other words, the McCain Campaign and the GOP is taking the wrong approach to this. A MUCH MORE EFFECTIVE APPROACH EXISTS AND MUST BE EXECUTED BY BOTH THE GOP AND MCCAIN CAMPAIGNS. THERE IS A SMOKING GUN THAT IS SITTING RIGHT UNDER ALL OF OUR NOSES.

The smoking gun that will resonate with both undecided pure independents, conservative democrats and moderate republicans (where this race will be won or lost) is with the Bill Ayers issue, specifically the Chicago Anneberg Challenge. The current approach is to call Obama on his lie that Ayers was just a “guy that lives in his neighborhood”....we all know the rest of the story. Although this resonates with we conservatives, it has been and will continue to be rebuked by Obama and he can just point to it being a right wing conspiracy theory or smear campaign...this argument is going on deaf ears of the masses that are inebriated on Obama KooAid.

HOWEVER THERE IS NO, ABSOLUTELY NO REBUKING AN ARGUMENT BASED ON FACTS THAT WILL CALL INTO QUESTION “WHAT OBAMA WILL DO” WITH THE MASSIVE FEDERAL EDUCATION BUDGET. Here’s how the McCain Campaign and GOP ads should go......Throw out all arguments relating to the amount of time and meetings Ayers and Obama spent together.

The ad should then talk about “Walter Annenberg’s foundation offering several hundred million dollars to American public schools in the mid-’90s, and William Ayers appling for $50 million for Chicago. The purpose of his application was to secure funds to “raise political consciousness” in Chicago’s public schools. After he won the grant, Ayers’s group (NOT AYERS HIMSELF....Obama keeps pointing to this fact and it should be irrelevant in the context of this argument anyway) chose Barack Obama to distribute the money, as the Chairman of the Board.

It should highlight that this was actual executive experience that Obama has chosen to avoid highlighting. WHY WOULD OBAMA PURPOSELY HIDE ACTUAL EXECUTIVE EXPERIENCE.....UNLESS HE HAD SOMETHING TO HIDE. HERE’S WHY AND WHAT HE HAD TO HIDE: Between 1995 and 1999, Obama distributed the $50 million and raised another $60 million from other civic groups to augment it. In doing so, he was following Ayers’s admonition (regardless of Ayers continued involvement) to grant the funds to “external” organizations, like American Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) to pair with schools and conduct programs to radicalize the students and politicize them.

Regardless of the fact that Ayers played a lesser role after the founding in 1995, Barack Obama carried out Ayers vision throughout the entire tenure of his involvement (i.e. pumping money into left wing groups to “radicalize students.”) THIS IS WHAT OBAMA WAS HIDING......IS THIS THE TYPE OF EXPENDITURES AMERICA WANTS TO SEE IN THE FEDERAL EDUCATION APPROPRIATIONS IN AN OBAMA ADMINISTRATION?

We need to stop talking about his not being able to lead and start talking about his vision for change’s being the WRONG KIND OF CHANGE. THE INEBRIATED OBAMA DISCIPLES NEED TO BE CAREFUL WHAT THEY ARE ASKING FOR....THEY JUST MIGHT GET IT.....AND THEY NEED TO QUESTION THIS. If they start to question why Obama purposely hid actual executive experience, they will start to question his BS arguments about deregulation causing the current financial crisis, etc. etc. etc.


5 posted on 10/13/2008 6:18:17 PM PDT by Presbyterian Reporter
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To: T.L.Sink; PhilosopherStones; Presbyterian Reporter

BUMP! BUMP! BUMP!


6 posted on 10/13/2008 6:22:59 PM PDT by PGalt
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To: PhilosopherStones
It is interesting that the following false impression continues to be repeated:

"When given a chance to vote to save infants born alive after an abortion, he voted against it."

Actually, what Obama was doing in Illinois was protecting an abortion method known as induced labor abortion, where a very premature child is forced to be born prematurely then left to struggle to breathe unattended, alone, eventually suffocating, as the way to terminate pregancies. On four occasions, Obama worked to prevent any legislation which would extend medical care to these tiny preemies being forced fromt he womb alive to struggle and die by purposed neglect. These were alive, already born children whose question of human rights as born citizens Barack Obama said were above his pay grade ... and he's supposedly a Constitutional lawyer!

In summary, what Obama worked to accomplish in Illinois was the protection for this heinous method for killing Born Alive Children, IOW banning infanticide is something above his pay grade by his own admission. The issue isn't protecting children born after an abortion, it is Obama's protection for a particularly heinous way of killing already born children.

7 posted on 10/13/2008 6:28:32 PM PDT by MHGinTN (Believing they cannot be deceived, they cannot be convinced when they are deceived.)
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To: T.L.Sink

Hmmmmmmmm, think a second about the Annenberg Project.

Bill Ayers recommended Barry Obama for the executive position, right?

A person with any sense (and Bill Ayers must have some because he’s guilty as sin yet walks the earth as if he’s vindicated) doesn’t recommend a total unknown for a position such as the Annenberg Project. Ergo, Bill Ayers and Barry Obama met prior to his lofty position with the Annenberg Project. The most logical point in time would be in NYC when Barry moved there to attend Columbia since Bill lived just two blocks from Barry’s apartment.

Ah Ha. Caught again in his “just someone in my neighborhood” lie.

I’m sure there is SOMEONE from the old neighborhood that Obama’s goons (I quit being politically correct when I retired) did not contact and “persuasively discuss their future (none) if they talked to anyone about Barry” ... whatever his last name was back then.


8 posted on 10/13/2008 6:31:09 PM PDT by HighlyOpinionated (All You Need is Money [Soros] and a Candidate Who Can Be Coached to Look Sincere [Obama]. A. Huxley)
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To: T.L.Sink

The same guy whose own constituents were murdered in a year’s time on a level higher than US troops died in Iraq during a war?

THAT leader?

I wonder who got more of his earmarks over the years, law enforcement, or ACORN?


9 posted on 10/13/2008 7:17:57 PM PDT by HelloooClareece ("We make war that we may live in peace". Aristotle)
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To: PhilosopherStones

Very good list and I agree. Rubin touches a little in her article about McCain being too hesitant to mention some of these things. Personally, I can’t figure out his campaign strategy. The base clearly wants him to attack Obama aggressively but he’s acting like he’s in Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood. Maybe Bill Kristol is right - he should fire his present staff.


10 posted on 10/13/2008 7:23:37 PM PDT by T.L.Sink
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To: madameguinot

Exactly right. “Education” is just a euphemism for indoctrination in a hard-Left curriculum. It’s what “community organizers” and ACORN were doing all over.


11 posted on 10/13/2008 7:28:33 PM PDT by T.L.Sink
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To: Presbyterian Reporter

Thanks. Very good post.


12 posted on 10/13/2008 7:30:02 PM PDT by T.L.Sink
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To: HighlyOpinionated

Yes, somebody should examine all those possible connections and relationships in more detail. We all know the MSM won’t so let’s hope the alternative media will.


13 posted on 10/13/2008 7:34:49 PM PDT by T.L.Sink
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To: HelloooClareece

Yes, THAT one! Remember when McCane said that in the debate, pointing at Obama. “...and THAT one...”? HaHa! I really laughed.


14 posted on 10/13/2008 7:39:11 PM PDT by T.L.Sink
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To: T.L.Sink

We have all seen candidates go down for far less than Obama has done – remember how Howard Dean fell of the radar in the 2004 primaries after the screaming incident in Iowa? A simple inappropriate celebration pushed a man out the running – but someone who could not even get a “security clearance” for a government job can somehow win the White House? How is this happening?


15 posted on 10/13/2008 7:56:19 PM PDT by ChicagoT (God bless McCain & Palin!)
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To: PhilosopherStones

This is GREAT! God knows the McCain camp needs you to help strategize!

Obama and his mindless followers simply make me sick and sad for this country!


16 posted on 10/13/2008 7:57:06 PM PDT by ChicagoT (God bless McCain & Palin!)
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To: ChicagoT

Welllllll... If you know anyone on the McCain campaign, I could use the money!


17 posted on 10/13/2008 7:58:08 PM PDT by PhilosopherStones
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To: Presbyterian Reporter

I agree, strongly. It should fall to Palin as someone with executive experience to talk about Obama’s executive ineffectiveness and wastefullness.


18 posted on 10/13/2008 8:23:06 PM PDT by Poincare
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To: ChicagoT

I admit I’m completely baffled. As a conservative, I’ve tried to put aside personal bias and consider it as objectively as I can. Is it the economy? When it goes bad that certainly always hurts the party of the president in power. But all this started long before the present meltdown. Is it liberalism v. conservatism? McCain is really more a moderate than a strict conservative and Obama has a record of left-radical voting and close associations with truly extremist far-left individuals and groups than any major party candidate in U.S. history. He’s far beyond the the pale of traditional liberalism. Is it the bias of the liberal MSM? Sure, they’re in the tank for Obama BUT when havn’t they supported candidates from the left? I think it’s partly that McCain has been too “nice” and hasn’t aggressively gone after Obama on his extremist record and his close ties to radical individuals - many of whom hate America and are really subversive. At this point the only explanation I can come up with is that too many voters just don’t bother becoming informed about the people and issues and/or are just too tightly locked into their own personal lobbies and special-interest groups. The really scary thing (to me, at least) is that this just isn’t an ordinary election. We have two wars going on that have yet to fully resolved, the nature of what the Supreme Court and much of the federal judiciary will be for perhaps a generation, a financial crisis that could end in a depression if it’s mishandled (especially by Obama’s high taxation agenda and a million new “programs,” etc.,etc.), and a government that will take a giant leap toward socialism (heath care, etc.) with Obama and a Democratic Congress. Want a nightmare to keep you awake? Think of Obama, Reid, and Pelosi running the country!


19 posted on 10/13/2008 9:40:25 PM PDT by T.L.Sink
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To: T.L.Sink

Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda bought stock this morning but didn’t.


20 posted on 10/13/2008 10:21:18 PM PDT by Kevmo (I love that sound and please let that baby keep on crying. ~Sarah Palin)
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