Obama: Chicago Corruption, Terrorists

Obama and His Unsavory Political Pals

The steps bloggers and other onliners must take for McCain-Palin to win in November . . . Note, if you'd like to read my pieces on Hillary Clinton as a classic "Abused Woman," please go to http://hillarysupportersformccain.blogspot.com.

For the most part, I couldn't agree more with Paul Z. -- bloggers need to be coordinated rather than consolidated. I would add that we also need to be more focused, not trying for revelations on 100 different issues. Obama's murky position on Jerusalem is one of those that will take 10,000 hours and get us 100 votes.

In a sense, we need to be brtual with OURSELVES, determining if our "pet" issue is really one that matters outside ur household. We have to know exactly what we're doing and be able to determine if it's going to win us votes. With me, it has been the Rev. Wright issue. Wright is an America-hater, a hater of White People, and a malicious liar. Obama spent 20 years in his Church, pressumably hooting and hollering along with the rest of the congregation.

Frankly, we can't assume that something that may be important to some pro-Isreael voters (Israel-hater Rashid Khalidi, for example) is significant to anyone else. I fear the same is true with Raila Odinga -- almost no one knows who he is. If he lived in Chicago, we'd be fine. When we have to tell people that they "should be interested in this or that," we've lost the battle.

The fact that Obama had the most liberal voting record in the Senate (and Biden was the third-most liberal) is clear and easy for people to understand. They are both socialists whose political philosophies are basically to buy votes with other people's money.

i suggest we also, focus on Obama's connections with unsavory characters, primarily Ayers and Wright. I do believe it's also an issue that Obama and his main allies in Congress have been recipients of huge donations from most of the housing and financial services companies connected with the financial crisis.

But again, Obama's "birth certificate" is not going to decide votes, even if it should. Obama's huge donations from Tony Rezko are important as part of his connection with unsavory characters throughout his political lifetime.

Obama's long connections with voter fraud -- ACORN -- could become a major issue. Sean Hannity has a program on it tonight (Sunday) on FOX News. It's already viral on the Internet.

Voter fraud is important because it's a way of stealing the value of honest people's votes.

As bloggers, we have to stop trying for exotic "home runs." We need to focus on a few issues that can determine the election. Obama/Axelrod would dearly love to send us on wild goose chases. We must resist the temptation.

Willie Horton, ONE issue, destroyed the Dukakis candidacy. The Swift Boat allegations, really one issue, destroyed Kerry. I'm sure there were hundreds of other "issues" in those campaigns. None of them amounted to a hill of beans. On the image above: I'd leave out Khalidi and Mansour, except in passing. Ayers and Wright should be the focus.

Obama Knee-Deep in Financial Crisis

As this week goes on, you'll read a great deal here about how rogue financial institutions have been pouring money into the coffers of Barack H. Obama, not only in the presidential election but earlier in his U.S. Senate race. Obama's hand has been in every cookie jar on Wall Street.

It's important to go to http://opensecrets.org in order to do some serious research on Obama's fundraising, including this year and his 2004 Senate race. Obama, after Chris Dodd, was the biggest recipient of donations from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and his economic adviser, Franklin Raines, was a major architect of the financial disaster. So, too, was Jim Johnson, who (briefly) headed Obama's V-P search team. McCain is exploiting this.

But a key point to bring out how many millions (tens of millions?) Obama has received from financial firms, not only Fannie and Freddie, but also Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and many, many other firms whose hands are dirty in the recent financial events. Goldman Sachs has treated Obama like the world's most expensive mistress.

Bloggers and other onliners: We need to concentrate on issues that will ring a bell with the American people and avoid ones that mainly academic exercises. The fact that Obama has received millions from people who caused the economic crisis will resonate.

Also, Obama is pulling out of one state after another -- North Dakota, Montana, Alaska (of course), Georgia, and, soon, North Carolina. That is not a sign of a candidate who's doing well. People are figuring out that this is a guy who raises lots of money from people of questionable character, starting with Tony Rezko.

The most important things all of us can do between now and the election are: (1) tell family and friends we support McCain/Palin (and why); (2) Go to McCain's Online Phone Bank and make as many calls as you can. You can get to the Phone Bank by clicking on the following: http://johnmccain.com/PhoneBank/NoPhoneBank.aspx.

On your phone calls, give your name and location, be e, be firm (in your support of John and Sarah), and be relatively brief. Thank people for their support of McCain-Palin.

Obama: A Campaign Unravelling

Hillary Clinton giving advice to her door-to-door campaign workers in Philadelphia, April 19: "Well, I think, just knock on the door and say 'She's really nice,' or you could say it another way, 'She's not as bad as you think.'"

"Seventeen percent of Pennsylvania voters said they will either not vote if Mrs. Clinton gets the nomination or will vote for Mr. McCain; 25% said they will do likewise if Mr. Obama wins the nomination." (The Economist, April 26 - May 2, 2008)

If Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee, he absolutely must prevail in Pennsylvania -- the nation's sixth largest state -- if he hopes to win the election. But the exit polls in the recent primary show that the Illinois Senator is unlikely to win the Keystone State.

Consider the views of Catholic voters -- about one-third of registered Democrats -- in Pennsylvania. Of the ones who voted in the primary, six-out-of-10 say they'd vote for Obama in the general election. However, more than two-out-of-10 (21%) say they'll vote for John McCain.

Among white voters, almost one-in-six (16%) said that race had an influence on their vote. And of those, nearly one-in-twelve (8%-plus) said they would not vote for Obama in November.

When Gov. Ed Rendell make a similar observation months ago, he was condemned as uttering racially insensitive comments. Insensitive? Perhaps. Correct? Absolutely.

In the Pennsylvania exit polls, many Democrats made sarcastic references to Obama's "bitter" comments (about people clinging to religion, guns, racism, and xenophobia). Some of those voters joked that they were much too "bitter" ever to vote for Obama. Others, according to The Economist, accused Obama of "clinging" to a religious figure (Rev. Jeremiah Wright) notable for hating America and white people.

Especially in Rust Belt States (including Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Jersey, and Michigan), Obama has a real problem attracting white voters. According to the Senator's campaign managers, that's because the the voters don't "know" him.

But whose fault is that? Many Caucasians are evaluating Obama on the principle that you know a man by the company he keeps. As long as that company includes Rev. Wright, terrorist William Ayers, and influence-buyer Tony Rezko, the electorate doesn't like what it sees.

Obama's problems run deep. For example, four weeks ago -- as the Wright controversy -- approached white heat, Obama delivered what his minders called "a major speech on race." I saw the entire speech and paid careful attention, but now -- less than a month later -- I can't recall a single phrase. Can you?

Obama Helped Cause Sub-Prime Crisis

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/JerryBowyer/2008/04/06/how_community_organizers_like_obama_created_the_subprime_crisis

How 'Community Organizers' (like Obama) Created the Subprime Crisis

By Jerry Bowyer

I wrote to you previously (Meet Barry Obama, 'Fair Housing' Lawyer) about the Community Reinvestment Act, a law which compels banks to make home loans in minority neighborhoods to people who were poor credit risks. Although the CRA is well known in the financial industry, political pundits and reporters often know very little about finance and so have missed this extremely important aspect of the story.

Ignorance of economics doesn't help much either. The political class seems blissfully unaware of the concept of unintended consequences which is the idea that laws which are designed to make our lives better often make our lives worse.

On a recent edition of Kudlow and Company, I debated Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders on precisely this point. He seemed not only to disagree with my point that if congress compels banks to make Subprime loans, then they share responsibility for the crisis that results when the borrowers default; he seemed not to understand it. For him once we identify the target group as bankers, nothing else matters - they're bad and he's good, no more reasoning is necessary.

It's not just Congress that's responsible. Yes, they forged the weapons, but some army needed to wield them. That's where guys like Barry Obama came in to the picture. When Barry (who was gradually changing his name to Barack around this time) graduated from Columbia, he took a brief stint as a researcher writing for a corporate consulting firm. According to his memoirs he thought of himself as 'a spy' who was dropped 'behind enemy lines'.

Shortly thereafter, he left the enemy territory of corporate America and moved to a job about which he could feel proud - he went to work for the New York branch of the Public Interest Research Group. PIRG is one of those left of center activist groups who, among other things, uses the legitimate concept of 'fair housing' to force banks into making bad loans. PIRG has actively lobbied for a stronger (yes, you guessed it) Community Reinvestment Act.

According to his bio, and accounts from friends, Obama became an expert in real estate law and fair housing while working as a community organizer and public interest lawyer. This is especially the case during his Chicago period. After graduating from law school Barack worked for various community groups which were attempting to get black churches politically involved in left-of-center causes. He was hired because the Developing Communities Project, which was headed by two older Jewish gentlemen, was having trouble making headway in the black community.

By then, the name change to Barack was complete and so was the shift to an Afro-centric identity. Barack was a natural. He was able to play upon crowds' sense of racial identity, castigating black audiences for their failure to embrace the right policies, but offering hope to them in the form of his own leadership. He joined a prominent Afro-centric church at this time, headed by Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Eventually Barack joined the civil rights law firm, Miner, Ballard and Galland, where he specialized in fair housing. That's where he did work for the (now indicted) Syrian-born entrepreneur Tony Rezko.

Rezko was a very powerful and politically connected urban real estate developer who did quite a lot of business with the government. Rezko helped Barack go from public interest lawyer to State Senator. And Rezko didn't just help Barack into the upper legislative house, he helped him into his family house as well. One wonders to what degree Rezko was helped by low-income-sub-prime-lending-fair-housing-industrial complex of urban Chicago. For all the details we may need to wait for the Rezko trial.

One thing, however, is perfectly clear already. Obama spent his pre-elected career working right in the middle of the complex of law firms and activist groups which use law and regulations to push banks into vastly increasing their lending to Subprime borrowers right in the middle of the golden age of the expansion of the Subprime industry.
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Mr. Bowyer is chief economist of BenchMark Financial Network and a CNBC contributor.

Barack Obama's Unsavory Financial Dealings

TOMORROW: I'LL HAVE A COLUMN CALLED "WHITHER GOEST HILLARY CLINTON?", a Discussion of the diminishing number of options available to her. As far as "whither," her campaign, an ill-conceived one, is slowly "withering." However, I believe she has some very damaging information Obama, and the question is: will she release it? I expect she will have a big win in Ohio and a narrow win in Texas, as well as a solid win in Rhode Island. As far as "The People's Republic of Vermont," who knows? Mrs. Clinton has a very narrow window leading to the nomination, and if she doesn't win both Ohio and Texas that window will slam shut. People in the MSM still have a hard time grasping that fact, because they are the ones who long ago proclaimed Hillary The Inevitable Winner. So much for inevitability. Obama would be the most under-qualified presidential candidate since Ohio's Warren Gamaliel Harding, also a silver-tongued orator but an exemplar of cluelessness when it came to being President. He was, however, wise enough to die during his first (and last) term, thereby enabling a better man to become President: "Silent" Calvin Coolidge of Vermont. On the strange picture below, is it just me, or is Obama appearing increasingly anorexic?

Tim Russert, Keith Olberman, Wolf Blitzer, and Chris Matthews award Barack Obama 2008 Heisman Trophy! Michelle Obama is early favorite in Las Vegas odds for Mrs. America! This site provides some of the best humorous pictures of the wildly overrated Senator Obama. If you have any good photos, please send them along to me at: TalkTop65@aol.com.

Today, Chicago "fixer" Tony Rezko, Obama's friend since 1990, goes on trial in Chicago for federal corruption charges. You probably haven't heard much about Mr. Rezko, a major contributor to Obama's 2004 campaign for the U.S. Senate. In a recent debate, Mrs. Clinton mentioned Rezko as a Chicago "slumlord" and a buddy of Obama. That was the first time most Americans had heard of the man, who's been a constant political presence during the Illinois Senator's career.

How corrupt are Illinois politics? In fact, three of the previous seven governors have spent time in federal prison. The current governor looks as if he's trying hard to make it four-out-of-eight.

MSNBC had a story this morning (Monday) about Rezko's trial. Of course, the network had a banner indicating that Senator Obama of course had nothing to do with the bribery and sweetheart deals engaged in by Rezko. However, aside from the the two Chicago dailies and a Boston weekly paper, the media generally have avoided any careful examination of the relationship between Rezko and Senator Obama.

Recently, Cincinnati talk-show host Willie Cunningham called Obama "a Chicago political hack." John McCain repudiated Cunningham's remarks, but they don't appear to be far from the truth. In his Senate campaign, Obama raised an amazing amount: $14.5 million.

Much of that money came from unsavory characters, including the relentlessly anti-American Soros family, billionaires who "earned" their money through financial speculation. (See information about Obama's fundraising at http://opensecrets.org/. At opensecrets.org you can also find records of the millions the Soros family has poured into the campaigns of left-wing Democrats over the past decade-and-a-half.)

Here's the link to the Soros families' massive contributions: http://www.opensecrets.org/indivs/search.asp?key=CB5VB&txtName=Soros&txtState=(all%20states)&txtAll=Y&Order=N

Of course, Obama's national finance director in his presidential effort is one Penny Pritzker, a member of a fabulously wealthy Chicago family. As a board member of a major Chicago financial institution (Superior Bank), Ms. Pritzer played a significant role in the subprime mortgage crisis. Check the following link re Ms. Pritzker: http://www.bostonnow.com/blogs/oldmole/2008/02/12/obama-campaign-finance-chair-involved-in-superior-bank-sampl-scandal

If you want to read more about Obama's interesting financial dealings, please go "Samantha's" site at: http://democratsforsale.blogspot.com/.

Obama has received heavy contributions from organized labor, which is the biggest donor in American politics. What do the Senator's union buddies receive for their money? If you go to the section on Obama in Michael Barone's The Almanac of American Politics, you'll find that Obama's AFSCME (American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees) rating for 2005-2007 is 100%. That means he never deviates from the public employees' stance on issues.

Of course, one of Obama's main tactics in soliciting votes is to suggest that he will "reach across the aisle" to work with Republicans. However, his record demonstrates no such tendency. He is the farthest left-wing member of the U.S. Senate in a country that's relentlessly moderate in its views.

Of course, Obama claims Tony Rezko didn't get anything for his contributions and a sweetheart land deal. Yeah, sure, right. The place to look in Obama's record is the 130 times he voted "present" in the Illinois State Senate, something that's never been clarified. The question is: how many of those votes benefited Tony Rezko?