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Blagojevich & Ethics: Barack Obama’s Public Relations Problem

By Truthteller on December 24, 2008 at 5:30 PM in Current Affairs

(bumped up by Susan from this morning)

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Not yet inaugurated, fierce Blagojevich supporter and Daley puppet Barack Obama already has a public relations problem as a result of his staff’s questionable engagement with Governor Rod Blagojevich, the man who attempted to sell Obama’s Senate seat to the highest bidder. According to a Rasmussen Reports poll conducted on December 11-12, 2008 , the country was split over whether or not Obama or his aides were involved in the Blagojevich scandal.

How likely is it that President-elect Obama or one of his top campaign aides was involved in the Blagojevich scandal?
Very Likely 23%
Somewhat Likely 22%
Not Very Likely 35%
Not at all Likely 11%
Not Sure 10%

45% thought Obama or one of his campaign aides was involved in the scandal on 11-12 DEC, while 46% did not think they were implicated. But this has changed.

According to a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll released today, more Americans believe Obama or one of his aides engaged in inappropriate conduct with Blagojevich than they did on 11-12 DEC 2008, a clear sign that voters are not swallowing the equivocations and prevarications of the Obama campaign hook, line and sinker.

Obama aides did something illegal 12%
Obama aides did not act illegally but behaved unethically 36%
Obama aides did nothing wrong 43%

What was a statistically even split on 11-12 DEC has now become a statistically significant consensus that Obama’s aides and, by implication, Obama did at least behave unethically when they communicated information about Barack Obama’s Senate seat to Blagojevich and Blagojevich’s aides during the month of November.

Sources claim Rahm Emanuel’s voice was recorded 21 times during the investigation of Blagojevich’s latest “pay to play” scheme, and we also know Emanuel submitted a list of candidates Obama approved to Blagojevich’s office during the month of November.

Obama will claim his internal review of his staff’s engagement with that of Blagojevich clears them of any wrongdoing. And Obama and his staff will make this claim the night before Christmas Eve at 4:30pm EST, when Emanuel is on his way to Africa and Obama is preparing for a memorial ceremony for his grandmother. Because neither will be available for questions, one can only surmise this is a coordinated attempt to bamboozle the American people. Americans are not so easily duped, however. Indeed, they understand that Obama investigating himself is not an actual investigation. This explains why an increasing number of Americans believe Obama and his staff behaved unethically.

48% to 43%: those are not numbers an incoming President desires to see before he is inaugurated. Indeed, it is difficult for a politician to be effective when a plurality of Americans view him and his administration as unethical. I guess change is something in which many cannot believe, especially when that change is promised by a career politician who again and again proves he is nothing more than a machine politician complicit with all that is wrong with Washington, DC.