Just a Guy in Barack’s Neighborhood
By Pat Racimora on May 7, 2008 at 6:28 PM in Barack Obama, Chicago politics, Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., Tony Rezko, Weather Underground, William Ayers
Barack Obama is running on his “judgment” and “integrity in government.” He tells us that Washington is broken, and he is the one who can fix it. But looking back at his fast rise up out of the slime of Chicago politics, one can legitimately question where he got the “creds” to fulfill what he professes.
Rev. Wright has probably used up most of his 15 minutes of fame. But why Obama chose to attend and financially support a church whose religious leader screeched anti-American diatribes remains unclear. However, far more telling about Obama’s character is his statement that he could no more disown Rev. Wright than he could disown the Black community, followed shortly thereafter by tossing him into a ditch when Wright resurfaced spewing essentially the same old rants. What firm commitments would he make as President that are subsequently turned upside down? What impact would such 180 degree turnarounds have on our people or our country?
Tony Rezko, major fund-raiser and house hunting-purchasing companion remains on trial (as of this writing) for wire fraud, bribery, money laundering, and attempted extortion. But enough is out there to expose Rezko for lining his own pockets at the expense of the poor who lived in the slums of Obama’s state senate district.
Obama gave the estimated $250,000 bundled by Rezko to charity, but that doesn’t erase the relationship itself, nor does Obama’s characterization of the home-lot-buying caper as “boneheaded” expunge this bizarre transaction from the record. What other “boneheaded” decisions would Obama make as President, and what will the consequences be?
However, to me the relationship that will ensure that Obama could never win a general election is his complex business-political-friendship with Bill Ayers and wife, Bernadine Dohrn. These unrepentant home-grown terrorists of yesteryear, whose group planned and set off bombs at the Capital, Pentagon and other buildings resulting in several deaths, were instrumental in getting Obama’s career off the ground. [Note: Ayers was never tried for the crimes he has never denied committing, because of a violation in FBI surveillance tactics.] Obama is trying to discount his relationship with this couple as casual, but numerous reports suggest that it was otherwise.
Obama’s campaign excels at word-spinning, especially the art of the ambiguous. To wit is his answer to George Stephanopoulos’ questioning during the recent debate on ABC about the extent of the relationship, Obama replied: “This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood… He’s not somebody I exchange ideas with on a regular basis.” What is “regular?” It sure isn’t “never.” Upon reviewing their mutual involvements over many years, it is clear that Ayers and Dohrn are not just a couple who Obama waves to while out walking the dog.
Before I get labeled as a traitor to the Democratic Party by creating another cartoon that questions the judgment of the individual who could be our nominee for President, let me assure you that my single concern is wanting a Democrat to move into the White House in January of 2009. Obama says that Clinton has attacked him. Well, he hasn’t seen anything yet! The Republicans already think Christmas is coming in June.
When they run McCain on a national security theme, the Ayers relationship, in particular, will play out in ways that will devastate Obama’s candidacy. Republicans are unconcerned with the fact that Obama was only 8 years old when the bombs exploded. Images of that devastation, followed by highly disturbing images of 9/11, paired with the details of the relationship between the two men will be broadcast repeatedly into everyone’s living room. I don’t make this stuff up—it’s all out there already.
The only remaining question is, “Will the Super Delegates see the neon-bright writing on the wall in time?”
by Ronald Scott
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