Quibbles and Bits – Aug 26
By LisaB on August 27, 2008 at 2:30 AM in Current Affairs
1) USAToday has an article outlining Obama’s friendship with Bill Ayers. Not much new to NQ readers, but perhaps to those not fully engaged in the election process yet. The article does talk about the American Issues Project, a 527 producing an ad about the relationship.
American Issues Project spokesman Christian Pinkston says Ayers’ influence is an open question, but “it’s hard to see how one actually could resolve having any sort of relationship with an admitted, remorseless domestic terrorist.”
The ad notes that Weathermen bombed the Capitol and asks why Obama would “be friends with someone who bombed the Capitol and is proud of it?”Read the rest ->
•In 1995, Ayers hosted a brunch for Obama, who was running for the Illinois Senate.
The ad says this meeting launched Obama’s political career. Quentin Young, a physician who was there, says it was a typical Hyde Park event and to imply otherwise is “guilt by simultaneously being in the same place.”
•In 1997, they were on a juvenile justice panel sponsored by the University of Chicago. They were on a 2002 panel on intellectualism that was co-sponsored by the Chicago Public Library.
•In 1997, the Chicago Tribune published a blurb from Obama about books he was reading. Obama said he was reading Ayers’ A Kind and Just Parent: The Children of Juvenile Court.
•From 1999-2002, both men were on the board of the Woods Fund, a Chicago foundation that makes grants to arts and civic groups. Obama left the board in 2002; Ayers remains on it.
Laura Washington, chairwoman of the Woods Fund board, says suggestions of close ties are “an attempt to demonize Bill as a way of damaging Barack Obama.”
•Ayers gave $200 to Obama’s 2001 state Senate campaign.
2) The Corner, at NRO, has an interesting bit. As usual, it’s not the crime; it’s the cover-up.
Here’s Obama’s problem with regard to Ayers. When he was asked directly, Obama described Ayers as just a guy who lives in his neighborhood. We know that’s not accurate. Before we get to the place where we can ask, “Why does Barack Obama have a relationship with an unrepentant terrorist?” we have to ask, “Why is Barack Obama not being forthcoming about his relationship?”
3) The Sun-Times continues to follow the Rezko scandal back in Chicago. Apparently, Rezko’s sentencing date is now Oct. 28 – a week before the general election.
4) Also at the Sun-Times is a follow-up story to the “Uncle Tom” kerfluffle. An AA Hillary supporter, Delmarie Cobb, says Emil Jones, AA IL state senator and political mentor to Obama, called her an “Uncle Tom.”
Just in case you don’t know, calling someone an “Uncle Tom” is pretty much dropping the bomb in the AA community. So, today, the Sun-Times reports that the IL leader of NOW called for Jones to resign.
“I’ve never heard anything as awful or as sexist or as racist as to call her that for supporting Hillary,” said Clinton delegate Gay Bruhn, another NOW member in Illinois who called for a public apology from Jones.
Jones tried to play off the comment as “doubting Thomas,” but there were witnesses who aren’t buying THAT.
“Last night, I was called an ‘Uncle Tom’ by Emil Jones in the lobby of the hotel, right in front of [Ald.] Freddrenna Lyle and [Ald.] Leslie Hairston and [Ald.] Latasha Thomas,” Cobb told the Sun-Times on Sunday. “I walked over to him and asked him, ‘What did you just call me?”
Lyle, alderman of the South Side’s 6th Ward, said she was standing with Jones when the conversation took place in the hotel lobby, but she dismissed it as Jones engaging in harmless banter with someone he knows, although Lyle said she told him, “Emil, that’s bad even for you.”
Another of the aldermen who was standing in the lobby added, “He said it in jest.”
The mayor later supported Jones’ version of the event.As the embarrassing episode rippled through the Illinois delegation here, Mayor Daley, weighed in and suggested Jones simply misspoke.
“I think it’s a misuse of words. There’s no ‘Uncle Toms,’ anybody supporting Hillary, Obama. It’s just a mischoice of words,” the mayor said.
Awwww. Boys will be boys, won’t they?
5) Rasmussen has a stunning poll out.
Nearly half of Democratic women (47%) say Barack Obama should have chosen Hillary Clinton for his running mate instead of Senator Joseph Biden as the former First Lady prepares to speak tonight at the Democratic National Convention. Thirty-nine percent (39%) disagree.
But a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that a sizable majority (57%) of Democratic women believe that Obama is the Democratic candidate who will do best against John McCain in the November election.
OK, so nearly half say Obama should have chosen Hillary. ANd JUST OVER half said he is the best Democratic candidate? That’s a lot of women who feel Obama is NOT the best candidate. . . .
6) Realclearpolitics echos this.
A new USA Today/Gallup Poll finds that only half of Clinton’s primary supporters say they “definitely” will vote for Obama. A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll put the number at 52 percent. More alarmingly for Obama is the 30 percent of those polled who claim they will vote for McCain, someone else or just stay home.
When discussing the Biden pick, the author includes this bit.
And there is a noteworthy difference between Biden and Clinton: The loquacious Biden entertained the press corps for a handful of primary debates before dropping out; Hillary persuaded 18 million primary voters to support her.
So then why not Clinton? If you erode your theme of “change” by choosing a longtime Washington insider, why not pick the one who can unite your party?
Perhaps a clue can be found in the words of Nancy Pelosi, who said Democrats need to “begin anew.” At a convention that will feature Jimmy Carter, Al Gore, John Kerry, Joe Biden and maybe Ted Kennedy (in order of most annoying), who can argue?
“__________ we can believe in.”
7) Bob I-see-phalluses-everywhere Herbert of the NYT, sees racism in the polls, in anyone not voting for Obama and in old white people in general.
Surmounting it will be tough. Not only do the polls show this to be a close race, but the polls, when it comes to Senator Obama, cannot be trusted. It is frequently the case that a statistically significant percentage of white voters will lie to pollsters — or decline to state their preference — in races in which one candidate is black and the other white.
That is offensive on so many levels, I don’t know where to begin. But, he goes one further:
The race issue can come up in peculiar and jolting ways. After hearing that some union voters had openly wondered about Senator Obama’s possible “demise,” I asked Dan Hammersmith, president of Unite Here Local 748 in Grand Rapids, if workers were really talking about whether Mr. Obama could survive as president.
—————————
Over the weekend The Detroit Free Press ran a chart showing how people responded when asked if they agreed with the statement that “there are people who want to hurt Barack Obama because of his race and sometimes I fear for his safety.”Fifty-seven percent agreed.
Hmmmmm. First Herbert says polls aren’t useful and white people lie all the time. Then he ends his piece with a “pithy” little comment about a local newspaper “poll.”
But we’re supposed to believe THAT poll implicitly and believe it shows Obama in mortal danger from racists.
So, Herbert continues to stoke the white = racist theme AND the assassination theme. Stay classy Bob.
, the basis for the Best Motion Picture Nominee (Golden Globes) starring Brad Pitt.
, the novel by John Le Carre, a new motion picture starring Gary Oldman and Colin Firth.
by 
* (Included in the 
* 
.by David Fredosso who wrote 2008's 
- You'll have access to 18 million movies, TV shows, songs, magazines, and books, as well as ultra-fast Web browsing with Amazon Silk -- faster than iPad. Full e-mail and document access and a keyboard. Fire can transmit what is on your screen onto a connected TV or monitor without an accessory. It runs Flash (iPad doesn't). 
