Would Barack Obama Hire Barack Obama?
By Larry Johnson on November 13, 2008 at 3:47 PM in Current Affairs
Barack Obama is Jewish. Who knew? How else to explain today’s demonstration of chutzpah in action. (For the goyim among us, “chutzpah” in Hebrew is used indignantly, to describe someone who has over-stepped the boundaries of accepted behavior with no shame.) What am I talking about? Did you see the application that Barack is requiring prospective workers in his Administration to fill out. According to the NY Times:
A seven-page questionnaire being sent by the office of President-elect Barack Obama to those seeking cabinet and other high-ranking posts may be the most extensive — some say invasive — application ever.
The questionnaire includes 63 requests for personal and professional records, some covering applicants’ spouses and grown children as well, that are forcing job-seekers to rummage from basements to attics, in shoe boxes, diaries and computer archives to document both their achievements and missteps.
Only the smallest details are excluded; traffic tickets carrying fines of less than $50 need not be reported, the application says. Applicants are asked whether they or anyone in their family owns a gun. They must include any e-mail that might embarrass the president-elect, along with any blog posts and links to their Facebook pages.
The application also asks applicants to “please list all aliases or ‘handles’ you have used to communicate on the Internet.”
The vetting process for executive branch jobs has been onerous for decades, with each incoming administration erecting new barriers in an effort to avoid the mistakes of the past, or the controversies of the present. It is typically updated to reflect technological change (there was no Facebook the last time a new president came to town).
But Mr. Obama has elevated the vetting even beyond what might have been expected, especially when it comes to applicants’ family members, in a reflection of his campaign rhetoric against lobbying and the back-scratching, self-serving ways of Washington.
As a first start, let’s ask Barack to fill out one of these.
Here’s the link for the pdf version (could this possibly be a hoax? can they really be this obtuse?).
Let’s find out what his grades were in college. Let’s find out when and why he changed his name from Barry to Barack. This would certainly put to rest the furor in some sectors over the still missing certificate of live birth. You got to admit that this is a funny as hell chutzpah moment.






















