June 2007

The Dumber Obama Complaints

ArchPundit June 19, 2007 11 Comments

The Trib piece on Obama was a silly piece that could have reported facts and instead decided to frame the discussion to pick at Obama not being pure enough.

One of the criticisms of Obama is that he is an institutionalist. I’m baffled by the complaint when we see what happens when a President treats democratic institutions as speed bumps.

I’ll go back to my favorite example–that of Hubert Humprey who was utterly useless as the firebrand speaking truth to power in the Senate until he became an institutionalist and abided by the norms of the Senate. He became far more effective and passed several civil rights bills.

Arguing Obama should have shouted louder says nothing about whether such a strategy would be effective. Given others were shouting loudly, I’m not sure how this would have been effective. Confusing loud for effective is a common mistake amongst many activists.

Steve at Beachwood Reporter responded to AM with a post that makes some good posts, but also makes serious mistakes.

He is campaigning as a change agent with no record of being one; as an anti-war candidate who kept his mouth shut when he had a national stage

And then a reference to Lieberman.  The problem here is that there is no argument as to what shouting louder would accomplish.  With less than a year in the US Senate he offered up a fairly detailed plan regarding reducing US troops and said the Iraq mission had failed.  That’s significant. He also was the guy who opposed the war when everyone said it was a bad idea to oppose it.  That’s not keeping one’s mouth shut, that’s people who weren’t paying attention claiming their lack of attention means he kept his mouth shut.  He’s one of the few US Senators to attend an anti-Iraq war rally for that matter.

It’s beyond me how anyone can honestly look at Obama and see his fictionalized memoir,

Which was written when no one was likely to read it and clearly states that people are fictionalized. Again, what’s the scandal other than adding a laundry list to convince people he’s done horrible things?

phone call to Tony Rezko to help him buy that house

Which is factually incorrect.  Every newspaper that has researched it has found that the properties were separately listed and that Obama had the highest bid on the house.  The facts suggest that the sale itself was very clean–the questions arise on the buying of the strip of land–even if Obama paid above market value.

not putting his stock in a blind trust while posing as the champion of ethics legislation,

It’s unclear what the complaint here is.  Is it that he created an ineffective blind trust in trying to create a new way of doing it or that he isn’t using a blind trust?  There is no requirement for a blind trust for the US Senate.  He ended the attempt at a different type of blind trust after it failed. What’s the scandal?

his mentors being Emil Jones, Rezko, and Joe Lieberman,

And Paul Simon asked for the elder Daley’s blessing.  Lieberman is overblown as there appears to be no affect on Obama’s policies and it was an institutional mentor.  I know it’s popular to jump on Jones for being a patronage pol–which he is–but he’s also a black man who is President of the Illinois Senate and on policy he’s progressive.  Rezko was a funder, not a mentor.  It’s simply throwing his name in again.

his embrace of Dorothy Tillman and Todd Stroger,

And you get this upset when Durbin backs Jerry Costello? Yeah. Thought not.

his reputation in Springfield for being lazy and aloof,

Aloof early on, yes. Lazy no.  He was considered uppity by many because he did try to much.  And he introduced key bills on the minimum wage, EITC, and public funding of judicial elections.

his lackluster record as a U.S. senator

This is just stupid:

One

Two

 Three

Such a lightweight taking on Nuclear Non-Proliferation.

, including keeping his mouth shut about the war,

Which Obama didn’t do.

voting for the Mexican fence

The fence is dumb, but less dumb than corn based ethanol.

and against the credit card interest cap,

Which was introduced by one of the laziest Senators in the last quarter century who never gathered any information about what the bill would impact.  Obama would vote for a bill that was actually researched.

I like Steve and I think he’s one of the better critics of Obama, but as I may not see all the faults, Steve tends to see more than there are.

I Got You Babe Again

ArchPundit June 19, 2007 No Comments

Rezko crap keeps streaming in.

My advice in December was to get it all out and be more than forthcoming beyond what the press expects.  Apparently someone thought that wasn’t a good idea and they keep getting to talk about Rezko.

Something New

ArchPundit June 19, 2007 2 Comments

Obama’s Campaign has a major fuck-up.  The key to understanding the Senator from Punjab line is in Rich’s comments and posts:

First 

Whoever ordered this racist/xenophobic hit on Clinton needs to be fired. Right away. And I don’t mean the person who wrote it. From what I understand, the first draft was much more acceptable, but it was rejected and sent back with a demand that it be infinitely tougher. If the author is fired and the person who ordered the rewrite is not, then Obama is a huge hypocrite. The full memo is here.

Two 

There is certainly no record of over-the-top racial or xenophobic smears by Obama himself, but there is with at least one guy on his staff, who my sources say was the one who rejected the original Punjab piece and then ordered it massively toughened up.

More here, here and here. That ought to take care of your Macaca qualms. If they had called her “Hillary (D-Harlem)” or “Hillary (D-Chinatown)” it would have been no different, regardless of any mild throwaway joke she might have made about herself. The fact that Punjab has been used as an ethnic/racial slur just makes it worse, regardless of the intent.

Rich seems to be saying it was Robert Gibbs.  I hope not. I like Robert and he’s generally a good guy, though he does get a bit too harsh in races.  However, assuming Rich has his reporting correct, and he usually does, the piece was sent back to toughen it up and Rich seems to be pointing that it was Gibbs who ordered that. Regardless of who did, the person who did needs to be fired.  It’s not what the Obama campaign is supposed to be about.