Part 4: Encore
And finally,...
This last entry is taken from The Case Against Barack Obama by David Freddoso. This is the last segment of his book that simply throws many of the facts together to create somewhat of a short summary regarding "the case" against Obama.
Hope. Change. Do you hope that Barack Obama will change politics if he becomes president?
On what grounds?
If Barack Obama is a reformer, he could be the first one ever to become president of the United States having done almost nothing different in the name of reform. Consider: What has he really changed? In a positive way?
He did not change Chicago politics. You can't reform a town like that by becoming a "Soldier for Stroger." By endorsing crooked Machine politicians who reward their campaign donors and doorknockers with government salary. By backing a mayor whose aides and appointees sell city contracts in exchange for campaign contributions. By endorsing an alderman who pulls a gun on her colleagues. By failing to endorse the rare candidate who has a chance to win and change something in Cook County. By covering up for the excesses of the Chicago's Teacher's Union, knowing just how abysmal the city's public education is. By earmarking funds for a radical Catholic priest who encourages blacks to hate whites.
Obama did nothing to change politics in Springfield. You can't reform a state like Illinois by voting "present" 130 times to avoid controversial issues. By teaming up with a state Senate Majority Leader whose main concern appears to be placing every member of his family somewhere on the state payroll. By backing for statewide office a financier whose family bank lends money to organized crime. By negotiating to minimize the impact of welfare reform. By writing letters to get state grants for someone who just put 112,000 in your bank account. By co-sponsoring nearly any bill that helps Tony Rezko and his friends make money from the taxpayers for building uninhabitable slums where residents roam and sewage backs up in the kitchen sinks.
Obama certainly has not changed politics in Congress. You can't reform Washington by earmarking a million dollars for you wife's employer after they double her salary. By voting to throw away money on ethanol, farm subsidies, and the Bridge to Nowhere while much of New Orleans is still underwater. By reaching across the aisle on ethics reform, only to pull your hand back and bury it in your pocket. By earmarking funds for your campaign contributors. By suddenly deciding it's time to leave Iraq only once you start running for president.
It's not that Barack Obama is a bad person. It's just that he's like all the rest of them. Not a reformer. Not a messiah. Just like all the rest of them in Washington. And just like all the other liberals, too. That's not entirely true, though-most liberals in Congress know more than Obama does about foreign policy and how diplomacy works. Most of them-nearly all of them-believe that babies have a right to medical care once they have been born alive.
Obama's radical ties don't make him a radical. His ties to Communists do not make him a Communist. His ties to a terrorist don't even make him a terrorist. But his continued relationships with radicals throughout his public life show an important influence in Obama's public career. What ideas are so important to Barack Obama that he desperately seeks approval of Black Commentator and the New Party, but drops the Democratic Leadership Council as if it were a molten porcupine?
These connections do not disqualify Obama from the presidency. But they do raise questions about his judgement. By what criteria does a man choose his friends and end up with the likes of Tony Rezko, Jeremiah Wright, and Bill Ayers? How does he choose his advisers and end up with people who chat with terrorists, advocate reparations for slavery, and praise Hugo Chavez as a champion of democracy?
What sort of nominations does such a man make as president? What kind of diplomacy does he pursue, given that so much of diplomacy consists of reading, understanding, and judging others' intentions and character?
This is why these ties deserve scrutiny. If Barack Obama becomes president, his good judgement, or lack thereof, will affect the entire country.
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