Sharper focus on Obama
SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS: The event over, the candidate has answered reporters' questions and it seems to be - I have been attending these events off and on for some time now - that the atmosphere is sharper than it was.
I noticed as the local reporters were doing their stand-ups in the crowd, as Obama pressed the flesh, that phrases like "questions being asked" etc were floating around the room. And at the presser, the first question was about NAFTA and the contacts that Obama had or did not have with the Canadian government (he is accused of giving the Canadians winks and nods regarding his desire to see NAFTA re-negotiated) - and the second was about Tony Rezko! He kept his cool but he is, in these final moments, on the defensive...
is not entirely hostile but asks searching questions.
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Really? I count a grand total of two questions in that entire piece and one of those is asking whether we should be scrutinising Obama's lobbyists more closely (the other is about Mrs Rezco).
Beyond that the piece is about Mr Rezco and his ties to a dodgy Syrian developer.
What I don't see here, beyond the "boneheaded" property deal, are any specific allegations of wrongdoing or any questions about Obama's ties to Rezco.
Mr. Fund wants a press conference. Super. What questions does he intend to ask exactly?
Hmmm...Why are such issues being raised now??...why wasn't there more scrutiny on this before??
If all candidates must be "whiter than white", seems more like a conspiracy to "not emphasis" such issues untill all other candidates have been eliminated. Thus tripping up Obama at the last hurdle...or is this mild paranoia??
Hmmm...Why are such issues being raised now??...why wasn't there more scrutiny on this before??
If all candidates must be "whiter than white", seems more like a conspiracy to "not emphasis" such issues untill all other candidates have been eliminated. Thus tripping up Obama at the last hurdle...or is this mild paranoia??
Time to go back. To flip back the pages. To the time before now. To the way things used to be.
You know, to that time when Obama was involved with Rezko.
The scrutiny originates from the "Texas Two-Step" a.k.a. the Prima-Caucus which could result in Obama obtaining the Democratic nomination.
Perhaps the whiff of power these reporters hold finally was processed by some brains?
I still don't get it. Papers write each week about this story and complain each week that Obama's not being scrutinised. Must a politician be sullied by press before it can be said the press is fair? Where there's nothing to call home, please, don't write anything. Obama may have skeletons in his cupboard but please do find them before writing. This is not one of them and do deal with the fact that you may not find any good one.
John Kecsmar (#2) Welcome to Clinton politics. If people think the dy'nasty' of Clinton-Bush is going to end with Obama, you haven't looked back,...Four years Bush (1st)Eight Years Bill, Eight Years GW, now we WILL have eight years Hill, then Eight years Jeb followed by Eight years Clinton daughter Chelse. Now this IS paranoia!!
The questions have been asked continuously but Obama never fully responds. Why would a slumlord, Rezko, just hand over a $300,000 lot to Obama? What did Obama do for him in return? Do you have friends who just hand over $300,000 to you? Why won't Obama answer? Because he's not Mr. Clean and he is still hiding some very dirty dealings.
I still don't get it. Papers write each week about this story and complain each week that Obama's not being scrutinised. Must a politician be sullied by press before it can be said the press is fair? Where there's nothing to call home, please, don't write anything. Obama may have skeletons in his cupboard but please do find them before writing. This is not one of them and do deal with the fact that you may not find any good one.
I think that a line from a commerical in the 1980's sums up Obama, "where's the beef !"
When shall we begin to unveil the questionable relationships, winks and secrets of the Clinton camp? Or better yet the "deals" she and her husband collaborated on with "sketchy" characters? I'm sure that pandora's box will lead to more than two questions.
The most "searching" questions are never asked - let alone answered. If they were, Chicago-style machine politics with its endemic corruption wouldn't have endured as long as it has. And it wouldn't be possible for an unknown neophyte like Obama Copacabana to br vaulted into national prominence overnight. Obama like all the Duopoly Party candidates owes alot of favors to alot of influence peddlars and big fundraisers and will be in their debt should he ever occupy the Oval Office. Campaign slogans will be quickly forgotten and "change" will be yesterday's catchphrase. All of which is perfectly 'legal' despite its corrosive effects and virtually unquestioned while peripheral financial peccadillos can be great copy fodder. Tom Edsall ight have had the Ö÷²¥´óÐã, among others, in mind with his pertinent comment that, "reporters have sometimes allowed themselves to get too much caught up in [Obama] excitement". Maybe one question, among many others, that ought to be asked of Obama is how is it that someone who supposedly represents the downtrodden and wants to "change the world" (whatever that means) lives in a posh $2 million mansion?
The most "searching" questions are never asked - let alone answered. If they were, Chicago-style machine politics with its endemic corruption wouldn't have endured as long as it has. And it wouldn't be possible for an unknown neophyte like Obama Copacabana to br vaulted into national prominence overnight. Obama like all the Duopoly Party candidates owes alot of favors to alot of influence peddlars and big fundraisers and will be in their debt should he ever occupy the Oval Office. Campaign slogans will be quickly forgotten and "change" will be yesterday's catchphrase. All of which is perfectly 'legal' despite its corrosive effects and virtually unquestioned while peripheral financial peccadillos can be great copy fodder. Tom Edsall ight have had the Ö÷²¥´óÐã, among others, in mind with his pertinent comment that, "reporters have sometimes allowed themselves to get too much caught up in [Obama] excitement". Maybe one question, among many others, that ought to be asked of Obama is how is it that someone who supposedly represents the downtrodden and wants to "change the world" (whatever that means) lives in a posh $2 million mansion?
Why "now" you ask? You've heard of the infamous "rush to judgement"? Well, this has been a "Rush to the Presidency!" withOUT doing the mandatory due dilligence on the subject. Any one who has bought a business does more due dilligence as a "matter of course" on the business, than what was even done on Barack Obama. This is what you get for picking someone that ANYONE barely knows, and who has only been in Washington for 24 months. How could anyone really know him? However, you know who REALLY does know Barack Obama? That would be his wife, Michelle Obama. And we all saw that immediately out of the gate Michelle Obama "revealed herself" for who she really is. And she did that in a breathtakingly "ungrateful, unpatriotic remark" from a woman to whom "her" country as affored quite a lot. As the famous black poet (who is a Fav-O-Rite of Obama-Promoter Oprah Winfrey) Ms. Maya Angelou says, "When people tell you who they are, BELIEVE THEM. They know themselves better than you will ever know them." Two of a kind, Michelle and Barack Obama. And it's all coming out just in the nick of time.
This is what you get, America, when you execute a "Rush to the Presidency."
Oh come on. Have none of you common sense? No person who has slung-mud or for that matter participated in politics has clean hands.
And while some of you are busy talking about a 'Rush to presidency' please recall a similar event that you MAY HAVE SUPPORTED called 'Rush to the Patriot Act'
As for me I make it a daily habit to spit on people who confess to supporting the Iraq war, or Bush, OR the Patriot Act.
Personally it makes me sick to think there are people so d*mn ignorant that they can't realize that all politicians are the same.
Get it through your head, Cliton, McCain, Obama, Huckabee, its a game. Its about control plain and simple, and in all sincerity ask yourself this....
If a politician gives money to a homeless person and theres no press around to witness it, does it make (a sound) a difference? No, because if there were no press around I bet you my left nut that said politician wouldn't even notice said homeless person. Barf.
-American Politics is Facism with a soft cuddly kore.
I don't know if you folks get to see or hear the Ö÷²¥´óÐã but this whole week has been one love-in for Obama. In interviews from Today, Woman's hour and even this morning on Ö÷²¥´óÐã Breakfast after Clinton's convincing wins only Obama supporters were interviewed mostly preening over their candidate. One of his supporters this Monday on radio gave us the scenario of Obama's solution for Iraq. Leave it the Iraqis whilst helping with 'strategic' mass movements of populations from minority ethnic groupings to areas where a majority of their ethnicity live. That sounds really solid and safe. Possible result? Communal violence unseen before, the inevitable split of the country.
The economy needs a steady hand. Iraq does not ethnic cleansing and bombing Pakistan is not a solution either.
OK Clinton may not be 'lady' or genteel enough for some. But she's honest, speaks her mind and after all the back stabbing of Republicans over the years could do with some respect from the Obama side. She needs to try and sort out that likeability factor but that alone would not help Obama win the Presidency either. People need to wake up. McCain would beat Obama hands down.
Justin Webb is of course excluded from my tirade re implicit Ö÷²¥´óÐã partisanship.