Obama's Past

While Barack Obama has not been in the Nation's Spotlight for as long as Hillary Clinton or John McCain, he has a past which may cause him trouble. For a good summary of the skeletons in his closet, follow this link (How much will Obama's past haunt him?)

As this article points out there is a lot of stuff in that Closet.

The former law professor was cast as an elitist after he said people in small towns clung to guns and religion because they were bitter about decades of job losses.

Republicans and Democrats have questioned his patriotism. Obama has refused to wear a US Flag Lapel Pin but then implied that anyone who does is not patriotic. Obama's relationship with 1960's radical William Ayres further fuels this questioning of patriotism.

I believe the most damaging will be Obama's 20 year association with his pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Obama's pastor has made unpatriotic and racist comments, which Senator Obama claims to disagree with, while simultaneously refusing to distance himself from the man he claims is his mentor, Spiritual Teacher and friend as well as his pastor.

It is beyond belief that someone could be closely associated with reverend Wright and not know his beliefs. How could Obama not know his pastor believes and preaches that the US Government spread AIDS to blacks, practices terrorism around the world and tries in every way to repress the blacks in general?

The reverend Wright is credited in this article (Wright says criticism is attack on black church) making the claim that...

He said he hopes "the most recent attack on the black church—it is not an attack on Jeremiah Wright—it's an attack on the black church," he said to applause, "just might mean that the reality of the African-American church will no longer be invisible."

To which many will claim that if reverend Wright represents the black church view, they can be compared to the KKK. Both are racist hate groups who deserve to be condemned.

Fortunately I don't feel reverend Wright represents the majority black view any more than the KKK represents the majority white view. But it does make Senator Barack Obama appear to be a man who follows rather than leads. He gives the impression that he will adopt any view if it will further his political ambitions.

In short, Obama twists in the wind like a weather vane.

Hillary's Past

"Political Punch" is the title of a Blog by ABC News Senior National Correspondent Jake Tapper. For information on Hillary's 1960's past, read this blog article ("Tom Hayden Looks at Clinton's 60s Past") in which Mr. Tapper refers the reader to a piece by 60's radical Tom Hayden which contains information such as this.

....after Yale law school, Hillary went to work for the left-wing Bay Area law firm of Treuhaft, Walker and Burnstein, which specialized in Black Panthers and West Coast labor leaders prosecuted for being communists. Two of the firm's partners, according to Treuhaft, were communists and the two others 'tolerated communists'. [emphasis mine]

To be clear, I'm not, nor do I believe Mr. Tapper is trying to claim Hillary is a Communist, but most rational people would acknowledge that Hillary supports and proposes Socialistic Ideas.

For example, Hillary is willing to force everyone to pay for Medical Care. She has said she will use the Courts to legally take Health Insurance premiums by garnisheeing the wages of anyone who does not voluntary pay. (see my previous post "Our Government")

Think carefully before you vote.

Global Warming

How do the Global Warming Alarmists explain these recent events?

1. 6-12 inches of snow predicted for Minnesota on April 25, 2008
2. the first recorded snowfall this past year in Bagdad, Iraq
3. China, Canada and England have experienced unusual cold and snow this winter
4. record snowfall in Anchorage, Alaska April 25, 2008

There are many more examples, but the Alarmists can start with this short list.

Rev. Al Sharpton's Race Baiting

The reverend Al Sharpton is apparently a man who believes in an "eye for an eye". He has agitated followers to by inflammatory remarks to attempt in the near future to shut-down New York City.

Why? Because the justice system didn't work to his favor. Associated Press VERENA DOBNIK's, with the help of writer Tom Hays have written an article describing the unfortunate confrontation between undercover police officers and

...an unarmed man shot to death by police on his wedding day...

Three police officers fired 50 times, killing Sean Bell last year. Two of the New York City Undercover Detectives are Black as was Sean Bell. This has reverend Sharpton playing the race card to make his threats.

While 50 shots may sound excessive to anyone who has not been involved in a shooting where you believe your life is in danger, it is not automatically out of line when all the facts are considered.

Bell was killed outside the strip club as he was leaving his bachelor party. The officers - undercover detectives who were investigating reports of prostitution at the club - said they thought one of the men had a gun.

While no weapon was found at the scene, the officers testified they heard one of the men with Sean Bell say Yo, go get my gun. Bell's companions deny the statement was ever made.

Who is right? Most of us will never know, but this much is clear. The reverend Sharpton's comments do not help.

Sharpton lambasted the judge who acquitted the detectives, saying a jury should been seated to decide guilt or innocence. Sharpton has threatened to "shut the city down" with organized civil disobedience. [emphasis mine]

Since when does anyone but the defendants have the right to request a jury trial? Sounds like the reverend Sharpton is only throwing gasoline on the fire to me.

This situation is tragic, but the solution is not agitation, race baiting and more violence. As a preacher of the Gospel, the reverend Sharpton should be working as a calming influence, not the match to ignite a city.

Tax (Free) Rebate

The IRS has announced that they will begin sending out rebate money starting next week. This is ahead of schedule. If you did not file a tax return for 2007, you will not receive any rebate, even if you are eligible. But it is not too late to file. All qualifying returns submitted by October 15, 2008 will receive a minimum of $300 this year.

Qualifying returns are those with a tax liability or at least $3,000.00 in qualifying earned income. Earned income for this purpose includes wages, self-employment income, Social Security benefits (but not SSI) and Veterans Disability Payments.

At The Internal Revenue Service web site (http://www.irs.gov/) you can find a rebate calculator and further information.

Questions for The Candidates

For Obama:

1. Why do we need a tax increase is we pull the troops out of Iraq and save Billions a year?
2. Why doesn't your voting record match your rhetoric? You talk bipartisan, but vote extreme left liberal.
3. Why do you continue to support a church which espouses racism?

For Hillary:

1. What changed from the time you supported NAFTA to now cause you to oppose it?
2. How do you reconcile you view of the Freedoms Guaranteed by the Constitution with Requiring everyone to have Health Insurance, to the point of garnisheeing wages if necessary?
   

For McCain:

1. Which side of the Border are you now on?
   

Hillary's List of Lies

In light of the following article, consider Hillary's words during ceremonies to mark the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King's death.

Hillary claims to have "thrown her book bag across her dorm room in despair" when she heard about Martin Luther King's death, can we believe her?

Read the following article, which is reprinted in its entirety, before you answer.

Hillary's List of Lies

Thursday, March 27, 2008 7:40 AM

By: Dick Morris & Eileen McGann

The USA Today/Gallup survey clearly explains why Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., is losing. Asked whether the candidates were “honest and trustworthy,” Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., won with 67 percent, with Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., right behind him at 63. Hillary scored only 44 percent, the lowest rating for any candidate for any attribute in the poll.

Hillary simply cannot tell the truth. Here's her scorecard:

Admitted Lies

• Chelsea was jogging around the Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. (She was in bed watching it on TV.)


• Hillary was named after Sir Edmund Hillary. (She admitted she was wrong. He climbed Mt. Everest five years after her birth.)


• She was under sniper fire in Bosnia. (A girl presented her with flowers at the foot of the ramp.)


• She learned in The Wall Street Journal how to make a killing in the futures market. (It didn't cover the market back then.)

Whoppers She Won't Admit

• She didn't know about the FALN pardons.


• She didn't know that her brothers were being paid to get pardons that Clinton granted.


• Taking the White House gifts was a clerical error.


• She didn't know that her staff would fire the travel office staff after she told them to do so.


• She didn't know that the Peter Paul fundraiser in Hollywood in 2000 cost $700,000 more than she reported it had.


• She opposed NAFTA at the time.


• She was instrumental in the Irish peace process.


• She urged Bill to intervene in Rwanda.


• She played a role in the '90s economic recovery.


• The billing records showed up on their own.


• She thought Bill was innocent when the Monica scandal broke.


• She was always a Yankees fan.


• She had nothing to do with the New Square Hasidic pardons (after they voted for her 1,400-12 and she attended a meeting at the White House about the pardons).


• She negotiated for the release of refugees in Macedonia (who were released the day before she got there).

With a record like that, is it any wonder that we suspect her of being less than honest and straightforward?

Why has McCain jumped out to a nine-point lead over Obama and a seven-point lead over Hillary in the latest Rasmussen poll?

OK, Obama has had the Rev. Wright mess on his hands. And Hillary has come in for her share of negatives, like the Richardson endorsement of Obama and the denouement of her latest lie — that she endured sniper fire during a trip to Bosnia. But why has McCain gained so much in so short a period of time? Most polls had the general election tied two weeks ago.

McCain's virtues require a contrast in order to stand out. His strength, integrity, solidity and dependability all are essentially passive virtues, which shine only by contrast with others.

Now that Obama and Hillary are offering images that are much weaker, less honest, and less solid and dependable, good old John McCain looks that much better as he tours Iraq and Israel while the Democrats rip one another apart.

It took Nixon for us to appreciate Jimmy Carter's simple honesty. It took Clinton and Monica for us to value George W. Bush's personal character. And it takes the unseemly battle among the Democrats for us to give John McCain his due.

When Obama faces McCain in the general election (not if but when) the legacy of the Wright scandal will not be to question Obama's patriotism or love of America. It will be to ask if he has the right stuff (pardon the pun).

The largest gap between McCain and Obama in the most recent USA Today/Gallup Poll was on the trait of leadership. Asked if each man was a “strong, decisive leader,” 69 percent felt that the description fit McCain while only 56 percent thought it would apply to Obama, and 61 percent said it of Hillary. Obama has looked weak handling the Wright controversy.

His labored explanation of why he attacks the sin but loves the sinner comes across as elegant but, at the same time, feeble. Obama's reluctance to trade punches with his opponents makes us wonder if he could trade them with bin Laden or Ahmadinejad.

We have no doubt that McCain would gladly come to blows and would represent us well, but about Obama we are not so sure.

© 2008 Dick Morris & Eileen McGann