from Law School?

What sort of organizations were they and how long did you hold the positions?

What were the 2 primary responsibilities for each?

What was your proudest accomplishment from each?

I’m serious, what has he done with his life?

1) You claim to be the Unity candidate. Why was no one from your campaign fired who was associated with the ’how to play the race card’ memo? Why have you sat back and allowed your surrogates and supporters to attack Hillary and Bill Clinton as racists?

2) In disavowing Jeremiah Wright, you claimed that his statement were “outrageous” and “shocking”. Please tell us what “outrageous” statements were new and thus “shocking”— what did Wright say in April that he hadn’t said at the time that you compared him to your grandmother?

How will you accomplish the following:

- Sit Mi/FL
- take privatization of SS off the table
- prosecution of the Bush crime clan
- promotion of women’s and LGBT’s rights
- progressive economic policies
- Universal health care
- repeal of no child left behind, no merit pay plan
- out of Iraq / no bombing of Pakistan
- reinstate habeas corpus
- commitment to appointing progressive judges on SCOTUS, no waffling
- commitment to repeal the partial birth abortion law, no waffling
- no telco immunity

elixir, I don’t think Obama called for privatization of SS, according to google. Link? Has Obama opposed any of the other policies you mention?

Graduated from Columbia University and then went to the southside of Chicago to be a community organizer for less than $20,000 a year.

Then went to Harvard Law and graduated as president of Harvard Law Review. Harvard has the finest law school in the country. Harvard Law Review is full of not only the top talent at that law school but the biggest egos this side of the White House. He managed to get all those big egos, left, right and center to elect him their president.

After Harvard when he could have punched his ticket anywhere in the world, could have made millions by the time he was thirty on Wall St. or at any law firm in the country, he instead went back to the south side of Chicago, became a civil rights lawyer, continued to help organize and better the community and taught constitutional law at University of Chicago. It’d be nice to have a president who knows something about the constitution for a change wouldn’t it?

He then decided he could do more as an elected official with the power to make law and steer funding to the devastated communities he was trying help.

He ran against Bobby Rush for a US House seat, got his ass handed to him but learned how to campaign and what it takes to actually win elections.

He then ran for and won a seat in the IL senate.
One of his signature accomplishments there was a bill he almost singlehandedly championed that was opposed by the governor, Mayor Daley, just about everybody in the assembly from both parties, every states attorney, county prosecutor, sheriff, police chief, cop and the police unions. This bill made it mandatory to videotape interrogations of suspects in capital cases. Obama won over all of the above, passed the legislation and got the governor to sign the bill. This has stopped Chicago cops from beating confessions out of suspects, kept innocent people from being wrongly incarcerated while real perps walked free, kept murderers from going free on grounds that stupid cops violated their civil rights, and saved Chicago and the State of Illinois millions of dollars in wrongful incarceration lawsuits. He helped push thru the state Earned Income Tax Credit, which in three years provided over $100 million in tax cuts to poor families across the state. He also pushed through an expansion of early childhood education.

You can read more at the link below or go the library and get his books.

http://www.barackobama.com/about/

Either way if you only get your info about him at Corrente or other Obama hating sites you come away believing he’s got John Kerry’s charisma, Ronald Reagan’s beliefs, George Bush’s principles, Karl Rove’s tactics and Mike Dukasis’s playbook in his back pocket.

None of that’s true of course. And as for experience, he’s older than JFK and Bill Clinton were when they were inaugurated and has served in elected office exactly as long as Abe Lincoln did before he was elected president: 8 years in the IL assembly and 4 years in Washington. Lincoln unfortunately was booted out of the US House by voters after two terms for opposing an unjust war against Mexico. That would be 12 years to Hillary’s 8.

Good synopsis, although I take issue with a couple of your points:

1) Graduated from Columbia University and then went to the southside of Chicago to be a community organizer for less than $20,000 a year.

From what I’ve heard, it was pretty clear early on that he was going to be a politician. What better way to establish his bona fides then to be a “community organizer”? What did he actually accomplish as a community organizer? I know he takes credit for some asbestos stuff, but I’ve also read that he was vastly overstating his role. That it was the work of lifelong community activists that pushed through the stuff that Obama, as a young pup wet behind the ears, took credit for.

2) “After Harvard when he could have punched his ticket anywhere in the world, could have made millions by the time he was thirty on Wall St. or at any law firm in the country, he instead went back to the south side of Chicago, became a civil rights lawyer, continued to help organize and better the community and taught constitutional law at University of Chicago. It’d be nice to have a president who knows something about the constitution for a change wouldn’t it?”

I absolutely agree with the notion that Obama’s con law instincts are awesome. It’s his best drawing point imo. That being said, I don’t know what you’re referring to as “continued to help organize and better the community”. Details? I also think it’s pretty speculative and dumb to think he could have made millions on Wall Street. I know a few EIC from the Harvard Law Review and other top journals, and most of those guys end up being professors, much like Professor Obama. There’s a pretty sharp difference in the skill set required to do deals and make Wall Street money and to be a great law student/professor. While Obama may very well have been capable of being a top Wall Street lawyer or banker, most former EICs of HLR do not end up like this. They end up as Supreme Court clerks, OR, if they have political ambitions, as it’s clear Obama did, they do what he did: go the non-profit route, build up their network and bona fides, and put themselves in a position to run for office.

3) “He ran against Bobby Rush for a US House seat, got his ass handed to him but learned how to campaign and what it takes to actually win elections.”

You pointedly neglected to mention that he “won” his first seat through a classic Republican election shenanigan tactic: he sued to challenge every one of the signatures collected by his opponent, incumbent Alice Palmer (a real progressive).

4) He then ran for and won a seat in the IL senate.
One of his signature accomplishments there was a bill he almost singlehandedly championed that was opposed by the governor, Mayor Daley, just about everybody in the assembly from both parties, every states attorney, county prosecutor, sheriff, police chief, cop and the police unions. This bill made it mandatory to videotape interrogations of suspects in capital cases…

This is the classic Obama bill. It’s the one bill that every one of his supporters can cite. The problem with this story? The opposition wasn’t particularly fierce. I mean it’s great that Obama got this accomplished, but it’s a relatively minor bill, and the “opposition” you cite were simply no votes. There was no opposing lobby out there pushing against Obama. Obama simply made a good argument, and pushed this hard with the help of community groups. There wasn’t anyone out there pushing back, and so it passed. But it’s hardly the “fishes and loaves” story you guys would have us believe, nor does it provide any real insight into how Obama would fare on a bill of broad impact, against a well funded lobby. So far, his record on those types of bills or policies (health care, ethanol, liquid coal, tort reform, bankruptcy) has been extremely unsettling.

5) “He helped push thru the state Earned Income Tax Credit, which in three years provided over $100 million in tax cuts to poor families across the state. He also pushed through an expansion of early childhood education.”

When you say “helped” I scoff. Obama was an extremely junior Illinois Senator; the level of “help” he provided on any bill was almost certainly inconsequential. He seems inclined to take way more credit for things than he deserves, and so I remain skeptical until proven otherwide.

6) “None of that’s true of course. And as for experience, he’s older than JFK and Bill Clinton were when they were inaugurated and has served in elected office exactly as long as Abe Lincoln did before he was elected president: 8 years in the IL assembly and 4 years in Washington. Lincoln unfortunately was booted out of the US House by voters after two terms for opposing an unjust war against Mexico. That would be 12 years to Hillary’s 8.”

Great talking point. Little problem here. Age doesn’t equal experience. Also, Obama has only been in the US Senate for 3 years; barely 1 year when he announced he was running for President.

On a meta-level, here’s the real question, and you can call me an Obama-hater or whatever you want, but I think this is a legitimate point that I am positive will be a key part of the GOP “above-the-belt” attacks ads against Obama (below-the-belt, who knows? who saw the Swift Boat ads coming? not me): what record of leadership or achievement does Obama have to make someone who hasn’t drunk the Kool-Aid think he’ll do a good job?

The things you’ve pointed out don’t really translate for various reasons. I.e., you can be a great professor, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be a good president. And if the videotaping bill is really the best foot you guys can put forward as an example of accomplishment, then we’re in a crapload of trouble.

Don’t you remember that this precise issue (experience) was a major one in Bush v. Gore? Bush at least could point to stuff he’d claimed he’d done. But experience was still a major talking point, which Bush only barely got around by talking about how he’d had a RECORD of uniting people in Texas, and how he’d bring change to Washington (sound familiar?). Difference is that Bush at least had some minor achievements to point to; if Obama’s just got this interrogation bill, oh boy.

The irony of all ironies, of course, would be McCain comparing Obama to Bush (both inexperienced, both said they’d bring change to Washington without really understanding how Washington works, Bush was a disaster)… I predict this will happen, and man oh man.

I really hope the Kerry wing of the party is happy that they’ve again managed to pick the worst possible candidate for the GE.

southside of Chicago to be a community organizer for less than $20,000 a year.

Which, by his own account, he wasn’t very good at.

Then went to Harvard Law and graduated as president of Harvard Law Review.

And his tenure encouraged some very misogynistic attitudes.

, he instead went back to the south side of Chicago, became a civil rights lawyer,

At a firm that represented Rezko against his tenants.

He then ran for and won a seat in the IL senate.

After eliminating all his competetion from the ballot.

One of his signature accomplishments there was a bill he almost singlehandedly championed that was opposed by the governor

All other accomplishments were handed to him by Senate president Emil Jones, who was “gonna make me Senator”.

You can read more at the link below or go the library and get his books.

Like more than half this country won’t do that, we might, but they won’t, so this really needs to stop being the stock reply to every question ever asked. Of course the media ws supposed to look into this for us, but they were to busy looking at Clenis, at Obama’s encouragement.

Either way if you only get your info about him at Corrente or other Obama hating sites

My opinion about Obama this primary season turned 180 degrees from my opinion about him in 2004, and that was before I’d ever heard about Corrente, which also does not qualify as an “Obama hating” site. Our dislike of Obama is rational and reasoned and based on his judgement(which he made a factor in this race, no one else).

And as for experience, he’s older than JFK and Bill Clinton were when they were inaugurated and has served in elected office exactly as long as Abe Lincoln did before he was elected president

His youth doesn’t bother me, his lack of accomplishments do. He doesn’t hold a candle to what Lincoln, JFK, and WJC accomplished at that age.

That would be 12 years to Hillary’s 8.

Yes, we can count Obama’s paltry service as an unaccomplished community organizer, but we have to discount Clinton’s record of achievements when she served as First Lady of AR(while holding a full time job) and in the WH. Clinton/Obama rules, gotta love ’em.

Bill Clinton for First Dude!!!

Obama was over thirty when he graduated from Harvard. He ran for Rush’s seat after he was in the Illinois Senate. He made a lot of money working as a “civil rights” lawyer, helping Rezko the slumlord.

BTW - Bill and Hillary both graduated from Yale law school, and Bill taught Con Law at UofArk

From Wiki:

Hillary served on the editorial board of the Yale Review of Law and Social Action. During her second year, she worked at the Yale Child Study Center, learning about new research on early childhood brain development and working as a research assistant on the seminal work, Beyond the Best Interests of the Child (1973). She also took on cases of child abuse at Yale-New Haven Hospital, and volunteered at New Haven Legal Services to provide free legal advice for the poor. In the summer of 1970, she was awarded a grant to work at Marian Wright Edelman’s Washington Research Project, where she was assigned to Senator Walter Mondale’s Subcommittee on Migratory Labor. There she researched migrant workers’ problems in housing, sanitation, health and education.

That was all before she met Bill.

” … we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender …”- Winston Churchill

What are your plans?

Can you give us a short summary of what your policies are and how your plans will make them happen? With real life examples?

Please explain the Race Memo?

Did you know it existed?

Who created it?

Did the campaign endorse it?

Why didn’t the campaign denounce it?

Do you think your support amongst the AA community has been a result of racist charges against the Clintons?

Why haven’t you appeared at the SOBU the past two years?

You always speak of how Washington is a “broken system” and that it has to “change” for anything to happen for Americans—yet your policies are wholly dependent on getting support and passage through that same system. What is your plan for when the “broken system” refuses to “change”?

So someone has a communist style glorious history of Obama. So what? We know who he is now and we don’t like it!

But more specifically -
With GOP leaders such as Trent Lott being on record stating that “being the party of obstruction has been working for us”, what incentives/rewards/levers will you use to get the R’s on board your agenda when it is clearly against their better interests?

in the first place simply perpetuating that “broken system” and old politics?

How is it possible to have “unity” and coming together if the other party won’t stop being partisan and obstructionist?

(it’s really hard to ask clear questions because his whole schtick is really contradictory and incoherent and impossible)

Senator Obama, as my senator from Illinois, I would like to know why you campaigned for your senate seat (and this presidential nomination) on your better judgment and better ability to end this war, yet when you got into office you voted the same way as Republicans when it came to funding the war? I have sent you email after email asking you not to do this and to stop the power grab from the executive office, yet you responded in your letter to me that “the President deserves every power to fight the war on terrorism”. Which policies that you have helped Bush achieve, do you now disown and promise to end as the next President of the United States - feel free to choose from: shutting down Guantanamo, ending military trials for suspected terrorists, restoring habeas corpus, ending torture as a means for all Americans regardless of their job in the CIA, military or as a contractor, getting rid of contractors in the war, telecom immunity, etc.

And if you do disown any of these policies, why were they important for President Bush to have, but not your presidency?

So simple that it will never, ever get asked.

Do you really want my vote?

[Gee, can you tell that I’m a little…ahem….bitter about his campaign writing off my demographic?]

Sorry for the double-dipping.

“Are you politically astute enough to choose Hillary as your running mate, should you receive the nomination?”

pick her for VP. I will not sit still seeing the infinitely more qualified candidate, who happens to be a woman, take second fiddle to him.

He won’t though, he’ll pick a Red State Dem, like Webb or Daschle.
Bill Clinton for First Dude!!!

in Nov anyway.

And if i were her or Bill, i’d spit on him considering what he did to them and to our party.

Me too!

yet you responded in your letter to me that “the President deserves every power to fight the war on terrorism”.

Julene, is there any way that you can post the full exchange? I mean, Obama has been using GOP frames for a long time, but this is the first instance where I’ve seen him equate the war in Iraq with “fighting terrorism”

i really would—i would look at him, spit—and then burst out laughing hysterically. : >