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In this day and age of the media destroying politicians, it's become par for the course for the press to dig up something embarrassing about a candidate to try and discredit them. In some cases, it's worked (like with Jack Ryan). In others, it hasn't been so effective (remember the breathless media reports that Dubya had a DUI? We didn't think so.) Barack Obama isn't immune to this either. First it was the erroneous and now discredited charges that he had studied in a foreign-sounding and America-hating radical Muslim madrassa in Indonesia. Even when they aren't making this shit up, nothing seems that damning: Tony Rezko owns a vacant lot next to the Obamas, and they make him build a fence between the two parcels of land. How about the intern that Obama's office hired for the summer that was connected to Rezko? And then yesterday, we get word that an investor helped Obama raise a bunch of money when he was running for the Senate. Even the right-wing media has tried to stir up discontent with op-ed pieces that stretch really hard to connect dots that are tenuous at best. To the right wing of this country, Barack Hussein Obama must seem like some kind of fantastical leftist wet-dream. No matter how you try to pick the guy apart, he remains popular, and nothing seems to stick to him.
Even Barack's former best friend, the Chicago Tribune, wants in on the action, filing a mountain of FOIA requests for everything and anything related to the guy, just in case. In the meantime the AP has busted him on parking tickets. That's right, folks, Barry got more than just an education at Harvard. He's a scoundrel who's been on lam from the five-oh, hiding out for nearly 17 years to avoid paying $375 in parking tickets and associated fines. Maybe we can get the Tribune to do an investigation into extradition laws between Illinois and Massachusetts?
Image via Wonkette.
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You forgot to mention his marijuana and cocaine use.
did this chicagoist writer completely miss the fact that Obama's campaign INTENTIONALLY LEAKED the parking ticket thing? it's a totally obvious attempt to humanize Barack and I'll be damned if it wasn't genius. we've all got mounds of unpaid parking tickets, so this drives home the message so common in US Weekly: "celebrities...they're JUST LIKE US!"
if you're going to comment on politics at least show a little saavy and attention to detail.
Rich: Thanks for the breaking news. If you have anymore gossip on Obama, please email me. We love to scoop the MSM here.
When Obama found out about his outstanding tickets, he paid them off. If that was W, he would have had the secret service go out an remove all of the parking meters in the country and then tell people that he couldn't have possibly gotten any parking tickets because there are no parking meters.
"when Obama found out about his parking tickets".... lol.
No matter how you try to pick the guy apart, he remains popular, and nothing seems to stick to him.
I'm still interested in this "blind trust" business, which I see nothing about in this endorsement... er, I mean, post.
I like Obama, but I would really like to hear a proper explanation as to how a $50,000–$100,000 investment gets filed as $15,000–$50,000 in the books beyond his press team stating that they'll "fix the descrepancy." It's not like they forgot to carry the one, mixed up a comma or added a zero.
Just something I've been thinking about.
Jeff: I think that the "official" explaination was that the fund manager made those investments, and when it was brough to Obama's attnetion, he dumped them - at a loss. That is the essence of a blind trust; you can't guide it, intentionally so.
And this wasn't an endorsement, per se. Had I called him articulate and clean as a whistle, well, that could be construed as an endorsement. But not this.
Since you asked, Obama great great great grandmother owned slaves.
My questioning of him isn't about finding out about the conflict of interest in the companies he had invested in. I'm glad he dumped them once he found that out. He should have.
I'm talking about the forms that were falsified to make it seem like he only invested $15,000–$50,000 when in actuality it was $50,000–$100,000. Other than that, nobody really has anything on him. And even so, I'm sure it probably wasn't even him that handled the forms.
Eventually this stuff will start sticking. There's just too much. Real estate deal at very favorable terms with a known sleazeball. An extremely curious stock purchase. The absurd salary paid to his wife, and her inexplicable position on the board of a food company.
And yes, despite the media's willful failure to examine and reveal his positions, he is a leftist--and that eventually will come out too.
I'll bet he'd have hotter interns than Clinton. Not that this would be difficult.
Hell, nothing stuck to Reagan or Clinton. And the stuff that stuck to Dubya he just sort of screamed "9/11!" at and ran.
Can't be THAT hard to sidestep scandal anymore. Unless you campaign hard for family values and such then molest a page or something.
@useless: in that case, you can still just blame someone else.
This photo makes him look like he just lost all his campaign money in the World Series of Poker.
Kevin,
"and they make him build a fence between the two parcels"
Could you have minimalized and mischaracterized this issue any more than by issuing this poor analysis? There's nothing in the referenced article that indicates anybody MADE Obama build the fence. A better analysis would be that he was covering his ass.
Is that smoking picture photoshoped? I know the man smokes, but I haven't seen that picture before.
I'm pretty sure that's an old picture. he looks a lot younger, and quit smoking before he started the campaign.
still, if these are the worst things that we see out of his past, I'm pretty sure they're going to be minimal issues in the eyes of many voters.
No matter how you try to pick the guy apart, he remains popular, and nothing seems to stick to him.
Ummm, you ain't seen nothing yet... Obama is still on his media honeymoon.... He won't seem like Mr. Clean when the Clintons get done with him.