Profiles in Obama

Do you remember last September when Moveon.org ran a newspaper ad which labeled General Patraeus as "General Betray Us?" There was a legislative response in Congress, and oddly enough, Barack happened to be in Washington that day...

...when senators had to vote specifically on Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn's resolution specifically condemning MoveOn, an organization no Democratic presidential contender wanted to alienate and one which went on to endorse Obama this year. But on that 2007 day, Obama was one of three senators who failed to cast a noontime vote. But by 3 p.m., he was back in the Senate, voting for an amendment calling for the redeployment of forces from Iraq.

I know you'll find this hard to believe, but Mr. New Kinda Politics dodged the vote. Think of it as Barack's Profile in Courage. But it gets worse. Now, all of a sudden, Slick Barry has an opinion, voiced today in his thoughtful, and much needed, speech on patriotism.

"All too often our politics still seems trapped in these old, threadbare arguments -- a fact most evident during our recent debates about the war in Iraq, when those who opposed administration policy were tagged by some as unpatriotic, and a general providing his best counsel on how to move forward in Iraq was accused of betrayal," he said during a speech on the meaning of patriotism here.

Are you impressed? The noble and thoughtful one finds it upsetting when General's are attacked.

"Barack Obama has waited far too long to take a stand against the tactics of MoveOn," said Ed Patru, a Freedom's Watch spokesman. "It was convenient for him to stay silent as he tried to appeal to his liberal base during the Democratic Primary. Only now that he is trying to demonstrate his patriotism to mainstream America is he finally taking a stand against those who questioned the loyalty of an American hero."

When, pray tell, was the last time we saw a politician this slippery?

Bill Wants Barack to Do What?

Despite the Unity show put on last week in New Hampshire, the relationship between the Clintons and the Obamas remains strained. It seems Bill Clinton is looking for a kiss.

...even as the former president and the current presumptive Democratic nominee prepare to meet to make their own amends, Bill Clinton reportedly told close friends Obama can “kiss my ass” to get his support.

You'll recall that Bill was reported to be angry over his treatment at the hand of team Barack, particularly accusations that he was injecting racism into the campaign.

Bill Clinton has more recently cooled his rhetoric toward the de facto party leader, but he has publicly expressed his anger over being painted as a racist and race-baiter while his wife was campaigning against Obama.

Does Bill feel that he played the race card?

“No, I think that they played the race card on me, and we now know from memos in the campaign and everything that they planned to do it all along."

It appears that the Democrats haven't found Unity yet.

Wrapped in Stripes

This thing of Barack's - this technique of wrapping himself in the flag of thoughtfulness - it's starting to get tedious. Even liberals will, I think, start to see it for what it is - contrived thoughtfulness - a style that was at first appealing, but which now reads as formulaic. Thus was the case again today as he gave a speech on patriotism - just the latest of many deep topics on which Barack is, for some reason, an expert in his own mind.

Finally, it is worth considering the meaning of patriotism because the question of who is – or is not – a patriot all too often poisons our political debates, in ways that divide us rather than bringing us together. I have come to know this from my own experience on the campaign trail.

Yup - we all remember, Barack, when you poisoned the debate by suggesting that those who wear flag pins are phony patriots. Guess who is now regularly wearing a flag pin.

So let me say at this at outset of my remarks. I will never question the patriotism of others in this campaign. And I will not stand idly by when I hear others question mine.

And we remember when you suggested that those who think they have a constitutional right to own guns were just bitter Americans.

Throughout my life, I have always taken my deep and abiding love for this country as a given. It was how I was raised; it is what propelled me into public service; it is why I am running for President. And yet, at certain times over the last sixteen months, I have found, for the first time, my patriotism challenged...

And why should anyone question the patriotism of a man who took the help of domestic terrorists to help get his career launched, then lied about the closeness of their association?

One of my earliest memories is of sitting on my grandfather’s shoulders and watching the astronauts come to shore in Hawaii. I remember the cheers and small flags that people waved, and my grandfather explaining how we Americans could do anything we set our minds to do. That’s my idea of America.

One of my earliest memories of Barack is hearing him defend his close friend, confidant and spiritual mentor for saying, "It's not God Bless America, It's God Damn America."

I remember listening to my grandmother telling stories about her work on a bomber assembly-line during World War II. I remember my grandfather handing me his dog-tags from his time in Patton’s Army, and understanding that his defense of this country marked one of his greatest sources of pride. That’s my idea of America.

I remember him responding to accusations that there was something inappropriate about his close alliance with a race baiter and divider with a suggestion that Reverend Wright was no worse than his own grandmother.

Beyond a loyalty to America’s ideals, beyond a willingness to dissent on behalf of those ideals, I also believe that patriotism must, if it is to mean anything, involve the willingness to sacrifice – to give up something we value on behalf of a larger cause.

Barack has made that sacrifice - having given up his personal integrity in his pursuit of the presidency. Why, I remember him sending Wes Clark out onto the Sunday talking head shows to attack the sacrifice that John McCain made for this country. When was that - I think it was - oh yeah, yesterday!

``I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president,'' Clark said, referring to the incident that led to McCain's being taken prisoner of war in Vietnam.

Enough, please, Barack, with the hypocritical sermons! Enough of the posturing. They may be less nasty then the ones given by your friends Pfleger, Farrakhan and Wright, but they're no less sanctimonious.

Another Loser for Barack

As if claiming that McCain is as big a flip-flopper as he is isn't a big enough loser for the Obama camp, they've found an idea that's worse.

``I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president,'' (Wes) Clark said, referring to the incident that led to McCain's being taken prisoner of war in Vietnam.

This is the sort of slam that gets looped on TV through a news cycle - reminding Americans that McCain is a war hero, and also highlighting that Barack's never done much of anything except seek higher office.

Obama is ``running on his strength of character, on the strengths of his communication skills, on the strengths of his judgment,'' Clark said.

Excuse me? Are we talking the Jeremiah Wright judgment, the Bill Ayers judgment, or perhaps the Tony Rezko judgment? Are we talking the promise to be part of the public financing system but then changing your mind when it's convenient sort of character, or the inject race into the campaign kind of character?

Or, are we talking about the strength of Barack's judgment on the war in Iraq. As Joe Lieberman points out

"...if we had done what Senator Obama asked us to do, for the last couple of years, today Iran and al-Qaeda would be in control of Iraq. It would be a terrible defeat for us and our allies in the Middle East and throughout the world.''

Barack the Jap

Barack built his candidacy on faith. He asked people to believe in him and his message of change. To trust him.

With the nomination wrapped up, he has betrayed that trust with zeal. It's a new ballgame. As one of two guys with a chance to become president, Barack figures whatever the tactics were for beating Hillary don't control what happens next. It's the playoffs. Anything to win.

John McCain, in his sharpest attack yet against rival Barack Obama, said the Democratic presidential candidate's word ``cannot be trusted.''

Which means his liberalism goes in the closet, along with his friends and advisers of the past couple of decades. Change beliefs, betray the faith that inspired so - read the polls and follow the game plan that the consultants map out.

``This election is about trust -- trust in people's word,'' McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, told several hundred donors at a $2 million GOP fundraiser in Louisville, Kentucky, yesterday. ``And unfortunately, apparently on several items, Senator Obama's word cannot be trusted.''

He goes from Barack the Angel sent from Heaven, Barack the Messiah, to Just Another Politician. He's the incredible JAP.

McCain, a four-term Arizona senator, said Obama has gone back on his word by pledging to take public financing during the general election and then deciding not to do so.

The challenge for McCain is to get the word out. The sooner the better. And as he does, the Obamafia is making the same accusations against McCain.

Obama supporters are quick to highlight areas where McCain has changed his opinions in an attempt to label him as a worse ``flip-flopper'' than Obama. McCain has also changed his views on evangelical voters and offshore drilling, his supporters say.

That's an accusation that Barack can throw at McCain all day long without hurting him, as McCain was never The Messiah, so Obama playing tit for tat with him diminishes Barack's brand, not McCain's.

Spiaggia

What does Barack do on date night?

Obama managed to have some fun last night. He and Michelle had a swanky date night at Chicago’s premiere restaurant, Spiaggia.

Who went with them? Tony Rezko? Reverend Pfleger?

Michelle, dressed in a chic, black dress and Barack entered the restaurant alone and dined for almost 2 and a half hours.

Two and a half hours! They must have had the eight course tasting menu. It's just $165 per person, with a wine tasting thrown in for an extra $90 each. They aren't bitter - they're millionaires - although the house cured anchovies might have caused them to pucker a bit.

SPAGHETTI ALLA CHITARRA CON POMODORI, CAPERI E ACCIUGHE

Hand crafted spaghetti with San Marzano tomatoes, Pantellerese capers and house cured anchovies

They must have gone over to the Wright estate for after dinner drinks - Nah, the meal would have included a TORTA DI NOCCIOLE PIEMONTESE.

Well, what did Barack do before dinner.

As soon as he returned home yesterday afternoon, he quickly changed into his gym clothes and headed to a local gym where he worked out for over an hour. This morning, he headed back to the gym and later took his family to Chicago’s East Bank Club to play basketball.

Why does the national media suddenly have access to so many scintillating Obama details?

Details of his days and nights off the campaign trail have been murky, until now. After lengthy negotiations with the press, the campaign has established a protective pool to travel with the candidate and this was the inaugural weekend.

Thank goodness we're finally getting the details!

Vacuous Opportunist

In an interview with Stephanopolous on This Week, Ralph Nader went after Barack, quoting, among others, political scientist Adolph Reed:

I’ve known him since the very beginning of his political career, which was his campaign for the seat in my state senate district in Chicago. He struck me then as a vacuous opportunist, a good performer with an ear for how to make white liberals like him. I argued at the time that his fundamental political center of gravity, beneath an empty rhetoric of hope and change and new directions, is neoliberal.

Reed, now at the University of Pennsylvania, says Barack can manipulate with the best of them:

The Obama campaign has even put out a misleading bio of Michelle Obama, representing her as having grown up in poverty on the South Side, when, in fact, her parents were city workers, and her father was a Daley machine precinct captain. This fabrication, along with those embroideries of the candidate’s own biography, may be standard fare, the typical log cabin narrative. However, in Obama’s case, the license taken not only underscores Obama’s more complex relationship to insider politics in Daley’s Chicago; it also underscores how much this campaign depends on selling an image rather than substance.

Reed, a black man, says Barack can play the race card:

The Jackson comparison points to one of Obama’s key contradictions: Like Jackson, he wants to appeal to blacks with the “it’s our time now” line, and to white liberals with that, as well as with the “I’m black in a different way from Jesse” qualifier and the religious conversion rhetoric. A friend said that Obama’s campaign, in stressing his appeal to rapturous children and liberal, glamorous yuppies, offers vicarious identification with these groups, as well as the chance to become sort of black in that ultra-safe and familiar theme park way.

Writing when Hillary was still in the race for the nomination, Reed wrote that he could not vote for him because:

Obama’s empty claims to being a candidate of progressive change and to embodying a “movement” that exists only as a brand will dissolve into disillusionment in either a failed campaign against McCain or an Obama Presidency that continues the politics he’s practiced his entire career.

But this, really, is what will get Barack.

Because he’s tried carefully to say enough of whatever the audiences he’s been speaking to at the time want to hear while leaving himself enough space later on to deny his intentions to leave that impression, his record represents precisely the “character” weakness the Republicans have exploited in every Democratic candidate since Dukakis: Another Dem trying to put things over on the American people.

Can You Say Hussein

Forget about the criminals, the bomb planters, and the America haters who Barack built his career with. Forget about the inexperience. Forget about him having falsely portrayed himself as an agent of change. If this catches on, it will be the thing that stops Barack cold.

There is, if we can believe the New York Times,

a growing band of supporters of Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, who are expressing solidarity with him by informally adopting his middle name.

On the one hand, the instincts of these young activists for Barack are correct. A name is only foreign until it becomes common enough for its foreignness to be absorbed. But Hussein is a problematic middle name for Barack to carry because it provides a confirmation of people's worst fears - that Barack himself is different enough that we can't know who he is, what he believes, and what he wants for America.

“I am sick of Republicans pronouncing Barack Obama’s name like it was some sort of cuss word,” Mr. Strabone wrote in a manifesto titled “We Are All Hussein” that he posted on his own blog and on dailykos.com.

Barack is scary - his level of inexperience is astounding, his associations are disastrous, and his politics are liberal beyond what voters can imagine. He takes the fear that Al Gore and John Kerry triggered in Americans and pushes it up a couple of notches. His middle name intuitively suggests the danger that he represents.

Some Obama supporters say they were moved to action because of what their own friends, neighbors and relatives were saying about their candidate. Mark Elrod, a political science professor at Harding University in Searcy, Ark., is organizing students and friends to declare their Husseinhood on Facebook on Aug. 4, Mr. Obama’s birthday.

What these young supporters of Barack don't see is that they reflect the world that liberalism has created - they are naive, inexperienced, uneducated, coddled - they're actually living at home while campaigning for Change! And they think they live in a country that is too conservative! They are not equipped to change our perception of Barack or his middle name - they confirm the worst fears that it symbolizes!

“It’s one of those things that just takes off, because everybody got it right away,” said Stephanie Miller, a left-leaning comedian who blurted out the idea one day during a broadcast of her syndicated radio talk show and repeated it on CNN.

Ms. Miller and her fellow new Husseins are embracing the traditionally Muslim name even as the Obama campaign shies away from Muslim associations.

Stephanie Hussein Miller won't change a bunch of minds on her own, but the more young radicals she can get to adopt the name Hussein, the tougher the job of convincing Americans that they can trust Barack becomes.

Dick Morris Talks with Todd

In an interview this week, Dick Morris outlines the ideas that make Barack scary in a conversation with Todd.

The Unity of Hope

Who hates unity more - Barack, or Hillary?

Rezko Trial - Where Was Barack?

Why was Barack's name kept out of the Tony Rezko trial, which, you may recall, ended in a conviction several days ago? There is a funny smell coming from that courtroom.

While none of that came out at trial, today, for the first time, a filing recently unsealed shows the government's initial intent to call witnesses about that aspect of the case. The judge in the case, Amy St. Eve, ruled that the prosecution could bring up Obama's name. But they never did. And references to Obama were not only kept out of the trial during his run for the primary -- it was kept under seal. Until today.

It's amazing what the system will do to protect the powerful. Obama's close ties to Rezko should have made his name an everyday utterance in the proceedings.

The filing indicates that the prosecution wanted witnesses to talk about Rezko's prowess as an Obama fund-raiser and his influence in getting two others -- Joseph Aramanda and Semir Sirazi -- to donate Rezko money to Obama's campaigns in their names. The money kicked into Obama's campaigns came from an illicit kickback scheme. Obama has since donated that money to charity.

That's it? Obama has since donated that money to charity, so everyone's happy?

"And references to Obama were not only kept out of the trial during his run for the primary—it was kept under seal," Natasha Korecki (Chicago Sun-Times) reported June 26, 2008. "Until today."

What we do not learn is why prosecutors did not bring up Obama's name more often, particularly since U.S. District Judge Amy J. St. Eve "ruled that they could."

Keep tabs on this at Rezko Watch.

Barack's Housing Scandal

"No one should have to live like this, and no one did anything about it," said Cynthia Ashley, who has lived at Grove Parc since 1994.

What is Grove Parc, and why is Cindy Ashley so upset? Grove Park is one of the ghettos built and managed under a policy supported by Barack, built and managed by Barack's friends.

CHICAGO - The squat brick buildings of Grove Parc Plaza, in a dense neighborhood that Barack Obama represented for eight years as a state senator, hold 504 apartments subsidized by the federal government for people who can't afford to live anywhere else.

But it's not safe to live here.

What's this got to do with Barack and the new kinda politics?

Grove Parc has become a symbol for some in Chicago of the broader failures of giving public subsidies to private companies to build and manage affordable housing - an approach strongly backed by Obama as the best replacement for public housing.

Barack supports this stuff - but wait a sec, he's a good government, compassionate guy, right? Fighting for a better life for the underclass, isn't he?

Grove Parc and several other prominent failures were developed and managed by Obama's close friends and political supporters.

Wait - are you trying to tell me that when he wasn't running for reelection, running for Congress, running for Senate, and writing his book, Barack actually got involved with policy matters?

As a state senator, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee coauthored an Illinois law creating a new pool of tax credits for developers. As a US senator, he pressed for increased federal subsidies. And as a presidential candidate, he has campaigned on a promise to create an Affordable Housing Trust Fund that could give developers an estimated $500 million a year.

Barack remains tied to many who were responsible for the subsidized housing tragedy that occurred in his district. Valerie Jarrett was part of the scam and is senior adviser to Barack's campaign. Allison Davis was involved in the housing and was a major fund-raiser. And then, of course, there's Tony Rezko.

Campaign finance records show that six prominent developers - including Jarrett, Davis, and Rezko - collectively contributed more than $175,000 to Obama's campaigns over the last decade and raised hundreds of thousands more from other donors. Rezko alone raised at least $200,000, by Obama's own accounting.

How did Rezko get so rich and powerful?

One of the largest recipients of the subsidies was Rezmar Corp., founded in 1989 by Tony Rezko, who ran a company that sold snacks at city beaches, and Daniel Mahru, who ran a company that sold ice to Rezko. Neither man had development experience.

Over the next nine years, Rezmar used more than $87 million in government grants, loans, and tax credits to renovate about 1,000 apartments in 30 Chicago buildings. Companies run by the partners also managed many of the buildings, collecting government rent subsidies.

Why is Rezko so important to Barack?

All the while, Tony Rezko was forging a close friendship with Barack Obama. When Obama opened his campaign for state Senate in 1995, Rezko's companies gave Obama $2,000 on the first day of fund-raising. Save for a $500 contribution from another lawyer, Obama didn't raise another penny for six weeks. Rezko had essentially seeded the start of Obama's political career.

As Obama ascended, Rezko became one of his largest fund-raisers. And in 2005, Rezko and his wife helped the Obamas purchase the house where they now live.

So Barack must have used his leverage with Rezko to make sure the developer took good care of the poor people living in Barack's district, right?

Eleven of Rezmar's buildings were located in the district represented by Obama, containing 258 apartments. The building without heat in January 1997, the month Obama entered the state Senate, was in his district. So was Jones's building with rats in the walls and Frizzell's building that lacked insulation. And a redistricting after the 2000 Census added another 350 Rezmar apartments to the area represented by Obama.

But Obama has contended that he knew nothing about any problems in Rezmar's buildings.

Well, if honest Abe Obama didn't know, we have to take him at his word.

After Rezko's assistance in Obama's home purchase became a campaign issue, at a time when the developer was awaiting trial in an unrelated bribery case, Obama told the Chicago Sun-Times that the deterioration of Rezmar's buildings never came to his attention. He said he would have distanced himself from Rezko if he had known.

Other local politicians say they knew of the problems.

It's not fair, though, to expect Barack to be aware that his friends were forcing the poor in his senate district to live in squalor. He was busy trying to get out of the squalor of the state senate, and on to the presidency!

Dick Morris Talks with Todd

In an interview this week, Dick Morris outlines the ideas that make Barack scary in a conversation with Todd.

Unity

Hillary felt the need to exaggerate a bit today in the Unity event.

"I know Senator Obama. I've served with him in the Senate for four years."

Well, let's see - Barack would have been inaugurated three years and 5 months ago this month, and he's been campaigning full-time for President for about two years - so really, Hillary served with him in the U.S. Senate for about a year and a half, which is the full extent of Barack's career in national politics.

She flipped quickly over to something more closely resembling reality.

I've campaigned with and against him for lots of months," Clinton told a crowd of 4,000, who had gathered in an elementary school field on a steamy afternoon. "So I've had a front row seat to his candidacy. And I've seen his strength and his determination, his grace and his grit."

While Hillary was there to pretend to like Barack (she has 1o million reasons to do so), who crowd wasn't similarly incentivized.

Some of her supporters weren't quite ready to let go. "We want Hillary!" a handful of Clinton fans shouted during her speech. "It's over!" an Obama voter shot back.... When it was Obama's turn to pile on the plaudits, another voice in the crowd yelled, "She rocks." Obama answered, "She rocks, she rocks. That's the point I'm trying to make."

Big News - No Change

The big pollsters continue to deny the wished for results in Newsweek's poll of last week that showed Barack up 15 points.

PRINCETON, NJ -- For the third straight day, Gallup Poll Daily tracking shows Barack Obama and John McCain tied in national registered voter preferences for the fall election, each now with 44% of the vote.

Rasmussen, along with Time, continues to show Barack up four points.

Thirty-three percent (33%) are just as certain they will vote for McCain. Seventy percent (70%) of Republicans are certain they will vote for McCain and 68% of Democrats say they same about Obama. Among those not affiliated with either major party, 30% are certain to vote for McCain, 25% for Obama and 45% say they could change their mind before Election Day (see notes on recent demographic data). Part of the reason for this extraordinary fluidity is that the candidates are relatively unknown. Another factor is that the issue array is not as settled as in recent elections.

It's the Party, Stupid!

Poor conservatives, Time Magazine seems to be saying. With Supreme Court rulings on Guns and Death Penalty, they'd expect to be able to nail Barack for being the withering liberal that he is.

When the Supreme Court issues rulings on hot-button issues like gun control and the death penalty in the middle of a presidential campaign, Republicans could be excused for thinking they'll have the perfect opportunity to paint their Democratic opponent as an out-of-touch social liberal. But while Barack Obama may be ranked as one of the Senate's most liberal members, his reactions to this week's controversial court decisions showed yet again how he is carefully moving to the center ahead of the fall campaign.

Yup, it's sad. All Barack can be busted for now is being John Kerry disguised as a younger, more appealing candidate.

John McCain's camp wasted no time in attacking, with one surrogate, conservative Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas, calling Obama's gun control statement "incredible flip-flopping." McCain advisor Randy Scheunemann was even tougher in a conference call Thursday. "What's becoming clear in this campaign," Scheunemann said, is "that for Senator Obama the most important issue in the election is the political fortunes of Senator Obama. He has demonstrated that there really is no position he holds that isn't negotiable or isn't subject to change depending on how he calculates it will affect his political fortunes."

It's possible that Barack can survive the attacks that Kerry succumbed to. Maybe they'll be able to swallow that he's a guy with a spine who is so ruthless that he'll say and do anything for power. The downside of that is obvious - if he's so politically calculating as everyone else, then how can he be the change candidate he pretends to be?

Liberals are hoping that despite Obama's moderate response to the Supreme Court decisions, the issues alone will rally supporters to him. "What both of these decisions say to me is that the Supreme Court really is an election year issue," says Kathryn Kolbert, President of People For the American Way. "We're still only one justice away from a range of really negative decisions that would take away rights that most Americans take for granted," she says.

In reality, Change was the brand for winning the nomination. The new pitch will be - It's The Party, Stupid! Democrats expect to win simply because they're the Democrats in a Democratic year. Perhaps they're underestimating just how heavy Barack's bags are.

It's Early Still

An evaluation of swing state polls by Quinnipiac reveals some scary news - Barack Obama is doing as well as John Kerry was four years ago. As with Kerry, folks are just getting to know Barack. While Kerry was dull and cumbersome, Barack has the Obamafia to account for, a much tougher electoral ball and chain. But right now, Barack is looking good in some important states.

COLORADO: Obama 49 - McCain 44
MICHIGAN: Obama 48 - McCain 42
MINNESOTA: Obama 54 - McCain 37
WISCONSIN: Obama 52 - McCain 39

These numbers will change often, but eventually end up on McCain's side in most, if not all cases.

"November can't get here soon enough for Sen. Barack Obama. He has a lead everywhere, and if nothing changes between now and November he will make history," said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

Oh, and, by the way.

"There is a clear consensus among voters in all of these states that they don't want Sen. Hillary Clinton as vice president and that they see her as a liability for Obama, not an asset."

Warns Brown:

"But Sen. Obama should not be picking out the drapes for the Oval Office just yet. His lead nationally, and double digits in some key states, is not hugely different from where Sen. John Kerry stood four years ago at this point in the campaign," Brown added.

Mr. Clean

Barack was bragging the other day about how he escaped Chicago politics without becoming tied into the dirty politics that dominates the town.

"You will recall that for my entire political career here, I was not the the endorsed candidate of any political organization here," the Democratic presidential hopeful said at the Westin Hotel downtown. "I didn't go around wielding a bunch of clout. My reputation in Springfield was as an independent. There is no doubt I had friends and continue to have friends who come out of the more traditional school of Chicago politics but that's not what launched my political career and that's not what I've ever depended on to get elected, and I would challenge any Chicago reporter to dispute that basic fact."

Nope. It's true. Barack built his own insidious clan - the Obamafia.

Obama friend Tony Rezko was convicted of corrupting state government, but Obama was never implicated and has returned contributions Rezko made to his Senate campaign. Obama did run as an independent Democrat but worked closely with state Senate President Emil Jones, an old-school organization Democrat. Obama runs for president with the full blessing of Mayor Daley.

And, of course, Barack benefited on the political clout of Jeremiah Wright, Michael Pfleger, Bill Ayers and Bernadette Dohrn.

He's A No Man

In a new ad, John McCain attacks Barack for saying no to all his ideas for confronting the energy crisis. The spot portrays Barack as Dr. No.


Is it a mistake to use a 40 year old pop culture reference? Laura Ingraham thought so tonight on O'Reilly, but I disagree. If you don't know the movie, you get the point. But most people know the title. And Barack's constant no's, all sounding reasonable on their own, do have a cumulative effect by the end of the spot.

Rove Doesn't Heart Obama

A few days ago, Barack was a martini drinking snob. But Karl Rove wants to work him over again, this time using the short-lived Presibama Seal as a symbol of his conceit.

His seal featured an eagle emblazoned with his logo, and included a Latin version of his campaign slogan. This was an attempt by Sen. Obama to make himself appear more presidential. But most people saw in the seal something else – chutzpah – and he's stopped using it. Such arrogance – even self-centeredness – have featured often in the Obama campaign.

Rove goes after him for throwing Wright under the bus, for throwing campaign finance control out the window, then berates him for refusing to accept McCain's offer to meet in a series of free-form debates.

Last month he replied "anywhere, anytime" to John McCain's invitation to have joint town hall appearances. Last week he changed his mind. Fearing 10 impromptu town halls, Mr. Obama parried the invitation by offering two such events – one the night of July 4, when every ambulatory American is watching fireworks or munching hotdogs, and another in August. His spokesman then said, "Take it or leave it." So much for "anywhere, anytime."

Barack has been arrogant in taking credit for passing legislation he didn't even bother to vote on, and his chutzpah in injecting race into the race.

Mr. Obama has now also played the race card, twice suggesting in recent weeks that Republicans will draw attention to the fact that he's black. Who is unaware of that? Americans overwhelmingly find it a hopeful, optimistic sign that the country could elect an African-American president. But they rightly want to know what kind of leader he might be. They may well reject as cynical any maneuver to discourage close examination of him by suggesting any criticism is racially motivated.

There is, from my perception, a certain unlikability developing in the attitude of Barack. Rove suggests this pattern of behavior could influence others, as well.

Mr. McCain will be helped if he uses Mr. Obama's actions to paint his opponent as someone driven by an all-powerful instinct to look out only for himself. In a contest over who is willing to put principle above personal ambition and self-interest, John McCain, a war hero and a former POW, wins hands down. That may not be the most important issue to voters in electing a president, but it's something they will rightly take into account.