Obama often talks about how he will clean up and reform Washington. Great, but can he actually do it? Let the facts speak for me and take a look below:
The Leadership In Illinois :
Sens. Barack Obama & Dick Durbin,
Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.,
Gov. Rod Blagojevich,
Speaker of the House Mike Madigan,
Senate President Emil Jones,
Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan (daughter of Mike),
Mayor Richard M. Daley (son of former Mayor Richard J. Daley) .....all Democrats.
Chicago is a combat zone. Of course they're all blaming each other.
Can't blame Republicans, there aren't any!
State pension fund $44 Billion in debt, worst in country (worse than what San Diego is going through).
Cook County ( Chicago ) sales tax 10.25% highest in country.
(Look 'em up if you want).
Chicago school system one of the worst in country.
This is the political culture that Obama comes from in Illinois.
Obama can clearly talk the talk, but hasn't walked the walk. He certainly has not reformed Illinois. Living in Illinois, everyone knows how corrupt this state, Chicago, and Cook County are. What has Obama done to fix things here. If he was such a "change agent", why couldn't he do anything in Illinois? Illinois is no better reformed after Obama. But if you listen to him he'll tell you things will be reformed. A little hard to believe isn't it?
P.S If you want to compare Obama's reforms to Sarah Palin's (The lefts new most popular target) I would be thrilled to
10 comments:
That's funny, I thought that the Cook County Board determined Cook County's tax rates and that the Chicago Public School board was responsible for the Chicago's school system, not the state senators.
Funny quote from someone on CNN today: "It's hard to change Washington when you've been there longer than the Lincoln Memorial."
Thats not the point. The point is that he hasn't spoke out against them. Most likely because they support him. Since we both live or have lived in Chicago, there should be no arguement that there is a lot of corruption. This ties into larger picture that he hasn't done anything to change that or take on the corruption. State senators are responsible school in chicago because they are responsible for the education of everyone in the state, and since chicago is in illinois, they are responsible for them.
where in the US or State constitution does it say that senators are responsible for education.
wouldnt that be a superintendant of public schools??
and people would say the same if u ran.
well he grew up in Chicago-he is corrupt
he went to a college prep school-eletist
he didnt change anything, because u cant move a mountain of maybe 30 years of Illinois corruption in a few years, so he cant change Washington in any way
Lets see the job the of the state senate is to vote on measures of the state. Perfectly fine solution: education is bad, Obama proposes a bill to fox it. Thats how. Growing up an working in somehing is different. i agree 30 years cannot be changed in a few, but you can try or at least make a start. Obama has done neither. Most likely because the corrupt people are supporting and financing him aka tony Rezko.
My bullshit detector is going bizerk! He served for 7 years on the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, which was a Chicago public school reform project. In the Illinois State Senate, Obama was a leader on early childhood education, helping create the state's Early Learning Council. The notion that his relationship with Rezko was in any way improper has been totally debunked.
Stop the lies, do your homework, and open your eyes to your preconceived bias.
Lets think the education "reforms" he worked on with that terrorist, the man who blew up the pentagon, capitol, police, and blew up peoples houses, oh yeah Bill Ayers. Obama also jump started his political career at his home. With Ayers or not he didn't get much done because as far as I'm concerned education is still a mess and in the hands of beucrats in Chicago. I still think there is more to the Rezko thing. Its just suspicious that he buys a house and Rezkos wife buys the adjacent lot on the same day and Obama ends up saving hundreds of thousands of dollars.
To the last point I believe everything In the original post was true. Do you seriously beleive Obama is in no way connected to the "chicago machine" in any way? About Bias, like mine, all your posts have been left of center to say the least. finally this week we agreed on guns but that has been the only thing. But do you think the democrats are right on every issue? I dont think so about the republicans. Coming from myself it may be hard to see but it is true.
First you attack Obama for not supporting education. When you find out that he dedicated nearly a decade of his life to it, you attack him for the way in which he did it.
The Chicago Annenberg Challenge was founded by a former Reagan ambassador. Among the other board members who served with Obama were: Stanley Ikenberry, former president of the University of Illinois; Arnold Weber, former president of Northwestern University and assistant secretary of labor in the Nixon administration; Scott Smith, then publisher of the Chicago Tribune; venture capitalist Edward Bottum; John McCarter, president of the Field Museum; Patricia Albjerg Graham, former dean of the Harvard University Graduate School of Journalism, and a host of other mainstream folks.
"Launched" his career? The guy hosted a coffee meet-and-greet for him. You want to talk about all the people that have held fundraisers for McCain, like Gordon Liddy (of Watergate fame), Harry Sargeant, Clayton Williams ("rape is like rain"), Carl H. Lindner (funded a Columbian terrorist group), etc.?
Obama paid market price for his property, for crying out loud. He received political donations from Rezko and donated them to charity when he learned about the indictment. Again, the suggestion that his relationship with Rezko was improper has been totally debunked. Read it for yourself. http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/does_obama_have_a_real_estate_problem.html
A part of the Chicago political machine? So what. How do you think you change things, by being an outsider? The question is what did he do with his status. Let's look at the people that McCain has surrounded himself with ... all ex-Bush, Karl Rove minions and lobyists ... he's the epitomy of old school Washington insiders.
My blog is hardly a defense of Democrats, it is primarily an attack on McCain and a defense of Obama. My goal is not to be fair and balanced; it's to dispel the lies about my candidate and to shine a light on his opponent. I trust that Obama's opponents will do a hatchet job on him, and I don't feel compelled to help them do it. My goal is to at least be truthful.
What I'm saying is although he tried, he didn' get much accomplished. But one area where I must be fair to him, is for his support for charter schools. Thats a no-brainer to me along with vouchers. It was more then a meet and greet as he raised money and did start his career there. Ayers also contributed to Obama. I'm not a politician so I can't relate here, but from what i've gathered politicans first fundraisers are held at homes of their friends. But that misses the point. The point is that he did anyrthing at Ayers house. That guy should be in prison. In good judgement would you really do anything with this man. When I was 8 ,Obama's excuse, 9/11 happened. An equiavlent is in 30 years me having a fundraiser with Bin Laden if he was still alive. Nobody in the right midn would. Obama gave speechs with this guy. Would you? Ayers also happens to be un-repetetant.
When you say "how do you change things being an outsider" just proves my point about Obama. His whole campaqign for crying out loud is about changing Washington and that he is the one to do it because he is an ousider! I can't believ you condone being part of the chicago political machine, do you? Liberals hate Karl Rove becuase he defeated their canddiates even when Kerry should have one, it was Rove that won the election for Bush. Like I have mentioned there are lobbyists on Obamas campaignt too. Lets see Jim Johnson, a major person on Obamas VP committee had to resign due to "questionables" with countrywide. Your blog is an entire smear on Mccain and Palin.
Again, how do you change Chicago politics unless you become a Chicago politician. Being a part of the machine is not the same as being defined by it. By all accounts, Obama remained an upstanding politician. Just because you don't like his positions, doesn't mean you can simply equate him with corruption. You have to show that he was in fact corrupt. Duh.
I recognize that Ayers was unrepentent in his recent NY Times article and I detest him for it. And I suspect that a lot of people are regretting having associated with him a decade ago. Yet I'm not sure his unrepentedness was obvious back then. He was, afterall, Chicago's Citizen of the Year in 1997, so apparently a lot of people suffer the poor judgement that you attribute to Obama.
Also, the comparison between Ayers and bin Laden is quite dubious. Although not the case initially, the Weather Underground went to great lengths to make sure there were no casualties from their bombings by announcing them in advance, doing them at night, etc. Now I'm not excusing them for what they did, but you have to admit there are degrees of badness. Don't you?
Finally, the number and type of lobbyists on McCain's campaign far outweigh those on the Obama side. For example, they include people that McCain decried in 2000 for their attack on his character and his family. Also, McCain's campaign manager was receiving $15,000 a month from Freddie Mac for what? For access to McCain! So does McCain allow him to resign as Obama's VP Selection Committee Chairperson did? Of course not.
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