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Politics of hope, meet the politics of hypocrisy.
Barack Obama has taken the lead over McCain on the double talk express highway.
This is a matter of character. Saying one thing and doing another whenever
it benefits you. If you want to know the heart of the Obama campaign, this is
it. Like the “Harry
and Louise” ads Clinton
has decried. Obama has no problem using these smears, including independent
expenditure ads, as long as they benefit him.
This brings home the point that readers will have to understand about my coverage
of Mr. Obama. The attention Obama brings around here is not simply because he’s
running against Hillary Clinton. What I see from Obama stands seperately, having
nothing to do with her candidacy. It’s Obama’s hypocritical double talk compared
to his high and mighty rhetoric that makes me question not only his integrity,
but his honesty. So I bring these things up on this fine Oscar Sunday not to
help Hillary Clinton, but to suggest to anyone thinking Obama is offering a
different type of politics that they are being suckered and sooner or later
are going to find out that Mr. Hope’s promises of change are nothing but politics
as usual dressed up in a slick rhetorical package. Again, this observation goes
well beyond my partisan support for Hillary Clinton. It’s that Obama doesn’t
come close to measuring up to his propaganda.
Take what’s going on in Ohio right now. During a conference call today with
Howard Wolfson and Robby Mook, Clinton’s Ohio state director, we learn that United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) is going up with an ad. It’s the type
of outside expenditure ad that Obama lambasted John Edwards for in Iowa. But
in Ohio, when it benefits Mr. Obama, he’s silent (like he was in California).
This is a pattern with him. Talk about the politics of change, while reality
is actually nothing but the same old Do as I Say, Not as I Do politics. In the
end it’s all about what benefits Obama, otherwise known as politics as usual.
Obama
in December 2007, from the New York Times:
Sen. Obama blast John Edwards for criticizing 527s and then benefiting from
their spending. “John yesterday said that he didn’t believe in 527s –
those are the independent groups that raise money without disclosure. Nobody
knows who’s giving the money or what’s going on. He said, ‘I don’t believe
in them because this is a major loophole in campaign finance reform laws,
you have these outside groups helping out candidates and it is a way to get
around campaign finance laws.’… So you can’t say yesterday you don’t believe
in them and today you have three-quarters of a millions dollars being spent
for you. You can’t just talk the talk. The easiest thing in the world is to
talk about change during election time” (New York Times, 12/22/07)
Sen. Obama: “Yesterday my understanding was that (Edwards) said he did
not approve of 527s, these independent groups where there’s no disclosure
so you don’t know who’s funding them and how much is being spent… Part of
what we need is some consistency when it comes to the positions we take, not
just taking them when it’s politically convenient.” (Radio Iowa, 12/22/07)
Sen. Obama criticizes Edwards for using ‘outside groups’ as a way of ‘getting
around the campaign finance laws.’ “You’ve got these outside groups that
are helping out candidates and it’s a way of getting around the campaign finance
laws. So he said he’s opposed to them – we found out today that there is an
outside group spending $750,000.” (MSNBC, 12/22/07)
Obama campaign decried ‘big interests’ that had poured a ‘flood of Washington
money’ into Iowa in ‘underhanded’ efforts to support his rivals. “Sen.
Barack Obama’s campaign manager has spent the final days of the Iowa campaign
railing against ‘big interests’ that have poured a ‘flood of Washington money”
into the state in ‘underhanded’ efforts to support his rivals. But more than
three-quarters of that money has come from a pillar of the Democratic Party:
labor unions.” (Politico, 1/1/08)
The Clinton campaign doesn’t posture on 527s. They’re legal, and in lieu of
public financing of campaigns have the right to operate, so Clinton realizes
they’re a reality. The American Leadership Project is an example of a 527 hoping to aid Clinton. She doesn’t posture they’re bad and rail at John Edwards, while keeping silent when they benefit her. You may not like her position, but it’s consistent.
Obama is not. He does just the opposite. He railed against Edwards on 527s, while he benefited
from independent expenditure groups like 527s in Nevada, where Obama ran a smear
radio ad, and now intends to benefit in Ohio from the UFCW’s independent expenditure
ads that are about to go up in Ohio on Tuesday.
Again, beyond Clinton, this is the type of person Obama is. Rail against Edwards
for 527s, but when these same types of groups support you, keep silent. It’s
not the politics of hope. It’s the politics of hypocrisy. But you Obama fans,
keep sucking through that straw. You’re going to need the fuel going forward.
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