10/17/2008
America Headed Toward National Suicide If Radical Gets Elected
By Herb Denenberg, The Bulletin
Most of my mail from readers asks an important question: How has the greatest fraud, faker, liar and hypocrite in American presidential history managed to fool so many Americans? It is something that is constantly on my mind, as I consider Sen. Barack Obama to be the least qualified and most dangerous candidate in our history and that danger is compounded by our being in the most dangerous and uncertain times in our history.
Here's how I answer that question:
* The mainstream media has perpetrated the greatest piece of journalistic malpractice in history by converting itself to part of Sen. Obama's campaign apparatus. As they say, it is in the tank for Sen. Obama, and even if he were proven to be a pedophile, the mainstream media would merely praise his interest in children. There has always been some bias in political coverage, but the mainstream media is clearly over the edge and is deep into the worst kind of biased, fraudulent and dishonest reporting.
The mainstream media represents the major source of information for a huge segment of the population. I suspect if Sen. Obama supporters had been exposed to fair and balanced reporting during this campaign, Sen. Obama would have been laughed off the stage long ago, branded as unqualified, un-American and dangerous.
* Sen. Obama is a smooth and slick speechmaker and can be wound up by his handlers to say what people want to hear. For example, in the third debate, he didn't want to say he opposed offshore drilling, as he knows most voters favor it. So he slickly said he would consider it. That is the equivalent of the present vote he cast 130 times in the Illinois legislature - neither yes or no, a typical copout of the phony politician that he is. Many, unfortunately, judge candidates on their speeches, style, and charisma and don't bother to look at their record, associates, character and values. They judge the book by its cover and the easiest thing in the world is to phony up an attractive cover and title for a book. Unfortunately, few read the book or even scan a chapter or two. Yes, we may be on the brink of electing a blank slate.
* Sen. Obama has not been vetted but there is abundant evidence to indicate his actions, record, associates, character, and values are almost the precise opposite of rhetoric. He positions himself as a centrist, but has always been a far leftist. The classic example is his claim to be the nonpartisan savior that will rise above party and other divides and bring us altogether into an Obama-fashioned utopia.
In fact, he is a pure partisan, who almost always follows the party line (96 percent of the time according to one publication), who has never once took a strong stand against his own party on a significant issue and who has never once demonstrated a non-partisan approach to any significant issue.
He the most liberal man in the Senate, running with the third most liberal as his running mate. He has a history of extreme positions such as, in effect, voting in favor of infanticide and murder (his clear record against passage of the "Born Alive" bill in the Illinois legislature, to give infants born during a botched abortion the right to medical care and the right to life). He admitted during the debate that he voted present (not yes and not no) on that bill as well as on a bill to outlaw partial-birth abortion. He preaches on the difficult moral issue abortion presents but favors a bill that would outlaw all state restrictions on abortion. He views the main purpose of the U.S. Constitution to be the legalization of all forms of abortion and has never voted to restrict it in anyway (such as by requiring parental consent for minors).
* An extremist, a radical and a loony leftist now heads the Democratic Party, but that is not surprising, as the Democratic Party has fallen into the hands of its most radical and its most extreme elements. The liberals and the left-wingers are now in control. This phenomenon has been documented by David Horowitz in his book co-authored with Richard Poe, The Shadow Party. Mr. Horowitz correctly brands the party's recent approaches as dangerous and desperate, evidencing a willingness to suffer defeat in Iraq and an ensuing international calamity if that was necessary to discredit George Bush. The extent of its radicalism was demonstrated when the Democrats attempted to get the United Nations to send election monitors for an election in the United States. This is saying that the U.S. should be viewed as a Banana Republic and that the U.N. should monitor our elections (at a time when the U.N.'s Human Rights Commission was headed by the Libyan dictatorship).
When the matter was raised in the House of Representatives, the Democrats voted five to one to keep the doors open for U.N. monitors. A measure to block the request for U.N. monitors passed 243 to 161, with only 33 Democrats breaking from the party line. Mr. Horowitz and Mr. Poe, write, "Never before had U.S. lawmakers sought to openly, and in such great numbers, to allow foreign meddling in a US election - let alone by a body as morally corrupt as the United Nations, run by tyrannical regimes."
* How a political party and the national media could so conspire to inflict Sen. Obama on the nation has some more fundamental causes. That is the leftward drift of our nation to the land of moral bankruptcy, moral relativism and anti-Americanism. This has been documented in Judge Robert Bork's classic volume, Slouching Toward Gomorrah: Modern Liberalism and American Decline. Mr. Bork argues that the student revolt of the '60s against the Vietnam War was part of a larger trend that continues to this day.
He writes, "The revolt was against the entire American culture. The United States, it was said, was engaged in an immoral war only because the United States itself was deeply immoral being racist, sexist, authoritarian and imperialistic. The arrangements of the liberal capitalist order were themselves illegitimate, conferring power where none was deserved and withholding power from the poor and minorities."
This strong anti-American stream has carried over into our colleges and universities, into the mainstream media, and to a significant intent into the larger society.
* Sen. Obama broke his promise and his basic principles, rejecting public financing and going the private financing route. That has enabled him to outspend Sen. John McCain by a substantial multiple. With that advantage of additional television and other media ads, he also gets an incredible amount of free advertising from the mainstream media further multiplying his media advantage.
* All these forces came together in addition to two other overpowering forces. First, the global financial crisis, caused by Democratic Party malpractice in letting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac run wild. That crisis put the economy into the forefront, sucking the air out of other key issues such as the war on terror. Second, there is the unpopularity of George W. Bush. Those two forces have been feeding Sen. Obama's candidacy.
This is where we are, but there is hope. With that kind of advantage running his way, Sen. Obama should have an insurmountable lead by now. But he doesn't and the election is still up for grabs. Pollsters are pointing out Sen. Obama hasn't been able to "close the deal." Just as he faltered in the primary against Sen. Hillary Clinton, he is faltering now in the general election.
Second, as the Obama candidacy looms larger on the horizon, he may attract more attention and the good sense of the American voter may at last start raising questions and asking whether we should gamble the survival of America and the free world on a relatively unknown, with a razor-thin resume, a band of dangerous associates, and a mountain of wacky far-left ideas, values and proposals.
Dick Morris argues the attention to Sen. Obama as he leads in the polls will force many Americans to have second thoughts on his candidacy.
We have to assume or at least hope and pray that the voters will come to their senses by Nov. 4, and not commit national suicide by electing Sen. Obama. They better ask themselves whether they know enough about Sen. Obama and whether they are willing to risk all on his presidency. They better compare him with Sen. McCain, who is a proven leader, not an unproven novice; who is an undoubted patriot, not someone whose associates and actions suggest he may be part of the liberal hate-America gang. They have to ask whether Sen. Obama understands foreign policy like Sen. McCain surely does, or is Sen. Obama someone who thinks Iran is a tiny country that poses no threat; and Americans must ask if they want a president who seeks victory in the war against terror and in Iraq, and is not a member of the Obama/Reid "wave the white" flag school that believes in appeasement, retreat, surrender and defeat.
And make no mistake about it: Sen. Obama is up to his eyeballs in organizations that promote voter fraud and the intimidation of banks into making bad loans. He is up to his eyeballs in work that promoted the radicalization of students (heading an organization founded and controlled by William Ayers, the unrepentant terrorist), and he has always been close with anti-American, racist, bigot types such as Father Michael Pfleger and Rev. Jeremiah "God Damn America" Wright. And make no mistake about it: He lies constantly when one of his past associates or positions gets exposed, because he knows the mainstream media will give him a free pass.
Here's the latest example of the deceiving, dissembling, deceptive Sen. Obama in action. I heard him asked about his connection with the voter fraud, bank-intimidation machine known as ACORN. He focused on the fact that years ago he was the lawyer in a lawsuit regarding the motor voter law, in which the U.S. Justice Department joined him. He made it sound like history just as he frequently says I was only eight years old when terrorist Mr. Ayers was blowing up the Pentagon and Capitol (conveniently forgetting that he was in his 30s and 40s when he had a long and close working relationship with Mr. Ayers, that involved, among other things, a project to radicalize school children). In the review he conveniently forgot about all of his other long-term close connections with ACORN.
On the ACORN matter, in a press release, he repeated the same dishonest approach, conveniently forgetting that his campaign recently paid ACORN more than $800,000. When Sen. McCain called him on the $830,000 payment during the debate, he simply ignored the issue. Here's what he said in the debate on this matter: "The only involvement I've had with ACORN was I represented them alongside the U.S. Justice Department in making Illinois implement a motor voter law that helped people get registered at DMVs."
That's the fattest lie ever told, as he has had relationships with ACORN since the beginning of his career. He was a trainer for them. He ran a registration drive with them. He, as already noted, gave ACORN an $830,000 payment during the primaries. During the primaries he also bragged to a group of community activists about his long relationship with ACORN. At another point he told community organizers including ACORN he would meet with them right after the election to set presidential priorities. The man simply can't tell the truth about his dangerous associates, suggesting he is not only just a liar, but also a pathological liar.
Recently, his Web site posted the lie that he had no connection with ACORN, but that was subsequently taken down when the campaign realized that even the mainstream media might not stomach such a blatant lie.
Remember that Sen. Obama and ACORN were right in the middle of the recent financial crisis. ACORN waged a constant battle to intimidate and harass banks into making bad loans, to further the cause of affordable housing, championed to an irrational extent by the Democratic Party, Sen. Obama and the likes of Rep. Barney Frank and Sen. Chris Dodd. Remember, Sen. Obama was the No. 2 recipient of financial contributions from those connected with Fannie Mae, the institution at the heart of the housing meltdown. As Sen. Obama was in the Senate for a short time, he would be the No. 1 recipient of the tainted Fannie Mae contributions if they were calculated on a per year basis.
Remember that Sen. McCain proposed regulatory reform to tighten the screws on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, while Sen. Obama and the Democrats were either opposed to the reforms or resting on the sidelines. Remember if you want the wrongdoers behind the meltdown investigated and made accountable, such as Sen. Dodd, Rep. Frank, and Sen. Obama, you better vote for Sen. McCain. Sen. Obama and the Democrats will not make their own party's wrongdoers accountable for what happened. Sen. Obama has never gone against the Party or the corrupt political machine in Chicago, which gave him his first political life. Only Sen. McCain has a long record of calling out members of his own party.
Voters better remember that record trumps rhetoric almost every time. Sen. Obama has pretty rhetoric but the ugliest record you can imagine. Here are just a few points to consider:
* He talks tax cuts, but proposes $1.3 trillion in new spending. Further his tax increases, which he would have you believe are only for the wealthy, will hit small business and the investor class hard, such as the now famous Joe "The Plumber." That will mean less business investment and job cutbacks and losses. Like Herbert Hoover, he proposes tax increases in bad economic times. His increases will hurt our businesses ability to compete in the international market, and also drive businesses and investors into overseas markets.
On top of all that, he admits some of his tax increases, such as that on capital gains, will actually decrease tax revenues. So in addition to tax increases that kill jobs and business, he will also increase our deficit with all the economic problems that entails. When all is considered he will be another Bill Clinton, promising tax cuts during the campaign, but inevitably raising taxes when in office.
* He says he wants to make America safer. But he fought laws and want amendments in the Patriot Act, which has been essential legislation to detect terrorists before they strike.
He wants to cut defense spending by tens of billions of dollars, and cut back on missile defense and other defense systems. He wants to surrender in Iraq and, if he had his way, we would have already left Iraq and turned the Middle East and its oil over to terrorists, al-Qaida and Iran. He wants to talk without preconditions to the autocrats in Iran, Cuba and Venezuela, starting down the path of appeasement and defeat a la Neville Chamberlain and his failure to confront the Nazis.
* He says he wants energy independence. But opposes offshore drilling and other ways to tap our domestic resource that in total exceed the energy resources of Saudi Arabia. He opposes nuclear and coal. Perhaps his energy approach is best summarized by his suggestion to check the air in our tires, and tune-up our cars.
* He taught constitutional law but seems to have little respect for our Constitution and the First Amendment. He encouraged prosecutors in St. Louis to threaten those who falsely criticized his campaign with criminal prosecution. He mobilized his supporters to flood a radio station with calls and e-mails to shut down two Obama critics scheduled to be interviewed. He asked the U.S. Justice Department to investigate an organization running ads critical of Obama. He has shown a willingness to use tactics of intimidation and harassment to defeat First Amendment Rights.
This should not surprise anyone. These are the tactics he used, taught, and encouraged during his days as a community organizer, during his work with ACORN, and during his long and continued work with the thugocracy at ACORN.
* He says he loves his country, but has had a long and close association with America haters.
* He says he has faith in the free market but has long been attracted to Marxist and socialist thinking. Just recently, he told Joe "The Plumber" on the campaign trail that it is good to spread the wealth around. He wants to rob Peter to pay Paul. He thinks he is Robin Hood. This is just another of his European-style approaches to government that has run that continent into the ground and most assuredly would do the same for this continent.
* He says he wants to bring change but both his record and proposals reveal a far left liberal dishing up the same bankrupt ideas of the Democratic Party that have been pulled out for decades -- the constant theme of raising taxes, increasing spending, piling on unnecessary regulation, and doling out all sorts of welfare payments and entitlements.
Herb Denenberg is a former Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner, Pennsylvania Public Utility Commissioner, and professor at the Wharton School. He is a longtime Philadelphia journalist and consumer advocate. He is also a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of the Sciences. His column appears daily in The Bulletin. You can reach him at advocate@thebulletin.us.
©The Bulletin 2008
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