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August 04, 2008 Obama's CraftinessBy Ed LaskyObama has done virtually nothing at the Senate level -- he has not even seen fit to call a meeting of the Committee he heads, the Senate Subcommittee on European Affairs. Despite its name, Obama's subcommittee has some oversight over Afghanistan. While he now says on the campaign trail that Afghanistan requires more focus and attention , he overlooked his own jurisdictional responsibilities in that theatre for the entire time he has served in the US Senate. He refuses to take time off his victory tour to call his subcommittee to order to provide such oversight. Even worse, Obama has a record of taking credit often for work he has not done -- one of the last refuges of a poseur. During his campaign against Hillary, even his fellow Democrats swatted down the presumptuousness of his ploy to gain credit for the work of others. Once he claimed credit for an immigration bill when a camera team was in the vicinity . Now that Obama is the presumptive Democratic nominee, his gall often is overlooked when he claims credit for the work of others, or when he claims to have played a role in the actions of, and membership on, the Senate Banking Committee. Obama is skilled in certain types of legislative maneuvering though. He learned in Illinois statehouse politics how to place poison pill amendments in legislation, or how to sneak regulatory requirements in otherwise innocuous-seeming legislation. While still serving in the Illinois State Senate, he proposed federal legislation that would cripple people's ability to exercise their Second Amendment right to bear arms. Obama wanted to see a federal law against licensed firearm dealers operating within five miles of a school or state park. Experts have wonder if this proposal, given the numerous parks and schools that dot our landscape, would all but foreclose the ability of gun dealers to operate, except in the most remote locations. . As a presidential candidate, however, he now claims to believe in the Second Amendment. Constitutional law lecturer or not, he certainly got the law wrong when it came to the Washington, D.C. handgun ban. And he has supported a wide variety of proposals that would all but eviscerate the practical exercise of that right . He might say he supports the right of Americans to own guns, but he has supported actions that would all but deny them that right. Barack Obama has also proclaimed his tepid support for nuclear energy (his campaign manager David Axelrod has had one very important client besides Obama: Exelon, a major nuclear power utility player. Axelrod planned and executed an Astroturf maneuver -- a fake, corporate sponsored ostensibly "grassroots" campaign, in this case, to compel Illinois to grant the utility the power to raise rates). Yet at the same time, executes behind the scene tactics that would impede the development of nuclear power. Obama has touted his environmental credentials. With global warming scare, nuclear power has become one of the formerly verboten energy sources some environmentalists have warmed to. Yet he has worked to kill the chances of nuclear power becoming an important power source for Americans. Along with the Majority Leader, Nevada Senator Harry Reid, Obama has supported all foreclosing the possibility of using Yucca Mountain (located far away from any people) as a nuclear waste repository. He even advocated the abandonment of the entire project. This despite the fact that billions have been spent developing this critically needed site. This opposition comes despite the fact that America is running out of places to store nuclear waste (right now it is done on-site). This opposition despite studies that show Yucca to be a safe way to store the relatively small amount of nuclear waste generated by our power plants. Paul Mirengoff of Powerline caught Obama in another legislative sleight of hand . The candidate has long opposed off-shore drilling, following the views of many other liberal interest groups. Obama has now flip-flopped again and made a feint towards supporting offshore drilling. Yet Obama, according to Mirengoff,
But Mirengoff writes:
His effort is understandable, politically, if not in terms of the national interest. Barack Obama would face even more political problems if the vastness of our offshore energy resources became more widely known. Because there is no way to produce oil, nobody has bothered to explore the extent of the oil which might be found using modern technology. We have been pumping oil in the Gulf of Mexico for many years. California is our fourth largest oil producing state and we know that it has vast oil reserves offshore because it was producing great amounts of oil offshore until political pressure from the Santa Barbara oil spill all but killed offshore prospects. Our oil and gas technology has vastly improved since then, though Democrats prefer to remain oblivious when it comes to oil and gas technological strides. It is getting downright embarrassing that Cuba has granted offshore drilling rights to Chinese companies that abut Florida's offshore boundaries. Barack Obama knows we cannot have a serious informed debate over offshore oil reserves until we have the facts in hand, and he has worked to make these facts unavailable to fellow Americans. Barack Obama would rather keep us in the dark -- figuratively now, and perhaps literally in the years to come. What else has he kept us in the dark about? Well, he has not been touting his "Global Poverty Act" lately (S.2433)-though earlier he promised to make passage of this bill a "priority" This pleasant sounding bill has provisions buried within its language that would impose many billions of dollars of foreign aid obligations on America (up to $845 billion in the next 13 years over and above what we already give in foreign aid). Some believe that this would grant the United Nations the power to bind America in a wide variety of other areas, as well. Barack Obama is a global citizen, after all. Barack Obama's pattern of legislative behavior should concern all Americans. He has tried to have his cake and eat it, too. He may broadly "support" a wide variety of politically popular causes (the right to bear arms, nuclear power, and now offshore oil drilling) but engage in legislative sleight of hand to foreclose the chances of these goals ever being achieved. This is merely the legislative version of the double-dealing that Barack Obama has displayed over the years. On the campaign trail, he can talk a good game about post-racial politics, but for twenty years he was an acolyte of a man who preached the absolute opposite. He can claim he supports bipartisanship but has the most liberal record in the Senate. He can pander in front of one audience and then change his position the very next day ("Undivided Jerusalem"). Outside the halls of Congress, he can support this or that proposal, but then try to kill it through smoke and mirrors within the halls of Congress. He can take one position and if this is proved wrong or becomes a political problem he can deny he ever held that position or blame staffers for his mistake -- which he has done repeatedly. He can say he supports a political goal for political reasons, and then use legislative actions to prevent this goal from being achieved. For a man who promotes transparency, he sure has a funny way of showing it. His political principle, such as it is, may be "Do As I Say, Not as I Do". It may not sound as pleasant as "Change you can believe in," but it has a track record you can believe in. Ed Lasky is news editor of American Thinker.
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Comments
Craftiness - maybe deceitful is more accurate. He has also tried to avoid his position on abortion.
It seems that Senator Obama is described as having one of the most extreme positions that one can find when it comes to the issue of abortion....Normally, I can understand a lawyer's dancing on the head of a pin for the sake of not wanting to undermine a future legal argument or position. However, regarding Senator Obama, some other details give me pause and raise questions about whether his stated motivation(s) can be trusted.
Obama Would Evidently Throw The Baby Out With The Bathwater found at:
http://zachjonesishome.wordpress.com/2008/08/02/obama-would-evidently-throw-the-baby-out-with-the-bathwater/
Posted by: ZachJonesIsHome | August 4, 2008 06:30 AM
Good article. How is a candidate held accountable when the AP, NYT, CBS, ABC and NBC are decidedly "in the tank" for him? Blog on good soldier, but will your piece ever reach the independents and moderates who will decide the election?
Posted by: Mark30339 | August 4, 2008 08:59 AM
Very convincigly written and i would have believed it, if i was less aware on a lot of issues.
I was recently browsing through FACTCHECK.ORG, a site that has been more neutral than a lot of sites on the charges levied against the 2 candidates.
This is what i found about Obama & McCain on Afghanistan & Iraq:
McCain campaign AD ATTACK: Barack Obama never held a single Senate hearing on Afghanistan. He hasn't been to Iraq in years.
ON AFGHANISTAN: The ad starts by saying Obama "never held a single Senate hearing on Afghanistan," which is literally true. Obama, who is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's subcommittee on European Affairs, hasn't held any Afghanistan hearings. The full Senate Foreign Relations Committee, however, has held three hearings on Afghanistan during the past two years, and Obama attended one of them.
McCain's ad fails to mention that his own record is no better. Although he's the highest ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, he missed all seven of the hearings that his panel held on Afghanistan during the same two years, according to ABCNews.com.
ON IRAQ: literally true, though just barely, is the ad's statement that Obama "hasn't been to Iraq in years." Obama was, of course, heading to Iraq on the weekend when this ad first ran on TV stations. And he had also been to Iraq in January 2006 as part of a delegation of Midwestern lawmakers. That's two-and-a-half years between trips, though the ad's wording makes it sound like much more.
When you do an APPLES to APPLES comparison, guess neither comes out clean!
Posted by: Dissent | August 4, 2008 09:47 AM
This trait is common with the "entitlement" politicians and other "professional" alumni. These people have skated along on entitlement grease and their accomplishments are few and far between. Sorry - Condoleza and Colin are two prime examples. Lots of "presence" but little or not substance. They have become masters of obfuscation because they have no earned skills or abilities; their credibility is granted to them on behalf of the Marxists (universities) and others who feel that giving away credibility will create credibility. It doesn't work. It is simply this; "Because you are black, you are entitled to credibility"
Posted by: Barry Schumann | August 4, 2008 10:38 AM
When is just plain lying going to be called for what it is rather than dressed up as "craftiness" or "he's a politician"?
Readers should google Barack Obama Kugelo to see how he betrayed the Obama family's home town. In 2006 he promised the Kugelo Middle School financial assistance. In a burst of media hype and publicity, the school was renamed the Sen Obama Middle School. 10 members of Obama's own family attend. It has 4 dilapidated rooms, no running water, sanitation or electricity. It needs help. But whilst Obama promised, he sent not one dime. The principal feels betrayed. Same story for the local orphanage. Obama promised assistance. Gave nothing. The orphanage had to close.
He is just a disgrace on every level and the American people need to know - not just republicans- right wingers. When are the liberals going to wake up and smell the very burnt coffee? It just stinks.
Posted by: HRich | August 4, 2008 11:17 AM
I don't know why you fail to mention the actual political actions of Obamination . The disgusting blocking 4 times as a State Senator of a bill to help babies that miraculously survived abortions. Obama was obscenely keen to continue the policy have those babies left to die in refuse buckets. He is an evil man.I PREDICT HIS FIRST EXECUTIVE ORDER WILL BE TO OVERTURN ANY AND ALL RESTRICTIONS ON ABORTION IE. MAKE IT OPEN SLATHER IN ALL STATES.
...Jill Stanek, a registered delivery-ward nurse who was the prime mover behind the legislation after she witnessed aborted babies' being born alive and left to die, testified twice before Obama in support of the Induced Infant Liability Act bills. She also testified before the U.S. Congress in support of the Born Alive Infant Protection Act.
Stanek told me her testimony "did not faze" Obama.
In the second hearing, Stanek said, "I brought pictures in and presented them to the committee of very premature babies from my neonatal resuscitation book from the American Pediatric Association, trying to show them unwanted babies were being cast aside. Babies the same age were being treated if they were wanted!"
"And those pictures didn't faze him [Obama] at all," she said.
At the end of the hearing, according to the official records of the Illinois State senate, Obama thanked Stanek for being "very clear and forthright," but said his concern was that Stanek had suggested "doctors really don't care about children who are being born with a reasonable prospect of life because they are so locked into their pro-abortion views that they would watch an infant that is viable die." He told her, "That may be your assessment, and I don't see any evidence of that. What we are doing here is to create one more burden on a woman and I can't support that."... ( from Zach Jones )
As I said before Obama is an evil man. Remember how he said he wouldn't want his daughters' 'punished with a baby' ? Yes, even killing his own grandchild would be no problem for this satanically controlled man. Also his nasty bitter wife is a fanatical advocate for late term abortion too. They are a perfectly matched couple of far Left Marxist manipulators. Judge him by his words and deeds.
Posted by: Jennifer Parfenovics | August 4, 2008 11:28 AM
Obama wants to have his cake and eat it, too.
He can take popular stances on important issues and then find ways around them when it comes time to write and pass legislation.
He sounds like a lot of people in Washington, John McCain included.
The political skills Obama exhibits are taught at many levels of government. Bill Clinton, America's first black president, must have gone to a similar school.
Clinton promised a middle class tax cut and then proceeded to enact what was then the largest tax increase in US history.
Obama, with his many seemingly contradictory stances, will be in good company.
Posted by: pmk | August 4, 2008 11:50 AM
hes not clever or crafty
he says what his leftist white handlers tell him to say.
and the leftist media spins the message on a minute to minute basis.
the message is simple.
capitalism is evil. capitalism is a failure.
Posted by: donah | August 4, 2008 11:56 AM
Mr.Lasky, great article. Keep up the good work exposing the real Obama.Your readers might want to check out the book THE OBAMA NATION by Jerome R. Corsi,Ph.D.
Posted by: Blake | August 4, 2008 12:06 PM
This is even more blatant flip flopping than Scary Kerry...I'm no political analyst, but I would think even if McCain wont, the RNC should be pounding O'Bummer with his own sandals. Slap! Slap! Slap!
Posted by: CSM | August 4, 2008 12:27 PM
Best watch out, Ed. "Craftiness" sounds like one of those code words. For what exactly I don't know, but forewarned is forearmed.
Thanks to you and Paul for the heads up on Obama's oil and gas inventory obstruction legislation. No doubt if the public knew how much of our natural resources are held in reserve or off-limits for development, one of the drilling naysayer's
biggest arguments--peak oil--would all but disappear.
Say, isn't Obama's adopted hometown known as the Windy City (as a former resident, I would answer my own question with a resounding YES)? I should think that a substantial wind farm "planted" along the lake shore would go a long way to meet the city's energy needs. How about that, Senator?
Posted by: Kyda Sylvester | August 4, 2008 12:45 PM
Obama is a liar, but I'm not sure the credit should go to him for pulling the wool over people's eyes. He's back is covered by the media no matter what he says - he can contradict himself all he wants and it's not going to hurt him much.
Until somebody calls him on it, and people decide to listen.
Posted by: ImmoveableMover | August 4, 2008 01:56 PM
Sorry Dissent, but I think you're stretching it. You concede the first point that you mentioned: that BHO chairs a committee that he has NEVER convened. For a man that touts how we need careful consideration of our war policy, for him to NOT avail himself of a forum that HE MORE OR LESS CONTROLS is telling. And, as you admitted, it's LITERALLY TRUE. So what's your point and how does that bear on McCain?
Secondly, McCain was and is THE PREEMINENT congressional proponent of the "surge" way before the administration adopted it and has been to Iraq (by my last count almost 8 times). He has taken a good deal of heat (by conservatives) for criticizing the administration's war strategy and he stuck to his position even when it imperiled his presidential aspirations. He has conferred with commanders "on the ground" and been in hot spots himself. This is ENTIRELY IN CONTRADISTINCTION from BHO.
How you can then walk away with the (typical liberal)line of, "Hmm. Well I guess neither is good!" is astounding.
Look, just because BHO got his clock cleaned by this article doesn't mean that some sort of attempt at equivalence is going to make it "all better." I am NO FAN of McCain but your attempt to make his record look just like BHOs on the issues mentioned is patently weak.
Posted by: Stephen D Oliver | August 4, 2008 02:26 PM
Republicans should be pounding all Dems, not just Obama, on the energy issue; your point about the off-shore reserves possibly (probably?) being far greater than we now know, and Obama's attempt to keep the American people from finding out what is there and available, should be used against him again and again, perhaps in the form of a question: Why, Senator, don't you want the American people to know about our off-shore reserves?
Posted by: Bob Foster | August 4, 2008 02:56 PM
You might want to ask your State representative energy conservation? How much gas, oil and electricity we could save, if we sent illegal aliens packing.
We cannot keep up the demand for it right now! Oil! Diversity Alliance for Sustainable America.(earthtimes) stated in it's article that if the U.S. grants amnesty and gives citizenship to 12 to 30 million illegal migrants already here, as McCain, Obama and the majority of Democrats propose. That all those naturalized citizens could possibly add 120 million U.S. and foreign-born relatives to the U.S., in the next 20 years whom all will CONSUME MAJOR ENERGY. Does the American people need to escalate the 315 million plus population, the census estimates we have now? To a new total of 435 million?
The executive director of (DASA) admitted "Proposal to reduce energy costs in the U.S. will not work unless we also simultaneously curb U.S. population growth by reducing immigration and curbing teen pregnancies." Severing the illegal immigration occupation and deporting those already here is a good start, but not the complete solution to this serious energy problem that cannot be reversed. Unless another Nikola Tesla, an underrated genius of the 19th century invents a some new form of energy, we will be reliant on fossil fuels for years to come? Clean coal, geothermal, eco-fuel, nuclear and of course wind power and solar. The latter is energy that is a perpetual source of unimaginable power that knows no bounds.
The Save Act (H.R.5088) is an enforcement federal bill only, to start the EXODUS of foreign nationals illegally in AMERICA. NUMBERSUSA has all the unsuppressed facts
Posted by: Brittanicus | August 4, 2008 03:43 PM
Obama is a typical old-time politician who learned his craft in the Chicago political arena and, winning is at all cost. His sleight-of-hand and deceitful ways are no different than the Boss Tweed days. In November we will find out that their number of votes exceeded the number of the population of Illinois. The following American Thinker articles will tell more about this nefarious individual:
August 03, 2008
Obama: The Post-National Candidate
By Rick Moran quoting Jeffrey Kuhner of the Washington Times
July 28, 2008
Deconstructing Obama
By Kyle-Anne Shiver
July 26, 2008
The Racism Cry Returns
By Matthew May
Between now and November we will know how many more there are of us; Obama is really nothing new:
If you once forfeit the confidence of your fellow citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem. You may fool all of the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all the time; but you can't fool all of the people all of the time.
Abraham Lincoln
Posted by: LANYON | August 4, 2008 04:36 PM
I just can't pass up this gem,
" PREDICT HIS FIRST EXECUTIVE ORDER WILL BE TO OVERTURN ANY AND ALL RESTRICTIONS ON ABORTION IE. MAKE IT OPEN SLATHER IN ALL STATES."
If it were so easy, I would vote for Obama so he would do exactly that. That is exactly what any conservative and libertarian dreams of. Poltical issues handled at a State level where problems were meant to be solved. No USSC or federal politicans telling people how to solve their issues. If that is what an Obama presidency means, count me in to vote for him. I'd love for issues like abortion to be decided in the State where I reside. Oh, man, wouldn't that be heaven or as close as one can come in this day and age?
Posted by: Deavis | August 4, 2008 09:42 PM
Outstanding piece.
Oh, and the comeback to "Dissent" was perfect. BHO is not just a finger-in-the-wind flip-flopper, but a backstabber to boot.
The man is a snake.
Posted by: wrecktafire | August 4, 2008 10:47 PM
Barack "Barry" Hussein bin O'BoomBox (nee: Obama) is melliloquent!
Posted by: WORDSMITH | August 5, 2008 12:49 AM
Dear Mr Ed Lasky,
Have you been paid to tarnish Obama's image? Your information is so biased that one keeps on asking your real intentions. You can make noise, but you will not stop the better candidate. I regret people still think like you.
Che
Posted by: Che | August 5, 2008 01:03 AM
Che just another liberal who's mind is made up so please don't confuse him with the FACTS.
And if you can't refute the message then just attack the messenger.
Posted by: Jade | August 5, 2008 02:48 PM
A great job with the article Ed & with little factual opposition against it too I might add.
If any person, liberal or conservative has some difficulty deciding who to vote for or in many voters minds who to vote against then they must watch this video & see for themselves and listen to his words & hear for yourselves.
(www.phforamerica.com)
This should change the thoughts of most all voters except possibly the most conservative hating far left liberalists that exists.
Posted by: Jbuck | August 6, 2008 03:09 AM
Che!...boobala...where have you been? We missed your homemade potato salad at the founders kegger in the Commie Wing of Hell! Mao wokked his doggies in the fiery pit...Stalin's Kolyma rotten beet and sawdust chili were a hit...as was Lenin's dry grass with crickets cole slaw.
We had fond memories of your brilliant execution of that starving little 14 yr old thief that filched the peoples bread crust in the guerrilla camp...one less mouth to feed! Mao's quip that one must occasionally kill a chicken to scare the monkeys was priceless! He gets oiled up on Tsing-dao beer and his syphilitic brain lesions get inflamed...that chubby Chinese knucklehead is a hoot! The point blank head shot with your beloved .45 was a work of art! Blam! Splooey! Bloody brain goop everywhere!The look on the traitor's face was priceless! You rock Dudesky!
You kept strict discipline and good order after your demonstration of my ruthless revolutionary purity doctrine. Your cold hate was sublime! I got a chill up my leg! We also had a nostalgic video show of your firing squads at the La Cabana prison. The garbled pleas for mercy were priceless! You scamp!
I must send instructions to my beloved Obamavich. His magic Muslim turban strobes red and plays 'The Internationale' ring tone and Uncle Karl whispers suggestions to him from beyond the Iron Curtain. He will deliver that last stubborn hold out America to me by Christmas. Red blessings on my favorite creation! Your hot pistol of cold revolutionary justice can be holstered for now dear Ernesto. The MSM is doing your old job splendidly with their loud blanks!
Posted by: St. Karl's Ghost | August 7, 2008 11:19 PM