A Question of Judgment - Part I

Over twenty years ago Barack Obama joined the church of Reverend Jeremiah Wright in south Chicago. At the time Mr. Obama was an outsider looking for a way in to the community. Rev. Wright's church was the "in" that Mr. Obama needed and he embraced the church an Rev. Wright for many years. But the message of Rev. Wright is not one of unity and peace. It is a message of division and anger, promulgating racial stereotypes and feeding hatred based on an anti-American point of view. Why else would a man of the cloth, speaking from the pulpit utter the words, "God damn America." What kind of a man brings people together by pointing out from the pulpit, when young children are in the audience, that America is the "US of KKK A." 

Mr. Obama strongly defended Reverend Wright earlier this year, but the following video report from ABC News appears to reveal the true nature of the teachings of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright.

The video does not lie. Reverend Jeremiah Wright frequently preached hate and division from his pulpit. And all along Barack Obama was there. Reverend Wright performed his marriage. Reverend Wright baptized his children. And now Senator Obama claims he never heard anything like what is seen in this video. How is that possible? I don't think it is. How is it possible that Senator Obama who paints himself as a post-partisan uniter could listen to the ravings of Jeremiah Wright and think those teachings were worth absorbing?

The are two answers that make sense to anyone. One is that Senator Obama believes that we live in the United States of KKK. And he believes that with 9/11 our chickens came home to roost. Or maybe Senator Obama doesn't believe it but associated himself with Jeremiah Wright because it was convenient and beneficial for him to do so. Because it must be very hard for a Hawaiian-raised, Ivy League educated person to insinuate themselves into the lives of the people in a city he knew nothing about. 

So I believe that Mr. Obama embraced the marriage of convenience in order to gain acceptance in a community where he was a stranger. But in doing so Mr. Obama sold out his principles to a man whose highest principles are sowing the seeds of division and hatred in order to cement his own power. 

Senator Obama finally distanced himself from Jeremiah Wright after Rev. Wright continued to make divisive comments at a National Press Club appearance. The Senator is way beyond the streets of Chicago so he doesn't need the Reverend's support any more. It is worth noting that Rev. Wright recently retired to a million dollar mansion and even found himself a new lady friend. Things seems to be going well for both Senator Obama and Rev. Wright. I guess all's well that ends well.

Barack Obama has a longstanding relationship with the activist group known as ACORN. The name ACORN (it stands for Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now) sounds harmless enough. But their track record is questionable at best. It's pretty easy to understand why Senator Obama has a past with ACORN. The Senator is famously known as a community organizer. And while no one questions the work that Senator Obama did for ACORN I wonder why Senator Obama would ever align himself with a group whose tactics are so questionable.

ACORN's primary functions involved voter registration and local activism. ACORN's local activism has long included the practice of pressuring banks to make loans to those who could not afford them. A New York Times report titled Fading Red Line details the efforts of ACORN, aided by the Bill Clinton Justice Department, to force banks to make loans to low-income borrowers. A quote from that report follows with emphasis added by myself.

There is no doubt that ACORN, and other groups like them, played a very prominent role in creating the current financial crisis. Banks made loans and did business that they would not otherwise engage in because they feared being tagged as discriminatory. The actions of ACORN amount to cultural extortion. We see now, that the long term results of the efforts of ACORN have lead to financial devastation for much of America.

Barack Obama has recently made attempts to distance himself from ACORN. But if Senator Obama wasn't practicing the ACORN doctrine then what was he doing as a community organizer? What agenda did Obama adhere to that was different from the ACORN agenda?  

Whether or not Senator Obama ever worked directly for ACORN is a point of contention. But no one disputes that Senator Obama sympathizes with the group and supports their causes. Stanley Kurtz of National Review says that, "...a bit of digging into Obama's years in the Illinois State Senate indicates strong concern with Acorn's signature issues, as well as meetings with Acorn and the introduction by Obama of Acorn-friendly legislation on the living wage and banking practices. The Cleveland Leader also recently published an article about Obama and ACORN that provides more details on the relationship and states that, "Attempts to hide evidence of Obama's involvement with ACORN have included wiping the web clean of potentially damaging articles that had appeared, and were previously publicly accessible."  

What makes this association very important is the fact that ACORN is a very powerful group in Chicago politics. But they are also very powerful nationally and have pushed ideas and utilized tactics that have been damaging to the United States on many levels. Senator Obama never questioned these ideas or tactics, even as members of the group have been arrested and convicted across the country.

Today the strong ties between Senator Obama and ACORN continue. His campaign made an $800,000 payment to an ACORN subsidiary earlier this year. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports that, "An Obama spokesman said Federal Election Commission reports would be amended to show Citizens Services Inc. -- a subsidiary of ACORN -- worked in "get-out-the-vote" projects, instead of activities such as polling, advance work and staging major events as stated in FEC finance reports filed during the primary."

Just this week we have the news that ACORN helped one person register to vote 72 times. the FBI has raided ACORN's Las Vegas offices to investigate a number of alleged offenses including, "...submitting fraudulent voter-registration forms -- including for the starting lineup of the Dallas Cowboys."