Who matters, who doesn't?

Just one citizen's take on Obama's alleged alliances and associations, and whether they're important or not.

Franklin Raines

A Washington Post article quoted Raines saying he was receiving calls from the Obama campaign. Once it became a campaign issue, Obama denied it. In this case, I can easily see Raines as just a disgraced former executive exaggerating his influence, puffing up his importance. I suspect calls were made. His immediate predecessor at Scammie Mae, Jim Johnson, was associated with Obama's campaign. Johnson could have deferred to the more recent experience of Raines and suggested the call (or calls). Ultimately though, based on the flimsy evidence, McCain played overplayed his hand on this issue.

Bill Ayers

Should we care about a washed up old terrorist? Yes.

With Ayers history and radical views, it was at best poor judgment and/or ignorance on Obama's part to let Ayers have any part in his state senate campaign. At worst, Ayers was promoting Obama's campaign because he recognized a kindred spirit. While we can't judge candidates entirely by the people who merely endorse them, it is fair to judge candidates by the people they seek out for support.

Plus there were some very questionable "reforms" promoted and funded by the Annenberg Challenge and the Woods Foundation. The educational press and the campaign dismiss them as perfectly mainstream. But have we not seen, time and time again, educational doctrine that conflicts with our values?

ACORN

Make up your mind, Senator Obama.

On one page of your own website, it says "I've been fighting alongside ACORN on issues you care about my entire career. Even before I was an elected official, when I ran Project Vote voter registration drive in Illinois, ACORN was smack dab in the middle of it, and we appreciate your work.”

Elsewhere on the site:
Fact: Barack was never an ACORN community organizer.
Fact: ACORN never hired Obama as a trainer, organizer, or any type of employee.
Fact: ACORN was not part of Project Vote, the successful voter registration drive Barack ran in 1992.

ACORN "smack dab in the middle of it but "not part of". Obama aligns himself with ACORN and their goals on one page of his own website. On another, he throws them under the bus. Does this remind anyone of ....

Reverend Wright

Crop Circles. Missing socks in the dryer. Area 51. Those multiplying wire hangers in my closet. McCain's dismissal of Wright as an issue in this campaign. All mysteries we may never be able to explain.

Since McCain won't do it, allow me.

Twenty years.
Twenty years.
Twenty years.

Reverend Wright paints America as an ugly, racist, evil society, bent on oppressing minorities at every turn. He has made vile and fantastically paranoid accusations against our government. For twenty years, Obama sat in the pews. Damn right I care that Obama soaked in Wright's hatred and divisiveness on a regular basis for twenty years.

I simply cannot fathom how the despicable rhetoric spewed by Wright is compatible with being a spiritual mentor and advisor to a future President of the United States. But Obama left Wright's church, you say? No amount of eloquence summoned up by Obama now erases twenty years of absorbing the hate and bile.

Did I mention Obama and Wright go back twenty years?

Others?

I don’t know enough yet about some of the other names tossed around. I’m working on learning what I can. But for those who don’t have the time, I strongly suggest at least keeping up on the Investor’s Business Daily editorials. I opened my blog asking everyone to read these and pass it on, and I think it bears repeating. We really need to think about what we’re getting into with Obama. I happen to be an unabashed free-market loving fiscal conservative, but even if you are not – maybe you just always vote for the Democrat – think long and hard before pulling the lever next to the D this year. Please.

Besides - trust me on this - with McCain, you’re pretty close to getting a Democrat anyhow. He wasn’t my choice in the caucus this year. Not my second choice… Not even my third. I liked him better than Huckabee though. McCain has driven us conservatives up a wall for the last few years – Try him, you’ll probably like him.