The Bad Company Of Barack Obama

National Review Online: The Senator's "Change" Would Radically Alter This Country

(National Review Online)  This column was written by Andrew McCarthy

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Why is Barack Obama so comfortable around people who so despise America and its allies? Maybe it’s because they’re so comfortable around him.

He presents as the transcendent agent of “change.” Sounds platitudinous, but it’s really quite strategically vaporous. Sen. Obama is loath to get into the details of how we should change, and, as the media’s Chosen One, he hasn’t had to.

But he’s not, as some hopefully dismiss him, a charismatic lightweight with a gift for sparkling the same old vapid cant. Judging from the company he chooses to keep, Obama’s change would radically alter this country. He eschews detail because most Americans don’t believe we’re a racist, heartless, imperialist cesspool of exploitation. The details would be disqualifying.

MICHELLE
So, instead, we get glimpses. The most profound influence in his life, his wife Michelle, is notoriously less circumspect than her careful husband about where she’s coming from. Her college thesis, which Princeton tried to keep under lock and key, testifies to a race-obsessed worldview. She may have refined it, but she’s never grown out of it.

After four years at one of America’s most esteemed academic institutions, Michelle recoiled at the thought of “further integration and/or assimilation into a white cultural and social structure that will only allow me to remain on the periphery of society; never becoming a full participant.” That the sky has been the limit for her, that she has managed to ride the “periphery” from Princeton to Harvard Law School, to one of the country’s top law firms, and to a plethora of prestigious institutional positions, has not much altered her perspective. Through the windows of her mansion on Chicago’s south side, American society still appears as a caste system.

The United States, she says, is “just downright mean.” Never, prior to her husband’s presidential run, had she had a reason to feel proud of it, she told a campaign throng. But by last November, with Barack’s pursuit of the brass ring catching momentum, she suddenly got plenty proud. And confident: so much so that she was moved to tell MSNBC, “Black America will wake up and get it” -- unite and carry him over the finish line.

THE REV. WRIGHT
Years earlier, the Obamas had gravitated to the baleful Rev. Jeremiah Wright, an unapologetic racist and hard Left firebrand. They were comfortable with him -- and he with them.

By the senator’s own account, Wright is the inspiration for his memoir, The Audacity of Hope -- the title is cribbed from a Wright sermon (“The Audacity to Hope”). For Michelle, who had written that a racial “separationist” would have a better understanding of American blacks than “an integrationist who is ignorant to their plight,” Wright’s Trinity Church mission statement had to resonate, right from its opening declaration:

We are a congregation which is Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian… Our roots in the Black religious experience and tradition are deep, lasting and permanent. We are an African people, and remain ‘true to our native land,’ the mother continent, the cradle of civilization.

Rev. Wright inspired his congregation -- of which the Obamas were 20-year members -- with “black liberation theology.” The doctrine is itself the inspiration of James Hal Cone, a professor of “Systematic Theology” at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Cone is also the author of several books, which a tendentious Wright urged Sean Hannity to read during a recent interview.

It’s a useful suggestion. For example, there is Cone’s 1969 opus, Black Theology and Black Power, in which he helpfully explains:

Black theology refuses to accept a God who is not identified totally with the goals of the black community. If God is not for us and against white people, then he is a murderer, and we had better kill him. The task of black theology is to kill Gods who do not belong to the black community.... Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy. What we need is the divine love as expressed in Black Power, which is the power of black people to destroy their oppressors here and now by any means at their disposal. Unless God is participating in this holy activity, we must reject his love.

Black liberation theology, as Wright has elaborated, is closely aligned with the “liberation theology” of Nicaragua during the seventies and eighties: i.e., the doctrine that catalyzed Marxist revolutionaries. It spurred an unabashedly Leftist movement that emphasized, you guessed it, the crying need for “change” -- as George Russell aptly described it in a 2001 Time magazine analysis, “social change in the process of spiritual improvement.”

It is this same drive for upheaval, for supplanting a political order which purportedly treats blacks as “less than human,” that impelled Wright’s plea for God to “damn America.” In the oppression narrative, the murder of 3000 Americans on 9/11 isn’t terrorism but social justice. America, after all, had it coming. For Wright, it was “chickens coming home to roost.” Indeed, Wright sometimes prefers to call our country “the U.S. of KKK A” -- a grotesque sentiment which, we shall see, is shared by others with whom the Obamas choose to associate themselves.

For their part, the Obamas couldn’t get enough of Wright. Barack and Michelle had him marry them. They chose him to baptize their children, who were routinely exposed to Wright’s race-baiting bombast.

Obama and his supporters brusquely dismiss the drawing of sensible inferences from these gestures of admiration as “guilt by association.” In point of fact, though, the Obamas didn’t just associate with Wright. They subsidized him to the tune of over $20,000 -- not exactly chump change from a couple without great means or any history of philanthropy to speak of. And until recent public attention to the pastor’s noxious rants threatened to derail his White House bid, Sen. Obama kept Wright officially on board as part of his campaign’s “African American Religious Leadership Committee.”

BILL AYERS AND BERNADINE DOHRN
With this as background, is it really all that startling that Sen. Obama enjoys a friendly relationship with Bill Ayers and his wife, Bernadine Dohrn, a pair of terrorists?

I want to be clear here: Not terrorist sympathizers. Terrorists.

The mainstream media, in their zeal to elect a Democrat, are assiduously airbrushing Ayers: “an aging lefty with a foolish past,” as the Chicago Sun-Times has so delicately put it. In fact, it is the press that is rife with foolish, aging lefties. Ayers, by contrast, is an unapologetic terrorist with a savage past -- one who beat the system he so reviles when, after his years of fugitivity, terrorism charges were dropped due to government surveillance violations. He’s “guilty as sin,” by his own concession, but “free as a bird.”

Ayers didn’t just carry a sign outside the Pentagon on May 19, 1972. He bombed it. As his memoir gleefully recalled, “Everything was absolutely ideal on the day I bombed the Pentagon. The sky was blue. The birds were singing. And the bastards were finally going to get what was coming to them.”

Whether Pentagon bombing day was more or less ideal than other days, when he, Dohrn and their Weathermen comrades bombed the U.S. Capitol, the State Department, and sundry banks, police stations and courthouses, Ayers does not say. But on each occasion, there was surely optimism that the bastards were finally going to get what was coming to them.

There were lots of bombs. There is no remorse. “I don’t regret setting bombs,” he told the New York Times in 2001, sorry only that he and the others “didn’t do enough.” Like what? We can’t be sure, though National Review Online’s Jonah Goldberg recounts Ayers’s sentiments back in the day: “Kill all the rich people. Break up their cars and apartments. Bring the revolution home, kill your parents, that’s where it’s really at.”

Ayers and Dohrn have done the actual dirty work of terror, while Jeremiah Wright draws the line at waving pom-poms. But the prism through which they assay the dirty work is precisely the same: America has it coming.

For them, that makes all the difference. It’s not terror, just chickens coming home to roost. “Terrorists destroy randomly,” Ayers rationalizes with nauseating arrogance, “while our actions bore ... the precise stamp of a cut diamond. Terrorists intimidate, while we aimed only to educate.” Right. As her companion Discover the Networks profile illustrates, Dohrn now goes even further: insisting their bombings weren’t terrorist acts at all: “We rejected terrorism. We were careful not to hurt anybody.”

Maybe she’s forgotten the “bastards getting what was coming to them” part. Or maybe she’s just lying. She was, we can be confident, something less than a model of compassion back then -- like at the Weathermen “War Council” meeting in 1969, when she famously gushed over the barbaric Manson Family murders of the pregnant actress Sharon Tate, coffee heiress Abigail Folger, and three others: “Dig it! First they killed those pigs, then they ate dinner in the same room with them. They even shoved a fork into the victim’s stomach! Wild!”

Charming. The “War Council,” it should be noted, concluded by first condemning the United States for -- what else? -- its pervasive racism, then formally declaring war against what the Weathermen called “AmeriKKKa.” Rev. Wright would have understood.

It was at the Chicago home of Ayers and Dohrn that Obama, then an up-and-coming “community organizer,” had his political coming out party in 1995. Not content with this rite of passage in Lefty World -- where unrepentant terrorists are regarded as progressive luminaries, still working “only to educate” -- both Obamas tended to the relationship with the Ayers.

Barack Obama made a joint appearance with Bill Ayers in 1997 at a University of Chicago panel on the outrage of treating juvenile criminals as if they were, well, criminals. Obama apologists say, “So what? People appear with other people all the time.” Nice try. This panel was orchestrated by none other than Michelle Obama, then an Associate Dean of Student Services. Ayers didn’t happen to be there -- he was invited by the Obamas to educate students on the question before the house: “Should a Child Ever Be Called a ‘Super Predator?’”

And here’s how the University’s press release chose to describe this would-be super predator:
William Ayers, author of A Kind and Just Parent: The Children of Juvenile Court (Beacon Press, 1997), says “We should call a child a child. A 13-year-old who picks up a gun isn’t suddenly an adult. We have to ask other questions: How did he get the gun? Where did it come from?”

Ayers, who spent a year observing the Cook County Temporary Juvenile Detention Center in Chicago, is one of four panelists who will speak on juvenile justice[.]
The other panelists included “Illinois State Sen. Barack Obama … who is working to block proposed legislation that would throw more juvenile offenders into the adult system.” The goal was to promote change, to actuate the vision of “Chicago reformer” Jane Addams, who’d sought “the establishment of a separate court system for children which would act like a ‘kind and just parent’ for children in crisis.” Never mind the crises they’d caused the victims of their wanton murders and mayhem -- the fault for those, surely, was our downright mean society.

The Ayers and Obama, meantime, kept up. There was yet another panel in 2002, Obama and Ayers waxing on “Intellectuals in Times of Crisis.” Dohrn, too, was asked to weigh in, on a panel addressing the question, “Why Do Ideas Matter?” I’m sure it was, er, wild.

RASHID KHALIDI
In the interim, Ayers and Obama had teamed up for three years on the board of the Woods Fund, a Chicago charitable organization. Together, they voted to donate $75,000 of the largesse they controlled to the Arab American Action Network. The AAAN was co-founded by Rashid Khalidi, a longtime supporter of Palestinian “resistance” attacks against Israel, which he openly regards as a racist, apartheid state. Despite considerable evidence to the contrary, Khalidi peremptorily denies having been a PLO operative or having directed its official press agency for six years (from 1976 to 1982). There can be no gainsaying, though, that he was an influential apologist for Yasser Arafat, the terror master who spawned two Intifadas and ordered the murder of American diplomats.

In the mean, besotted United States, of course, being a terrorist, a terror apologist, or simply raging at the machine qualifies one for a cushy academic soapbox. Thus did Khalidi eventually land on his feet at the University of Chicago, where he ran in the same circles as Associate Dean Michelle Obama, Law Professor Barack Obama, University of Illinois-Chicago Education Professor Bill Ayers, and Northwestern Law Professor Bernadine Dohrn (who prepared for a career in instructing future officers of the court with a stint in federal prison for flouting a judge’s order that she testify in a grand jury investigation into the Weathermen’s infamous Brinks robbery-murders).

For Khalidi, though, greener pastures called: the opportunity to become a professor of Arab Studies at Columbia University. There, he now directs Edward Said’s legacy: Columbia’s notoriously Israel-bashing Middle East Institute -- though, much to the University’s chagrin, he was scratched in 2005 from a program designed educate teachers on instructing their young students about the Middle East. New York City schools chancellor Joel Klein concluded Khalidi’s splenetic meanderings mightn’t be the best model.

They didn’t faze Barack Obama, though. He was front and center with Ayers and Dohrn at a farewell bash when Khalidi left Chicago for New York. It was only right. Khalidi, after all, had hosted a fundraiser for Obama in 2000, when the latter launched an unsuccessful campaign for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. And so it goes. A few weeks ago, Khalidi told worldnetdaily.com he supports Obama’s presidential run “because he is the only candidate who has expressed sympathy for the Palestinian cause,” and because Obama has promised negotiations with Iran.

Ayres, too, provided a minor ($200) contribution to Obama, in 2001. That was the year of September 11, just a few days before the Times published its excerpt of Ayres’s remembrances of bombings past. Read the short interview and ask yourself: Could anyone, let alone someone as sophisticated as Barack Obama, chat with Bill Ayers for about 30 seconds and not know exactly where is coming from?

Could they really have been friends? Well, Ayers is virtually channeling Michelle Obama and Jeremiah Wright when he wails that American “society is not a just and fair and decent place.”

“God, what a great country,” he scoffed to the Times. “It makes me want to puke.”

Hey, right back at you there, Professor. At least that’s how most of us are likely to feel. But not Sen. Obama. And that’s why Ayers -- like Khalidi and Wright and Michelle Obama, and others who know the senator well while we’ve been told precious little -- sees in Barack Obama the change he’s been waiting for.

No thanks.

[ljb6599]

How can anyone take anything seriously from this neocon think tank magazine!!!

[thatanial]

They forgot to mention his good buddy Rezko. This guy was buying slums in Obamas district, getting money to rebuild them into affordable housing, then takes the money and doesnt even bother to pay the heat bill, in Chicago, in the winter, good lookin out Obama.

This man is nothing but a racist liberal eliteist, just like the rest of them. His double talking excuses for corruption are no differant than Bush or Clinton.

He wont be renegotiating NAFTA, or any other free trade agreement, its ridiculous to even think he could, or that any good would come from it. He wont be pulling troops out of Iraq nor will he be doing anything in Pakistan we arent already doing.

If the democrats would hold their own to the same standard they hold everyone else, maybe one day they can come up with a decent candidate for a change.

[sharncedar]

They is scared of Obama now, they is skeered of anybody who thinks for hisself.

[coffee71-2009]

Andrew McCarthy - people like you are what is wrong with America. You thought that you finally saw a chance to sabotage a brilliant black man who is just few inches away from becoming the next president ? People like you are just great at one thing. Destruction of real talents!

[coffee71-2009]

CBS, it is time you changed you name. To Fox News 2.

[ednamoore]

stop hating on Obama, and talk abut the nasty priests.At least zObama sdidn''t say these words, but the Catholic Priests certainly molested the little children.Now this is where your emphasis should be. Tell all Catholics to denounce the catholic church, and the Pedophilia Priests, and close the doors...

[ednamoore]

Why wasn''t there a big shout out for all Ctholics when the BIG Priests scandal hit? You people are so hypocrical, and these so called men of God are still up to the same ole tricks..Molestation:

[nothtime]

In America McCarthy is entitled to his OPINION, but he just doesn''t get what it is like to be marginalized and excluded from America''s mainstream culture. Obama does. Even if he now enjoys the rewards of his law school, book writing and lawmaking efforts in the form of a nice house and a good standard of living, I think he remembers what it felt like to be a "scholarship" student in a privileged world. That''s the perspective those of us who have been marginalized, whether for our social/economic class, our education, our race or our ***, need in the White House. It''s not a "black" perspective! Bottom line: he "gets it" for both sides of nearly every division in this country. What better person to bring us together?

[it_oldtimer]

This country NEEDS to be radically altered. It''s long overdue, in fact.

[katie1263]

Andrew,
YOU ARE DEAD ON ACCURATE. THANK YOU FOR WRITING THIS STORY. WAKEUP AMERICA!!

[glock4me]

CBS, it is time you changed you name. To Fox News 2.


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Posted by coffee71 at 11:45 AM : Apr 13, 2008

Yes, they are finally showing a little "fair and balanced" coverage for a change.

Get ready for President McCain. If Osama is the dem nominee, this kind of factual news story will destroy him. (It will only get worse after he is nominated... you know it to be true.) If Hillary is the dem nominee then all of the Osama fans will throw a temper tantrum and stay home.

The constitution won''t allow 4 more years of Bush, but 8 years of McCain is the next best thing. Sure your type spews a bunch of hate, but deep down inside when you lie awake in bed at night, you know McCain will be the next president.

The dems can''t even capitalize on an incumbent with 30% approval ratings. Do we want them running the country?

[martyforh]

Thank you for writing in one article what we have all wondered. For such a popular candidate, hopefully the mainstream media will not wait until the general election to cover the background of the candidate and the influencers of his philosophy for Change!

[spencess]

McCarthy, as in "McCarthyism." Related? So (too) much of what you write is pure bigotry, if not racism.
And see all of your fellows blog in, as if it is you, the Chosen One. Obviously lacking any professional (or other) ethics, how the rag that you work for can
aoorove or otherwise sign off on your self-appointed ranting escapes me. You pander to the worst in us, the the underbelly or darkest side of our so-called
humanity. I''d cry out: "shame on you"; however I know that said comment would simply add to your fun day.

[spencess]

(MartyforH)...
"mainstream media .... cover the background, etc." ?!
Are you so blindly stupid as to think that your Hil & her staff haven''t tuned every stone on the planer, to do just that. Tsk tsk. Not to mention "media" types such as those so-called professionals, employed by Fox News. Blind leading the blind.

[cgpb]

Thank you for saying it like it is.
Obama%u2019s latest disappointing remark on small town communities and Michelle%u2019s%u2019 earlier speech of her pride in America, are perfect examples of blatant, negative rhetoric that divides us, rather than unite us.They always mean what they say and we sure don%u2019t need interpreters to understand their beliefs and issues. Reverend Wrights%u2019 angry and bitter speeches have definitively rubbed off on them.

[kaxlen]

It''s amazing how many people on here seem to be attacking the author of this article rather than refuting the points he makes. It really seems surprisingly closed minded - I would even say, perhaps, surprisingly conservative.

I have definately been impressed by Obama, but I certainly think it is important to investigate and understand someone before blindly following them - especially in today world where you can''t learn anything from a politician by just listening to what they say.

The things in this article were definately thought provoking, and I hope they provoke looking into. And I don''t mean just blindly abandoning any support for Obama, either, but rather a better understanding of who he is, to know if he''ll take this country where we want it to go.

[spencess]

(Glock4me, et al)..
"balanced coverage"?? "'' factual'' news story"?? That you refer to Mr. Obama as "Osama" says it all, as re. where you''re coming from, or what planet. Do you live
in USA? If so, do you gleen all of your so-called news out of latest comic books? Look in the mirror.

[imnho]

It looks like this writer really has issuses with the fact that the next POTUS maybe a minority. If Obama lived in the same country with someone he assumes that Obama agrees with his views. Its just a selectable guilty by association.

[spencess]

(cgpb, et al)...
Say what?! And what is it about Mr. Obama''s refreshingly "telling it like it [really] is? Are you so naieve that you don''t believe that there are countless hundreds of thousands of foks, right here in good ol'' USA, that are, infact, "bitter," disenfranchised, angry. For Ms. CLinton to state that she never, ever experienced or heard of any such thing is the/her biggest lie yet (ref. her comments made weeks ago, when she related the lie about the poor woman who was denied health care, etc.) So tragic
more of the same, "blid leading the blind."

[sarahwb13]

Thank you to CBS for finally doing some digging on this mans history. I''ve researched this for quite a white, but have always wondered why the mainstream media almost refuses to engage on anything that may be negative toward the Obama campaign. For everyone else telling the writer to ''commit suicide'' and things like that; you are forgetting that, yes, while this article does sound more personal than a journalist should be, it still doesn''t take away from the fact that Barack Obama has these relationships with these VERY questionable people, and you have to ask yourself, "if he wins, is he going to try and appoint these kinds of people to the cabinet? to the vice presidency?"

I understand that many of you are angry, and let your anger and frustration out on here, but if your first thought is anger and not ''gee, what can I refute that with?'' then you need to question whether or not you know your candidate well enough to back him/her in a national election.

[sunny20081]

Wow, interesting in deed. Are you just waking up from sleep journalist Andrew or did Hilary pay you to do this? No doubt she boldly said she was going to be nominated. Well, do you have some more? Obama does not run away from his enemies, he gets close to them so he can fight them. He is not in a cult like some of you! You are led by the devil you serve, when God chooses to bring up a man who can proudly speak about Jesus without shame, you try to fight him! Well, remember this, God will fight those who fight against His choice. If Hilary is the choice, thank God! If McCain is the choice, well done. If Obama is the choice, good still. But remember Oh ye fellow Americans, if Obama does not become president, then God wants to judge this country. There shall be untold natural disasters to overwhelming proportions! Unemployment shall reach an unbearable percentage! I love America, but unfortunately racism is tearing it apart, especially with ignorant journalists who use their fingers to pour out their racial views about a candidate!
God bless Americans, God bless Obama! God bless Hilary! God bless McCain! God save Andrew!

[sarahwb13]

An amendment to my earlier comment; I meant NRO AND CBS. Andrew is an NRO journalist and CBS is allowing the article to run. Sorry for the confusion!

[magnetrack]

Good for CBS--finally!

[moblou]

I''m very concerned about the company Obama keeps. It is very freightening to think he could be President. But now, it sure looks like to me that Obama is showing himself for the far left latte drinker that he has been since the start. Remember, divide and conquer in Europe by taking advantage of the youth and minority races? Starting to rack them up and the republicans will have a field day in November i.e. monster, NAFTAgate, his real plans for his Irag withdrawal revealed, small town slam and oh yeah, [W]right!!!! Obama%u2019s latest truly revealing small small town slam calling %u201CUS%u201D bitter, etc., finally shows him for the elitist rat that he has been from the start and has managed to hide thus far. Wake up America! He doesn''t care a thing about promoting anybody but himself. We need Hillary Clinton. We can still save the nominating process and the Democratic Party, if we do the right thing in the primaries left to come. Let''s not let the rest of America down. Decisive wins for Hillary in all remaining primaries will put Obama back in his rightful place- a rookie senator. We can still do this and I know the rest of "US" is counting on us. One last thing, where are the ranting raves by the MSM on this issue and why aren''t they running this over and over and over again?

[moblou]

It''s about time one of the MSM gets concerned about who Obama keeps company with. America, we need to tread very carefully here. We are obviously not seeing the whole truth about Obama and now finally CBS is starting to dig!!! Hillary will restore us to our former greatness through prosperity and peace. Wake up please, before it is too late.

[sanfelz]

According to the irrational rants of the Bush apologists at NRO, guilt by association applies only to Democrats, especially if they are of a minority or are female.
According to the logic of neocons, all Catholics must never be elected because some priests engaged in illegal and immoral acts. And *** all those of Irish heritage because they know someone that supports the goals of the IRA. Jews cannot be supported if they condemn any policy of Israel.
Do not support Obama because of his policy positions and programs but these absurd arguments are too absurd even for Pat Robertson and Walter Hagee. Recognize these areguments for what they are: nonsense. The only thing to top the NRO line of reasoning is a white cone-shaped hood.

[moblou]

Where is America''s rage over this issue? Why aren''t all Americans as concerned about this candidates company that he is keeping as I am? This is frightening!!! Are we so blinded to this politician by the MSM that we are not even going to look into his past. For God''s sake people, this man could be President and he is keeping company with terrorist. Wake up before we put a possible terrorist in the Whitehouse- divide and conquer or don''t you remember what that means? I''m getting really scared here.

[moblou]

Am I posting on the wrong article or are we really this stupid and disconnected in America?

[lynnalicat]

All Americans have to do is listen to the speech''s of this man to hear from his heart what he believes. All Of us associate with all kinds of people. School teachers in American have to. Does that make them evil? I have been teaching for 32 years in America. I will vote for Obama. He is a role model among the young. American''s are sick of dirt digging. Why can''t we run decent elections
? The children at school watch the elections to see how to run their''s at school. Is this the way we teach? Dig up who the guy runs with and that tells you who he is. Honestly,
I would hope no one would judge my reputation that way. There have been days I have been seen with people who are considered a different breed. But, teachers help others. I would like to think respectable leaders like Obama do, also. He sets a wonderful example, just listen to his speeches. Look at the wonderful programs he has already began for change. Leave him alone. I would like to see some young people running around in that white house. I am just an old lady but, sometimes years make us wise.

[bleuceruleum]

Wow. CBS is fear-mongering now. I guess it''s okay for Bill Clinton to hang out with Alibaba; and what about Bill Clinton publicly endorsing the 1995 Million Man March? Who called for that march? Louis Farrakhan. Who was the lead organizer? Louis Farrakhan. Who was the keynote speaker? Louis Farrakhan.

After he was out of the White House, President Clinton also endorsed the Million Man March. Who called for that march? Louis Farrakhan. Who was the lead organizer? Louis Farrakhan. Who was the keynote speaker? Louis Farrakhan.

Did Sen. Clinton privately or publicly rebuke her husband for supporting a man whom she has determined to be hateful and divisive?

Billy Graham in a conversation with Richard Nixon described the Jews as "satanic" and offered that they owned the media and peddled pornography.
The pastor McCain calls his "spiritual guide," Rod Parsley, believes America''s founding mission is to destroy Islam, which he calls a "false religion." McCain''s John Hagee, who believes Hurricane Katrina was God''s punishment for gay rights and called the Catholic Church "the Antichrist" and a "false cult."

And per Fox news, let''s not forget Bush''s association with Alamoudi who says he supports Hezbollah, the group the U.S. Navy credits with several anti-U.S. attacks, beginning with a 1983 suicide truck bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut.

[glock4me]

The company one keeps says a lot about who they are. This guy seems to be the Allen Iverson of the democratic party... hanging out with the thugs of the political world... keepin'' it real.

Considering that CBS is one of the more liberal "news" organizations (recall Dan Rather), that they are now running stories unfavorable to B. Hussien Osama means... well... President McCain is what it means.

How the dems managed to fvck this up is beyond me... we''re basically seeing a Memphis-losing-to-Kansas-like collapse. And these id10ts are supposed to get us out of Iraq with honor and dignity?

[dortalk]

The title of this article is totally wrong! Obama does NOT have any "close" relationship with Bill Ayers and his wife. Bill Ayers are just Obama''s colleague.

[dortalk]

The title of this article is totally wrong! Obama does not have any "close" relationship with Bill Ayers and his wife. Ayers is just Obama''s academic colleague and there is nothing wrong with it. Please be responsible for what you say.

[dortalk]

The title of this article is totally wrong! Obama does not have any "close" relationship with Bill Ayers and his wife. Ayers is just Obama''s academic colleague and there is nothing wrong with it. Please be responsible for what you say.

[hoyaloya1]

I love the post by the person saying "all you have to do is listen to [Obama''s] speeches to know his heart."

Apparently some of Obama''s sheep haven''t seen the video that shows Obama''s lines being lifted, verbatim, from movies and other politicians'' speeches. Listening to the audio played on top of the audio . . . with a perfect match not only in verbage but also cadence should be intellectually embarrassing to his missionaries. Maybe denial is the best option for them.

[bademus]

Terrorist sympathy? Do you remember all those pardons on Bill Clinton''s last day in office? He pardoned 16 Puerto Rican FALN terrorists that had exploded 140 bombs in major cities. From: http://www.providence.edu/polisci/students/clinton_pardons/high_profile.html
Bill Clinton pardoned sixteen members of the FALN organization. These men belonged to a Puerto Rican freedom terrorist group, which was responsible for planting over 130 bombs in public places in the U.S. They killed six people and injured seventy. (Genovese and Almquist, 83) The FALN represented the single largest terrorism campaign in the U.S. %u201CYet Clinton%u2019s clemency released individuals from prison after serving less than twenty years of terms running from fifty-five to ninety years.%u201D (Fisher, 590) Again, President Clinton did not follow formal pardon procedures. He skipped the Department of Justice and attorneys. The FBI did not conduct any background checks and the FALN did not even execute a formal request.
This was at the request of some hispanic Democrat representatives in NY who could help Hillary with the hispanic vote.
Bill also pardoned another terrorist:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D06EED7133CF931A15752C0A9679C8B63

It''s the Clintons that are friendly to terrorists, they even offer them clemency.

[bademus]

Terrorist sympathy? Do you remember all those pardons on Bill Clinton''s last day in office? He pardoned 16 Puerto Rican FALN terrorists that had exploded 140 bombs in major cities. From: http://www.providence.edu/polisci/students/clinton_pardons/high_profile.html
Bill Clinton pardoned sixteen members of the FALN organization. These men belonged to a Puerto Rican freedom terrorist group, which was responsible for planting over 130 bombs in public places in the U.S. They killed six people and injured seventy. (Genovese and Almquist, 83) The FALN represented the single largest terrorism campaign in the U.S. %u201CYet Clinton%u2019s clemency released individuals from prison after serving less than twenty years of terms running from fifty-five to ninety years.%u201D (Fisher, 590) Again, President Clinton did not follow formal pardon procedures. He skipped the Department of Justice and attorneys. The FBI did not conduct any background checks and the FALN did not even execute a formal request.
This was at the request of some hispanic Democrat representatives in NY who could help Hillary with the hispanic vote.
Bill also pardoned another terrorist:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D06EED7133CF931A15752C0A9679C8B63

It''s the Clintons that are friendly to terrorists, they even offer them clemency.

[Netterz]

From Obama HIMSELF:
"You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing''s replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not.
And it''s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren''t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."
Well Obama,we are the hard working Americans who keep you living like a king, selling your snake oil version of ''change'' on our tax dollars, and its OUR children, the soldiers fighting all over the world for freedom.
These people will probably be his Cabinet. God help us all..

[Netterz]

"All Americans have to do is listen to the speech''''s of this man to hear from his heart what he believes" H SAID THIS- "You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing''''s replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not.
And it''''s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren''''t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."
He turns his back, rejects our flag and what it stands for. The old saying goes..you are known by the company you keep. He does not say HOW he plans to CHANGE anything. Sorry, but I am not one to look for a president who basically says...You will have to wait and SEE what change is.

[bademus]

Rev. Wright never preached a theology of hate. The United Church of Christ is a national congregation that is over 90% white. His church challenges it''s members to accept god, strive for success and care for their families. No where does it say anything about God preferring one race over another and white people are welcome at the church. As a matter of fact all of the tenants of the church that are focused specifically towards blacks are also things that Christians in all communities strive for.
BTW Rev. Wright also volunteered for 3 terms in Viet Nam, was on a medical team that treated Lyndon Johnson at Bethesda Hospital and was invited to the Clinton white house to minister to Bill during the Monica fallout. There is nothing wrong with being mad at your government.
Your opinion piece is strewn with hatred, misinterpretations and all-out lies. When did CBS News get like this?

[catlady1412]

If you go to Snopes website (this website investigates the unvarnished truth about all kinds of things), they cover the Michelle Obama thesis issue. It is a more benign document than the rather strident media would have you believe and the musings of a kid in college besides. It is being taken too seriously and out of context. Snopes has segments of it for you to read for yourself instead of having the media spice it up for you. I am not wild about Michelle myself. I wonder if she harbors the same anger at whites that many blacks do and will it affect how her husband works for all the people. I would like to think that both Obamas would rise up to the challenge of becoming a great American President and not just a black president or a white president or a crony president.

[hillary4us]

Oh my gosh! CBS I am so impressed that someone in the main stream media is printing the truth! Certainly no one else will. GREAT ARTICLE! It has been a long campaign and it is becoming increasingly difficult for Obama to hide behind his mantle of CHANGE and UNITER. We found out a few days ago what he feels about rural America and the distain he has for our core values and beliefs. Well, better late then never my granny always said. We know now we don''t want Obama as president. Not now, not ever!

[szablon]

I live in the midwest always have, I have seen my fathers and fathers of others lose their jobs along the way now my husband is losing his job, Fauercia is part of the automotive industry (no suprise) that is moving to other counrties. I work in the health care field as a nurse for a company that gives .25 cent raises for the first four years and thats about it, no cost of living EVER gas mileage reimbursment is .36 cents a mile, day care is about200 a week for one child!!! Gas is 3.50 a gallon with no end in sight for relief,toys brought into this counrty are dangerous to our children, HELL YES I AM BITTER!! I was not offended by Obama statement I felt he was right on!! ( doesnt mean i am voting for him) But midwest and many Americans are bitter Why cant we go back to being proud to be Americans and buying MADE in the USA then we wont have to worry what we are importing, if it is dangerous to the children, If my husband will have a job!!

Finally an enlightening article about Obama. Right now he''s criticizing Hillary for commenting on the remarks he made in San Francisco. How like him and his campaign.

[peteracevedo-2009]

Guys Check out the article %u201CBack Room Deals%u201D http://savagepolitics.com/?p=279 and
%u201CWe are the puppets%u201D!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! http://savagepolitics.com/?p=271

check out
http://www.savagepolitics.com
Their articles are like nothing I have read in any of the current media outlets. It is brilliant writing plus it offers a great community in which to discuss. The editor actually takes time to answer and the political humor section is awesome!!!

[glock4me]

If CBS is turning on B. Hussein Osama, then he is done. If this were boxing we would invoke the mercy rule and declare McCain president-elect by TKO.

[cgpb]

spencess...Bitterness and anger is not an evil of a selected group, it''s a world evil. He selected these words to demean a group of %u201Csmall town%u201D people. This is his mistake and that is why people look at him as elitist. If you travel, you will see that this economic situation is worst in other places. Unemployment and high prices in bare needs is taking its toll worldwide. I believe we are a truly blessed country going through tough times. But I will fear for this country should he be our President because he''s way too radical, still too green in politic, with an enchanting charisma, and the more I hear from him, the more disenchanted I become about him, and his followers that %u201Cidolize%u201D him.

[denise-mary]

This is "courageous journalism." The kind of journalism Americans should have been reading about each candidate all along, rather than merely "now," when Senator Obama''s "followers" are so deeply entrenched in supporting his campaign, it is nearly impossible to dissuade them. Even so, I''ll take "now" rather than "never." And perhaps it''s still not too late for folks to acknowledge this man''s unsavory company, and change their minds/votes. I will also second some comments below, alluding to the amazing articles on the SavagePolitics.com web site. LOTS of "courageous journalism" over there as well. To the author of THIS article, THANK YOU SO MUCH for printing this. Let us hope many, many people read it, evaluate the information, and say "no thanks" to the senator from Illinois.

[sh2009]

This is a breath of fresh air. Finally someone somewhere is going to ask the tough questions. He has gotten a 3 month free ride. From a do nothing, empty resumed, self-invented fraud, to hero and Messiah, perhaps reality will finally return to this campaign. No matter what problems Clinton has, Obama can''t use that past as an excuse for his present. Especially when he is the Self-Proclaimed Cure-All. He put himself above everyone else, so then he must be judged by a higher standard. Arrogance gets you no where when you lie through your teeth. There is a fantastic site called www.SavagePolitics.com - they tell it like it is, no holds barred. Be prepared, Kool-Aid drinkers - we fight back and with a vengeance. We won''t be shouted down and we won''t be scared off. If you are looking for a site that brings you top of the line articles and insights, to a moderator that interacts with the lively discussions, you have found your fit.

[cmarie83]

Andrew - THANK YOU! All the questionable acquaintances you mention raise HUGE red flags about Obama''s true agenda for the US and American foreign policy. I have been absolutely dismayed that the national media has ignored such important issues about Obama''s background and ties to radical political groups. Please keep up the great work. This is information the American public needs to know NOW!