Chicago Ties Link Obama's Inner Circle

Washington Post: Candidate's Closest Friends Are A Cross Section Of The City's Elite

(Washingtonpost.com)  This story was written by Shailagh Murray.

---

For once, Barack Obama left his iPod and stack of news clips at his seat and worked the front cabin of his campaign's chartered plane, laughing and reminiscing with the people who know him best.

The senator from Illinois does not typically travel with an entourage, instead spending his time on the plane reading, working or listening to music. But this was a special occasion -- the night last month when he was claiming the Democratic presidential nomination. Joining him and his wife, Michelle, for the flight from Chicago to St. Paul, Minn., were half a dozen of their closest friends, a biracial cross section of the city's business and professional elite: Martin Nesbitt, a parking lot magnate; Valerie Jarrett, a prominent businesswoman; Eric Whitaker, an executive at the University of Chicago Medical Center; and John Rogers, the founder of an investment fund.

Some were mainly social friends from Hyde Park, their Chicago neighborhood. Some have played a major role in Obama's campaign, including Penny Pritzker, a billionaire Hyatt hotel heiress and Obama's national fundraising chairman; James Crown, son of Chicago billionaire Lester Crown and another prominent member of the local Jewish community; and David Axelrod, who has been Obama's Chicago-based political adviser and confidant since his U.S. Senate campaign in 2006.

Together they constitute the core of Obama's inner circle, the friends he had before he became a senator and entertained thoughts of the presidency, and who he would bring with him in a sense if he ends up in the White House. "There are a lot of people with shared values," said Nesbitt, whose family vacationed with the Obamas over Easter and whose daughters spend most Saturdays together.

Like Nesbitt, most were present at the creation of Obama's long-shot presidential bid. They have opened important doors for him, given him counsel and bad news, and demonstrated a low-profile loyalty that has set the tone for his campaign. They also have taken to heart the two rules Obama has imposed on everyone associated with his presidential bid, whether old friend or new hire: "no drama" and "no leaks."

"He's going to gravitate toward people like him," said Jarrett, who also serves as a senior campaign adviser and is one of the code's quiet enforcers within Obama's world. "He's going to look for people with similar temperaments."

One campaign aide described Jarrett's loosely defined role as liaison between Obama's private life and campaign life. In meetings, she will weigh in when an idea "doesn't sound authentically Barack," as one campaign aide put it. She also will quietly smooth internal riffs and other disruptions.

Whitaker goes back the furthest with Obama, having met the idealistic community organizer during their student days at Harvard. They shared a drive to reverse troubling patterns in the African American community. A public health specialist, Whitaker founded "Project Brotherhood," a barbershop-based program aimed at improving the health of black men, and served as a senior physician at Chicago's Cook County Hospital, now known as John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital.

Pritzker and Crown have played instrumental roles in building Obama's huge campaign war chest, but their prominence has also provided him a pathway to Jewish voters. Speaking at a synagogue in Boca Raton, Fla., in May, Obama called Pritzker and Crown "dear friends" from "pretty prominent" Jewish families, and told the crowd: "One of the raps on me when I first ran for Congress in the African American community was, 'He's too close to the Jewish community.' You can look this up. 'All his friends are Jews. He's from Hyde Park; he's from the University of Chicago.'"

Nesbitt fits into several circles. As the campaign's treasurer, he plays a lead fundraising role. "Barack said, 'I want to run this like a business,' and I've tried to help do that," he said. Nesbitt also shares Obama's passion for basketball and is a member of a travel team that includes Whitaker; Rogers, who founded Ariel Capital Management, the country's first black-owned investment firm; Alexi Giannoulias, the Illinois state treasurer, who played professional ball in Greece; and Reggie Love, Obama's 26-year-old "body man" and a kind of surrogate son, who played basketball and football at Duke University, and who is one of the few mainstays on the court without Chicago ties.

While Love adds levity, Jarrett and Nesbitt provide a needed reality check from time to time. The two can raise issues with Obama that campaign aides are reluctant to broach, such as, 'You're dragging and people are noticing" or "Don't be so curt."

Last spring, as gasoline prices were beginning another precipitous rise, Nesbitt made sure his friend understood what was happening. "In case you're not living in the real world, being driven around by Secret Service," his e-mail to Obama said, "it just cost me $85 to fill up my tank."

Axelrod said that "it's helpful to have people who the candidate trusts, where you know anything they say is going to be motivated by their concern for you."

But it's a role that Obama's friends sometimes take more seriously than he does. "Every now and then, someone will send me on a mission because he needs to be told something that only I can tell him," Nesbitt said. "I'll say, 'Hey, you know, they think you should be doing this.' " And Obama will respond, "You are just so transparent." Nesbitt added: "When he knows we're just trying to cheer him up or pump him up, he'll just start laughing."

Obama's world includes other circles of friends and advisers, many of whom remain little known to the public but who share the candidate's discretion and intense sense of commitment -- and whose reward is to rise along with him.

One group is connected to Obama through Harvard Law School and includes economic adviser Michael Froman; domestic policy adviser Cassandra Q. Butts; and Julius Genachowski, who engineered Obama's cutting-edge campaign technology. Two of Obama's most prominent Harvard professors, Laurence H. Tribe and Charles J. Ogletree, continue to provide guidance on legal issues.

Obama's core foreign policy team is an eclectic mix of 40-somethings, such as former assistant secretary of state Susan E. Rice, veteran diplomats such as Anthony Lake; Senate aides Denis McDonough and Mark Lippert; and prominent military experts such as Clinton administration Navy secretary Richard J. Danzig and retired Air Force Maj. Gen. J. Scott Gration. Gration, the son of missionaries in Congo, speaks Swahili and voted for George W. Bush in 2000, but he fell for Obama when the two traveled to Africa together in 2006. For help on the Middle East, Obama turns to longtime Chicago friend Lee Rosenberg, an entrepreneur and board member of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a Jewish lobbying force.

Obama has collected a core of Washington insiders, including prominent lawyers Greg Craig and Eric Holder; former Senate majority leader Thomas A. Daschle (S.D.), and former congressman Timothy J. Roemer (Ind.). Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (Mass.) and his niece Caroline Kennedy also are close to Obama; Caroline Kennedy and Holder are leading the campaign's vice presidential vetting team.

Despite their diverse profiles, Democratic establishment types who gravitated early to Obama share his distaste for the divisive, personality-driven culture of today's Washington. "He is a sincere, down-to-earth, in-touch person," Roemer says. "It's just not that common in politics today."

Another important group in Obama's life consists of the Chicago progressives who have mentored him throughout his career. The leader of this group is Abner J. Mikva, a retired federal judge, White House counsel and congressman from Chicago who has known Obama for 20 years, and who often is described as a father figure to the senator.

Mikva has quietly helped guide Obama since his Harvard Law School days. He encouraged his political aspirations, was an early advocate of his presidential run and has pulled numerous strings to help to ease the candidate's path.

One Mikva protégé is Axelrod. A former Chicago Tribune reporter, Obama's message maestro left his home town of New York for the University of Chicago in the early 1970s and has never looked back. Like Mikva, he belongs to the city's progressive elite. Axelrod and Obama also shared a second mentor: the late senator Paul Simon (Ill.), who took Obama under his wing when he joined the state legislature.

Other members of this circle include Newton Minow, a longtime Mikva friend who hired Obama to join his civil rights law firm and whose daughter taught Obama at Harvard; Forrest Claypool, a Cook County commissioner and Axelrod partner who is a member of Obama's media team; John Schmidt, a Clinton Justice Department official who founded the reform-minded Chicago Council of Lawyers and is a member of Obama's finance team; and John Bouman, a longtime friend from Springfield, Ill., who is president of the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law in Chicago.

Obama also turns to Rep. Rahm Emanuel (Ill.), a Chicago politician through and through, who stayed neutral during the Democratic primary because of his close Clinton family ties but who endorsed the home-town candidate as soon as Obama crossed the delegate threshold. Emanuel is close to Axelrod, Pritzker and Nesbitt, and has unofficially advised Obama since he was a long-shot Senate candidate. It was Emanuel who urged Obama never to board an airplane without his iPod and something to read, telling him: "When people see those earphones, they leave you alone."

Chicago taught Obama a key lesson, Mikva noted. He was an outsider with an unusual name, but he was able to overcome those obstacles. "This is a big city, but it's a very open city," Mikva said. "People pant their flag in Chicago, and this is where they're from. You can be accepted quickly. Being here has given Barack a very large comfort zone."

The city's tentacles reach deep into his campaign apparatus, linking disparate circles by a single phone call from Mikva. In 2003, during the early stages of Obama's U.S. Senate campaign, Mikva called Lake to ask him "to talk to this guy who may not win." Lake held several briefings with the candidate and put Obama in touch with Rice, who was advising Sen. John F. Kerry's presidential campaign.

In one of their early meetings, Obama read Rice the rules: "I don't want any drama. I don't want you to bring your history or your internecine warfare." This was the political culture that Rice had been seeking, with little success. "He creates a sense of openness and security, and therefore you don't have a whole bunch of people who are needy to prove themselves to the candidate," she observed.

As Obama's campaign expands for the general-election campaign and the candidate has less time for his friendships, certain strains are starting to show. At his Chicago headquarters, insecurities have flared as the circles multiply and more people crowd inside. Jarrett said her main focus in the coming weeks will be to help the new hires integrate smoothly: "It's important that people feel good about this."

Like others who know Obama well, Jarrett has watched her friend with a certain amount of awe at the 18 months of nonstop motion and incoming fire. "You can never be fully prepared for the rigor and the discipline," she said. "The campaign itself takes some getting used to."

Obama still struggles to maintain balance in his life, especially with his family. The only time he sounds wistful is when he talks about Michelle and their daughters, Sasha and Malia, whom he often sees only on Sundays.

As the stakes get higher, Obama's friends have grown more cautious and protective -- and in some cases have attracted controversy. Whitaker's name surfaced as part of the scandal involving longtime Obama fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko, because Obama had recommended his shy and studious friend to Rezko for a state job. The exchange took place after Rod Blagojevich was elected Illinois governor, and Whitaker applied for the head job at the state Public Health Department.

A Chicago developer and early Obama supporter, Rezko, acting as one of Blagojevich's liaisons, had contacted Obama to seek recommendations for state jobs. Obama singled out Whitaker, noting that he had already applied for the public health post. "I simply said, 'I think this guy is outstanding and is certainly somebody who is worthy of an interview,'" Obama told the Chicago Tribune in a lengthy interview recounting his Rezko contacts. Rezko was later convicted of federal corruption charges, and although the case did not implicate Obama, his Rezko association has caused him significant political embarrassment.

Even now, Obama reverts to his Hyde Park friends and habits whenever he has a free day. One recent Sunday, he played basketball at the neighborhood's East Bank Club with Love, Chicago public schools chief Arne Duncan and others while Jarrett chatted with Michelle Obama. Later, the family headed over to Whitaker's house for a cookout. Most of a pool report on the event was devoted to rehashing the Whitaker-Rezko link.

The exposure has made some of Obama's friends, such as Whitaker and Rogers, reluctant to speak to reporters; the two declined requests for interviews. Others try to restrict their comments to generalities and innocuous details. Nesbitt learned the perils of public exposure when MSNBC host Chris Matthews saw a clip of Obama describing his friend's gas-price e-mail and challenged the $85 cost as inflated. Nesbitt is paying even more now to fill his 22-gallon tank -- but he's too embarrassed to disclose the make and model of his luxury sedan.

Acquaintances are "reaching out" to Nesbitt, knowing that he has ready access to the presumptive Democratic nominee. He tries not to e-mail Obama often, other than the occasional "hang in there" note and complaint about onerous tax provisions. They had fun hanging out in St. Thomas over Easter, but those moments come rarely now. "He can detach for hours at a time, but it's a constant now," Nesbitt said. "He's off for a conference call or an interview or something."

He recalls telling his friend early on, "I'm so glad I'm not running for president." And Obama replied, "No, but you are."

[ariel133]

No matter what- Obama will not win. There is too much baggage and no enough crediblity,experiance, or qualifications for person to Lead this country.

[ariel133]

No matter what- Obama will not win. There is too much baggage and not enough crediblity,experiance, or qualifications for this person to Lead this country. It would be a disaster.

[rowdywicca]

We already know his base is corrupt Muslims in Chicago forking over the big bucks, and that he was groomed for office in the most toxic political arena in the US...and that his Hyde Park elite are in fact Islamofasts and Islamofast sympathizers.

We don''t need this POS near our White House, tyvm!

[barbjc1]

An Elitist, yes sir.

[libh8er]

If Barry O ran a campaign on how he would REALLY govern, America would hand him his arse and send him back to Chicago. He''s a same old, same old politician.

[ariel133]

Obama supports the military but still opposes the fact that surge was a success. This man is NOT A LEADER. This sman has no idea what he is DOING do you still think he is qualified?? JUST SAY : NO OBAMA.

[rushlimpdrug]

What a pretty story.

[obama8years]

In working with the Saudi funded Muslim Students Association in campuses across the US, the ISM has managed to cloud the image among American youth through disinformation and propaganda campaigns against Jews and Israel in order to try and make American students believe Israel is an apartheid state like South Africa was in the 1980s. At the same time, these same Palestinian groups like Al Awda insist the West Bank and Gaza must be Jew-free. Since this campaign has been largely successful in organizing anti-Israel attitudes on campuses all over America, and since Jewish organizations in America have been slow to react, the ISM moved on to another program to do the same thing only this time alienating US churches, particularly evangelical churches that have a long-term sense of Biblical support for the Jewish state. Thus was born the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theological Society created as part of the ISM to do in US churches what various ISM groups succeeded to do in American colleges.

At the same time, a foothold already existed to a small degree in the American black religious community such as is led by Louis Farrakhan.

[obama8years]

Now, it has become the ISM%u2019s time to deconstruct religious dogma of Israel belonging to the Jews as is preached in US churches and to increase the number of black churches in America that are working in %u201Csolidarity%u201D with this program. Jeremiah Wright%u2019s church is one of them. Even though the national synod of the United Church for Christ rescinded a boycott and divestment plan against Israel, a wing of the UCC church keeps trying to get it reinstated. That wing includes Reverend Wright%u2019s Trinity UCC Church in Chicago. Few people know also, that there are many Muslim members of Reverend Wright%u2019s %u201CChristian%u201D church, a close ally of Sabeel.

[taddles3]

"We already know his base is corrupt Muslims in Chicago forking over the big bucks, and that he was groomed for office in the most toxic political arena in the US...and that his Hyde Park elite are in fact Islamofasts and Islamofast sympathizers.

Posted by RowdyWicca at 10:34 AM : Jul 14, 2008"


They are mostly Jews, not Muslims. How stupid are you?

[aj4321-2009]

RowdyWicca wrote: We already know his base is corrupt Muslims in Chicago forking over the big bucks, and that he was groomed for office in the most toxic political arena in the US...and that his Hyde Park elite are in fact Islamofasts and Islamofast sympathizers.
---------------
It''s amazing to see the intellectual depths of McCain supporters. Even the Jewish people are now Islamofasts.

There should be a required minimum intelligence level to vote in our elections.

[ianlou]

I love Chicago, it is a world class city and the best in America beating NY because it is much cleaner and friendlier.

I live 20 miles from Detroit, I find myself in Downtown Detroit once every Five Years or so.

[likeitis5050]

No matter what- Obama will not win. There is too much baggage and not enough crediblity,experiance, or qualifications for this person to Lead this country. It would be a disaster.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by Ariel133

baggage? maybe. lacking credibility? can''t argue. not enough experience? who does? but to declare his run for president a guaranteed wash...you can''t be serious. He stands a very real chance of being our next president...and if that happens, what happens to us? Disaster? As in a war? As in a recession? As in a crisis in health care, cost of food, price of gasoline? Be real. Nothing worse is going to happen in the short run. We won''t know the real effects of his rein until the next presidential election rolls around. Obama can skate for 3 years on simply saying he had to live with the mess Bush left behind...even though the Democrats are supposed to be the ruling power well before he takes office. He''ll make another run and will probably win..as in the nature of the game. The following 4 years will be the true test of Obama and he''ll be out of office before any one is the wiser...it''s been the name of the game for as long as we have been a nation....and we have survived.

[jongood65]

They are mostly Jews, not Muslims. How stupid are you?
Posted by taddles3 at 11:22 AM : Jul 14, 2008
=============

And, we believe your drizzle Toodles, because we''ve all witnessed how careful with the truth you are!!

ROTFLMGTBO!!!

Most of his close associates we''ve all been introduced to were criminals, domestic terrorists, and black seperatist, until he began tossing the under the bus with his white granny.

[jongood65]

The only circle Sen NObama ran in that real Americans need be concerned with is the one he spent almost half his life running in.

The one that preached black seperatist theology that advocate weekly how he should never trust "whitey".

Folks, you are talking a 50%-American who is the #1 ranked most left wing pinko libtard member of the whole US Senate (which BTW, includes a declared socialist to the right of Sen. NObama here.)

This is the candidate these hyphenated-Americans want you to install in the White House.

[singingrick]

JonGood65

Do you have ANYTHING substantive at all?

lol!

[singingrick]

JonGood65


Did you vote for Bush? Do you support McCain? If so, why?

[jongood65]

JonGood65

Do you have ANYTHING substantive at all?

lol!
Posted by singingrick at 12:10 PM : Jul 14, 2008
=====================

I''m sorry, but I just can''t deal with someone who every time I see your screen name I misread it as:

SingingD*i*C*K

Does it only happen when you are in the shower??

ROTFLMGTBO!!!

[singingrick]

JonGood65

Do you have ANYTHING substantive at all?

lol!

[rowdywicca]

RowdyWicca wrote: We already know his base is corrupt Muslims in Chicago forking over the big bucks, and that he was groomed for office in the most toxic political arena in the US...and that his Hyde Park elite are in fact Islamofasts and Islamofast sympathizers.
---------------
It''''s amazing to see the intellectual depths of McCain supporters. Even the Jewish people are now Islamofasts.

There should be a required minimum intelligence level to vote in our elections.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by aj4321 at 11:26 AM : Jul 14, 2008

You are exactly right! There should be...and you gullible idiots who can''t cast an educated vote need to get busy and research your candidate and stop throwing away a thoughtless vote!

[hotrod2008-2009]

"Joining [Obama] and his wife, Michelle, for the flight from Chicago to St. Paul, Minn., were half a dozen of their closest friends, a biracial cross section of the city''s business and professional elite: Martin Nesbitt, a parking lot magnate; Valerie Jarrett, a prominent businesswoman; Eric Whitaker, an executive at the University of Chicago Medical Center; and John Rogers, the founder of an investment fund."

Well, isn''t that cozy.... EVERY one of those mentioned is a scum-sucking bottom feeder - obscenely wealthy by *** the ordinary people - working folks, disabled, etc., i.e. health care, a "parking lot MAGNATE" for cryin'' out loud... the only one I don''t have immediate contempt for is the "businesswoman." But who knows... depends on what kind of business. These aren''t hard working decent folks, these are people who profit on the misery and/or price gouging of the American public. How deep is Obama''s contempt for the people who FUND everything in American government - the taxpayers? The majority of taxes come from those who have the least and work hardest for it. You can be sure these people don''t pay for their parking. Sorry, I still can''t vote for Obama, or McCain... third-party candidates look better EVERY DAY.

[sandyu73]

OBAMA= ANTICHRIST!

[G H M]

An other Republican propaganda! he deal with these people because they are the people he had to work with!

[hotrod2008-2009]

Posted by likeitis5050 at 11:38 AM : Jul 14, 2008

You missed one point... there''s no guarantee he won''t be in there for 8 years... look at Bush. And things can get a LOT worse, believe me, in just 4 years. Too pathetic the American people - the true American base, those who pay the largest part of the taxes, those who have the least and work the hardest for it, deserves so much better. I doubt that the current government as it is will be able to bail America out. I think it will take a revolution of some sort, and I just hope it is one that espouses nonviolence in order to preempt anarchy. That, IMO, is the ONLY hope for America, for the people to take responsibility once more for their own government. The American people have lost their own mandate by distraction - consumerism, entertainment, decaying morals, hopelessness and apathy. It''s time to get off our arses and take our country back.

[ariel133]

likeitis550 said : " baggage? maybe. lacking credibility? can''''t argue. not enough experience? who does? but to declare his run for president a guaranteed wash...you can''t be serious"

Yes, I am serious. Obama will lose.

[hotrod2008-2009]

I love Chicago, it is a world class city and the best in America beating NY because it is much cleaner and friendlier.

I live 20 miles from Detroit, I find myself in Downtown Detroit once every Five Years or so.

Posted by ianlou at 11:29 AM : Jul 14, 2008

___________

_________________

What is your point? Do you even have one?

[hotrod2008-2009]

Posted by JonGood65 at 12:24 PM : Jul 14, 2008


LOL - I see "singingPrick" - havn''t got any particular gripe against this poster, but everytime I see the handle I have to remind myself, it''s singingRick, not singingPrick... LOL.

[sistatee-2009]

Obama is making stops at all Chicago cemeteries, in an attempt to lock up that all-important, Democratic dead-person vote, for the November election.

[hotrod2008-2009]

"a low-profile loyalty that has set the tone for his campaign. They also have taken to heart the two rules Obama has imposed on everyone associated with his presidential bid, whether old friend or new hire: "no drama" and "no leaks."

Speaks VOLUMES about Obama''s "character." (i.e. none).

No leaks... yeah, right, to me that spells "no honesty."

[hotrod2008-2009]

"He''s going to gravitate toward people like him," said Jarrett, who also serves as a senior campaign adviser and is one of the code''s quiet enforcers within Obama''s world. "He''s going to look for people with similar temperaments."

OH YEAH. Got that right... REv. Wright, etc. etc. etc. Just look under the bus....

[hotrod2008-2009]

This article describes an oh-so-carefully crafted campaign... the kind you need if you can''t get away with offering the real deal. OH YEAH.

[rowdywicca]

Yeah, Obama has collected a core of big money makers and all kinds of lobbyists! Strange is the absence of experts on average American families!

Seems like all his advisors do is have to correct his lamebrain activities and apologize for his stupid statements.

Turning this dipwit loose in the White House is absurd!

[tawpdawg11]

"Washington Post: Candidate''s Closest Friends Are A Cross Section Of The City''s Elite"


As opposed to what......."Barack Obama hangin'' with his home-boyz down to the crack house.

[ariel133]

Wake up America, Obama is deceptive,manipulating, dishonest, and cunning. Why in the world would you want someone like this AGAIN in the WhiteHouse????

[dante805]

Whatever good came out of Chicago Politics...nothing but angry, bitter, elitist, union bosses. This realtionship will bring down Obama in the end. Hill keep the bus motor running...you will be needed at the convention.

[nanc12]

Dont vote for him unless you want innocent women and children tommygunned down in the street.
Posted by GOP_forever

OMG, that is one of the funniest posts I''ve ever seen. What a moron.

[ariel133]

Dante805- Your comment was good until you mentioned "Clinton" Please, get off that bus- she''s as qualified as stone.

[boatdocster]

"Yeah, Obama has collected a core of big money makers and all kinds of lobbyists!"

Posted by RowdyWicca at 01:35 PM : Jul 14, 2008

How is different from every other politician in office today??

The still disgruntled movers and shakers from the former Hillary Clinton campaign are !!Surprise!! Big Money Donors!

Would anyone even ask this question if Obama was caucasian?

[aerodog]

You vote for this creep and you''re voting against everything that America (as we know it now) stands for. Don''t do this because after you enter that vote, it''s way too late and you can kiss freedom''s @ss goodbye - FOREVER.

[questionnews]

Little Suzy had a box of very small kittens that she was trying to give away, so she had them out on the street corner with a sign "FREE KITTENS" next to them.

Suddenly a big line of big black cars came up and a tall man stepped out from the biggest car.

"Hi, little girl, what do you have there in the box?" he asked.

"Kittens" Little Suzy says. "They''re so small, their eyes are not even open yet."

"What kind of kittens are they?" he asked.

"Democrats" says Little Suzy.

Sensing a good photo opportunity, Sen. Obama called his campaign manager and told him about the little girl and the kittens.

It was planned that they would return the next day, have all the media there.

The next day, Little Suzy is standing out on the corner with her box of kittens with the "FREE KITTENS" sign and the big motorcade of black cars pulled up with all the vans and trucks from ABC, NBC, CBS and CNN.

Sen. Obama got out of his limo and walked up to Little Suzy.

"Now, don''t be frightened," he said, "I just want you to tell all these nice news people just what kind of kittens you''re giving away today."

"Yes sir," Suzy said, "The are all REPUBLICAN kittens."

Taken by surprise, Sen. Obama said, "But yesterday you told me that they were DEMOCRATS."

Little Suzy says, "Yes, I know, but today they have their eyes open."

[ianlou]

Obama is making stops at all Chicago cemeteries, in an attempt to lock up that all-important, Democratic dead-person vote, for the November election.
Posted by SistaTee at 01:20 PM : Jul 14, 2008

You know the old Chicago election Moto:
"Vote Early and Vote Often"

[taddles3]

"You vote for this creep and you''''re voting against everything that America (as we know it now) stands for.

Posted by aerodog at 02:17 PM : Jul 14, 2008"


LOL, come on, the last guy in office wiped his butt with the Constitution, lied to Congress, lied to you and me and sent your kids to die in a war to make his buddies rich...and look, we''re still here, obviously after this most recent moron we could pretty much elect anyone to office and we''d be fine. Your histrionics are laughable.

[kenbomc]

Wake up America, Obama is deceptive,manipulating, dishonest, and cunning. Why in the world would you want someone like this AGAIN in the WhiteHouse????


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by Ariel133 at 01:57 PM : Jul 14, 2008
--------------------------------------

That is a terrible argument. C''mon now, get with the majority. Everyone knows you''re talking about McSame. McCain = Bush -everyone knows this.

[taddles3]

"get off that bus- she''''s as qualified as stone.

Posted by Ariel133 at 02:01 PM : Jul 14, 2008"



LOL...didn''t you get the noecon talking point memo this morning?

[seah5]

Your can take him out of Chicago, but you can never take Chicago out of him.

The man mentored on Corruption, how to hide it and live with it.

We do not want of need this as a president.

[liberalme]

"You vote for this creep and you''''''''re voting against everything that America (as we know it now) stands for.

Posted by aerodog at 02:17 PM : Jul 14, 2008"

"As we know it now"??? Is the America we know now something to be proud of?

The America that GWB has managed to instill immense debt for his war for oil?
The America the GWB has tarnished by lies, greed and deceit?
The America that once lived by the values and rules provided by a Constitution that Bush referred to as a God Dammed peice of paper?
The America that voted (?) in a man who never once did anything FOR this country, but has taken so very much/?

Is that the America as you know it?

IDIOT

[questionnews]

One sunny day in 2009, an old soldier approached the White House from across Pennsylvania Avenue, where he''d been sitting on a park bench.

He spoke to the Marine standing guard and said, "I would like to go in and meet with President Hillary Clinton."

The Marine replied, "Sir, Mrs. Clinton is not President and doesn''t reside here."

The old man said, "Okay," and walked away.

The following day, the same man approached the White House and said to the same Marine, "I would like to go in and meet with President Hillary Clinton."

The Marine again told the man, "Sir, as I said yesterday, Mrs. Clinton is not President and doesn''t reside here."

The man thanked him and again walked away.

The third day, the same man approached the White House and spoke to the very same Marine saying, "I would like to go in and meet with President Hillary Clinton."

The Marine, understandably agitated at this point, looked at the man and said, "Sir, this is the third day in a row you have been here asking to speak to Mrs.Clinton. I''ve told you already several times that Mrs. Clinton is not the President and doesn''t reside here. Don''t you understand?"

The old man answered, "Oh, I understand you fine, I just love hearing you say it!"

The Marine snapped to attention, saluted, and said, "See you tomorrow sir."

[sgtrds10-4]

I''''ll bet Obama is too selective for this, plus he''''s not a republican. lol

Posted by liberalme at 04:04 PM : Jul 14, 2008

Considering that they''re the party that hates gay people there sure seem to be a large number of closeted gay republicans.

[liberalme]

Considering that they''''re the party that hates gay people there sure seem to be a large number of closeted gay republicans.


Posted by SgtRDS10-4 at 04:06 PM

Ya think popstom1 is trying to convert Obama to be "one of them"?

[sgtrds10-4]

Ya think popstom1 is trying to convert Obama to be "one of them"?

Posted by liberalme at 04:09 PM : Jul 14, 2008

Well, like a lot of them, he sure seems fascinated with the idea. Otherwise why did he jusr offer to f Obama?