Now who'd do a thing like that. . . . 
Posted on 12/17/2006 9:43:17 AM PST by wagglebee
THE hottest potential contender for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, Barack Obama, has come under scrutiny for his links to a shady businessman over the purchase of his $1.65m (now £845,000) family home in Chicago.
After winning extraordinary adulation, the honeymoon period of the senator for Illinois is coming to an end. Obama, a relative political novice, is being mocked for his middle name, Hussein — “like the dictator” as a member of his staff helpfully put it — and pilloried as Odumbo the elephant because of his jug ears.
The public is beginning to learn that the charismatic senator took drugs, including cocaine, as a young man and that he still smokes cigarettes. His left-wing voting record in the Senate is also being picked over by the right.
Obama, 45, has handled all the accusations with grace under pressure and his admirers believe that he will emerge battle-hardened by the experience. As a senator for only two years, he had been expecting a backlash for daring to contemplate a presidential run. “He will be a better candidate for being tested,” said a former member of Bill Clinton’s White House.
Another veteran of the Clinton White House said Obama had the “raw political talent” to vault over Hillary Clinton and win the Democratic presidential nomination. But the Chicago land deal raises questions about his political judgment that could prove hard to shake off.
In 2004 Obama won fame and a hefty $1.9m book contract after wowing the audience at the Democratic national convention that nominated John Kerry for president. He used much of the money to buy a handsome Chicago mansion at $300,000 under the asking price in June last year.
On the same day the wife of Tony Rezko, a Chicago property developer who had befriended and funded Obama since the 1990s, bought adjoining land at the full price of $625,000.
Obama went on to purchase a small strip of that land from the Rezkos for $104,500, a fair market rate.
In October this year Rezko, an ally of the governor of Illinois, was indicted for trying to obtain nearly $5m in kickbacks from firms that wanted to do business with the state. Patrick Fitzgerald, the US attorney, said the charges against him revealed a “frenzy of corrupt scheming”. Rezko denies the allegations.
Obama knew that Rezko could be in trouble, yet it was he who drew the property developer’s attention to the available land. The transaction was not illegal but it has led to speculation that Obama obtained a large house surrounded by an expanse of green at a knock-down price.
While denying that inference, Obama has expressed regret about the appearance of impropriety. “It was a mistake to be engaged with [Rezko] at all in this or any other personal business dealing that would allow him or anyone else to believe he had done me a favour,” he told the Chicago Sun-Times. “For that reason I consider it a mistake on my part and I regret it.”
Obama also told a local radio station which grilled him on the deal: “This is the first time this has happened and I don’t like the feeling. It’s frustrating to me and I’m kicking myself about it.”
By the standards of the Windy City, home to the former mobster Al Capone, the land sale is small beer but it runs counter to Obama’s image as a politician of rare integrity. His book, The Audacity of Hope, now topping the US bestseller lists, explicitly promises a new brand of politics “rooted in nobility of spirit”.
The revelations are also an early indication of the scrutiny that Obama will face should he threaten Hillary Clinton’s status as the presumed 2008 nominee. According to Tony Blankley, once chief of staff to Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House of Representatives: “The danger for Obama is that he is a blank sheet. It’s an invitation for his opponents to fill it up.”
Having lived through the Clinton White House years, Blankley believes Clinton’s allies will not hesitate to smear Obama if necessary. “It will not be long before his own mother will not recognise the public image that Hillary’s operatives will have drawn of him,” Blankley said.
A poll for the Los Angeles Times last week showed that Obama is still largely unknown. Some 40% of Democrats said they did not know enough about him to have an opinion. Nevertheless, he shot into the position of second favourite behind Clinton as soon as he suggested that he might stand.
In New Hampshire, a key primary election state, he was greeted by an adoring crowd of more than 1,500 last week. “I have never seen anything like this in my 40 years of being active in politics,” said Jack Buckley, a Democratic power broker in the state.
Obama’s best antidote to criticism is his nimble, self-deprecating charm. Having admitted in his 1994 memoir, Dreams from My Father, that he took marijuana and cocaine, he has gone on to make a joke of it. “When I was a kid, I inhaled. That was the point,” he said recently.
He has also laughed off the reports about his middle name. “It would be one thing if my name was John Hussein Smith; then it might be a real problem,” he said.
“When you are already starting with Barack Obama, then I don’t think my middle name is relevant.”
Yep, a one-hit wonder.
If anyone believes the dems care about corruption, they're in denial.
Now who'd do a thing like that. . . .
"Not so fast, Obama."
The more the Main Stream Media hoists him on their shoulders to parade around, the more I am reminded that the alleged AntiChrist is said to be someone who is alive at this very moment.
The 'Rats who care are the ones who haven't figured out a way to get in on the action.
A crack head with jug ears,well sounds like the left is rooting for the real thing after accusing President Bush of having these two issues for 6 yrs....haha
How wonderfully ironic: Obama will most likely be pulled down (and lose to Hillary) because of a crooked land deal -- miniscule compared to Whitewater but you'd think the guy might have learned a lesson from the chaos of the 1990's.
I do love the new nickname: Odumbo!
LOL.
Only the Brits could get away with using the term "shine" in the same sentence with Osama Obama.
An American paper legal staff would be gearing up for a major battle about now.
Gotta LOVE IT!
he needs to get advice from Dirty Harry Reid immediately- http://sacredscoop.com
Reads like it.
Leni
HOLY FECES IS THIS TRUE???
A recent picture of him smoking would be the end for him.
WE have ways of dealing with you!
ALEXANDER et al. v. FBI, et. al. Civil Action No. 96-2123. Judicial Watch is representing the plaintiffs in a class-action suit filed by White House employees of the Bush and Reagan administrations whose FBI files were wrongly accessed by the Clinton White House. The White House and FBI are being sued under the federal Privacy Act, while the individual defendants B Bernard Nussbaum, Craig Livingstone, Anthony Marceca and Hillary Clinton B are being sued for common-law tort of invasion of privacy.
(http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1440575/posts)
Any sentient being who made it through the Clinton years reasonably intact understands that it was Hillary Clinton who hired Filegate implementer, bouncer Craig Livingstone. (Missus Clinton is an acquaintance of the mother of the bouncer. QED) As has been documented elsewhere and ad nauseam, digging up dirt on her perceived enemies is standard operating procedure for the very paranoid, fascistically inclined missus clinton.
OBAMA- there is a file on YOU!
Love the picture of Hitlary Clinton but the jacket needs to be a little fuller around the hips.
WHITEWATER II- The Sequel.
Smokin'!
An American "Oreo", maybe even a "Double-Stuft". The inside is WAY different than the outside. The "Double-Stuft" would be the "whiteness" and the "Muslim" that is within.
Either he is the emptiest suit in America, or the most stealthy Trojan Horse in history.
Obama-Osama had the remarkable good fortune to have been born on US soil, making him an "American" by legacy alone. He has NEVER demonstrated he knows what it is to actually BE an American. An attribute, unfortunately, that he shares with perhaps an astonishingly large minority of other "citizens" of this country. AINOs - Americans in Name Only.
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