I guess that would be "generally recognized" by liberals and the MSM...
Posted on 07/15/2008 8:17:30 PM PDT by wingsof liberty
Tuesday, July 15, 2008 8:56 AM
By: Ronald Kessler
A close look at Barack Obama's career reveals it has been even more mediocre than generally recognized.
Before being elected to the Illinois state Senate, Obama worked as a community organizer and a lawyer in Chicago.
In his memoir, Obama says being a community organizer taught him how to motivate the powerless and work the government to help them. His chief example is an effort to remove asbestos from Altgeld Gardens, an all-black public housing project on Chicago’s South Side.
But those who were involved in the effort say Obama played a minor role in working the problem and never accomplished his goal. A pre-existing group at Altgeld Gardens and a local newspaper, the Chicago Reporter, were working on the problem before Obama came on the scene, yet Obama does not mention them in his book, “Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance.”
“Just because someone writes it, doesn't make it true,” says Altgeld resident Hazel Johnson, who had been pushing for a cleanup of the cancer-producing substance years before Obama showed up.
Rep. Bobby L. Rush, D-Ill., says it was Johnson's work, along with asbestos testing by the Chicago Reporter, that got Chicago officials interested in the issue. Rush, who launched an inquiry into the situation when he was a member of the Chicago City Council, says he is “offended” that Obama did not mention Johnson in his account.
“Was [Obama] involved in stuff? Absolutely,” says Robert Ginsburg, an activist who worked with Johnson and Obama on the problem. “But there was stuff happening before him, and after him.”
After three years working as an organizer, Obama could say he helped obtain grants for a jobs program and got asbestos removed from some pipes in the project. But as the Los Angeles Times has noted, the “large-scale change that was needed at the 1,998-unit project was beyond his reach.” To this day, most of the asbestos remains in the apartments.
Fruitless though his efforts were, Obama devoted more than 100 pages to his experiences at Altgeld Gardens and surrounding areas. Michelle Obama has said his work as a community organizer helped him decide “how he would impact the world,” assisting people to improve their lives. Yet, in a revealing passage in his book, Obama wrote, “When classmates in college asked me just what it was that a community organizer did, I couldn’t answer them directly.”
Instead, he said, “I’d pronounce on the need for change. Change in the White House, where Reagan and his minions were carrying on their dirty deeds. Change in the congress, compliant and corrupt. Change in the mood of the country, manic and self-absorbed. Change won’t come from the top, I would say. Change will come from a mobilized grass roots.”
Thus, Obama admitted that he accomplished little but that he was able to cover that up with fancy talk about change.
After going to Harvard Law School, Obama returned to Chicago, where he briefly headed a voter registration drive and then became a lawyer. While Obama’s campaign has touted him as a civil rights lawyer, “Over the nine years that Obama’s law license was active in Illinois, he never handled a trial and mostly worked in teams of lawyers who drew up briefs and contracts in a variety of cases,” according to David Mendell’s “Obama: From Promise To Power.”
A review of the cases Obama worked on during his brief legal career “shows he played the strong, silent type in court, introducing himself and his client, then stepping aside to let other lawyers do the talking,” the Chicago Sun-Times has reported.
“A search of all the cases in Cook County Circuit Court in which Obama made an appearance since he graduated from Harvard in 1991 shows: zero,” the article said.
Instead, his practice was “confined mainly to federal court in Chicago, where he made formal appearances in only five district court cases and another five in cases before the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals — a total of 10 cases in his legal career,” the paper said.
If Obama had virtually no impact as either a community organizer or as a lawyer, he was even more invisible in the state Senate and later in the U.S. Senate.
In both bodies, Obama had a reputation for voting “present,” thus avoiding controversial decisions that could be used against him later. In the U.S. Senate, he has missed more than one in five votes.
Only one of the measures Obama has sponsored as a U.S. senator was enacted: a bill to “promote relief, security, and democracy in the Democratic Republic of Congo.”
Contrary to Obama’s portrayal of himself as a unifier, on every bipartisan effort in the Senate to forge compromises on tough issues, Obama has been missing in action.
In sum, it would be difficult to imagine a more mediocre record. Most candidates for dog catcher have contributed more to society. Yet with the help of adoring reporters, Obama has managed to parlay extraordinary speaking and political skills into a presidential campaign built on sand.
The idea that America might entrust its security and future to someone who has never demonstrated an ability to get anything of significance done is scary.
Look for John McCain to begin exploiting this vulnerability after Labor Day.
I guess that would be "generally recognized" by liberals and the MSM...
There was a lengthy article posted on FR a couple days ago (can’t remember the publication) about O’s “career.” I was struck by the fact the man has spent over half of his adult life campaigning and schmoozing his way up the ladder. The other half seemed to have no accomplishments whatsoever.
I’m glad thankful that this article pointed out he had a small part in removing asbestos from “some pipes.” I am much more convinced that he would make an outstanding CIC.
If this statement alone isn't enough to encourage conservatives to show up and vote then I am at a loss for what else to say...
OK, maybe this...
This statement demonstrates the attitude of Mr. Obama regarding conservatives and conservatism. It should sound a warning bell that he intends to roll back and put an end to what few vestiges we have left of conservatism in the Federal code. He will appoint judges and sign legislation that will not only return this country to the 'glory days' of 70s liberalism, but endeavor to take us farther down the path of destruction that is the liberal-socialist agenda.
The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism, but under the name of liberalism, they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program until one day America will be a socialist nation without ever knowing how it happened.
Norman Thomas, six time presidential candidate, Socialist Party of America.
The government has never improved anyone's lives. The government makes us miserable.
Late 1988, entered Harvard Law School.Summer 1989, interned at the law firm of Sidley & Austin in Chicago.
Feb. 1990, elected president of the Harvard Law Review. This was widely reported and was followed in the media by several long, detailed profiles.
Summer 1990, interned at the law firm of Hopkins & Sutter in Chicago.
1991, graduated from Harvard and returned to Chicago. He was recruited by the University of Chicago Law School, which gave him a fellowship and an office to work on a book about race relations. Obama never wrote that book. Instead, he and his wife went to Bali, where he wrote "Dreams From My Father." (Obama was a Lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992–1996, and a Senior Lecturer 1996–2004.)
Apr-Oct. 1992, Obama directed Illinois Project Vote.
1993, Obama joined Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland, a law firm specializing in civil rights litigation and neighborhood economic development. He was an associate from 1993 to 1996, then of counsel from 1996 to 2004. His law license becoming inactive in 2002.
1995, "Dreams From My Father" was published.
1996, Obama is elected to the Illinois state senate, where he served until being elected to the U.S. Senate.
2004, Obama was elected to the U.S. Senate. (He delivered the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July 2004, before the election.) He was sworn in early in January 2005, and immediately began planning his run for the presidency.
Oct. 2006, "The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream" was published.
Feb. 2007, Obama announced his candidacy for president. He had been a U.S. senator for just two years.
BTW, in addition to his breathtaking race up the ladder during those years, Obama served on a number of boards of directors between 1992 and 2002.
Let me make this as crystal clear as possible. OBAMA ANNOUNCED FOR THE PRESIDENCY ON THE BASIS OF 8 YEARS AS A STATE SENATOR AND 2 YEARS AS A U.S. SENATOR. That's it. That's the basis on which this man is building his presidential run. That, and his gadfly hopping around from one patronage position to another during the 1990's.
ALL of it rests on one affirmative-action achievement, which was his election as the first "black" president of the Harvard Law Review.
There are plenty of fully black high achievers in this country who are more qualified to be president than this arrogant twit. So why Obama? What, or who, made a junior senator think he should even consider a run for the presidency with such a light resume? Either he's the luckiest SOB on the planet, or he's somebody's sock puppet front man. There simply is no other logical conclusion.
What I do know is that such breathtakingly meteoric political rises to the doorstep of national executive leadership simply do not happen -- at least not historically in Western democratic forms of government. Heck, they rarely even happen in totalitarian governments, either. However, they do happen in coups and other forms of shortcuts to political power.
John F. Kennedy's career is the closest historical U.S. parallel to Obama's rocketship ride to the top, yet the rate of JFK's quick rise pales in comparison. JFK at least served with distinction the in Navy during WWII, and he was in the Congress for 14 years before being elected president: a U.S. congressman for six years, then a senator for eight.
Besides, we know who was behind Kennedy's rise -- his old bootlegger father, Joe, former ambassador to Great Britain. Obama doesn't have a Pappa Joe to buy the presidency for him, which begs the question: who fills the Pappa Joe role in Obama's life?
This is one SCARY dude. Even Scarier is that at least half of the voting public are ignorant of any facts or just do not care.
I couldn't agree with you more. Obama is extremely scary precisely because he came out of nowhere with the thinnest of resumes and now stands on the threshold of the presidency. Things like that simply do not happen by magic. Obama's rise is comparable to a mail room clerk becoming CEO of Microsoft in less than a month after being hired.
Classmate: "So Barack, what are you doing now?"
Obeymao: "I'm, uh, a community organizer."
Classmate: "Really? That sounds interesting. What is it that you do as a community organizer?"
Obeymao: "Uhhh, to be honest, uhm, I really don't know..."
That is a very good comparison. Something is definitely in the air.
Barack Obama = John Kerry with a tan.
Their similar, droning speaking styles make me laugh.
This guy is such an Empty Suit. It is truly scary how this, do nothing, accomplished nothing, loser goes all around this country touting the supposed solution to every problem and 50% of the voters faint. It just utterly boggles the mind.
Let's suppose Obama applied for a job with the Tranportation Safety Administration (TSA). He has admitted to using cocaine. He has a known association with a violent terrorist, Bill Ayers. He was a member of a racist, America hating church for 20 years. He would be flatly rejected for a job screening bags at an airport. Is he really qualified to be President and Commander in Chief?
TOWNHALL.com: "OBAMA'S BOOKS SAY HE ATTENDED 'MUSLIM SCHOOL'" -Posted by Matt Lewis (SNIPPET: "Note: It really doesn't matter whether or not Obama attended a Muslim school. What does matter is whether or not he is telling the truth. And I think it is also important to note that this rumor was not started by conservative skullduggery, but by Obama's own writings ...") (July 15, 2008, 4:15 pm)
MEMRITV.org - VIDEO CLIP #1791: "Title of Video: Libyan Leader Mu'ammar Al-Qadhafi: Obama Suffers Inferiority Complex That Might Make Him Behave "Whiter Than the White." He Should Be Proud of His African, Muslim Identity. Ben-Gurion Gave the Green Light for the Killing of JFK" ("Clip #1791 Broadcast: June 11, 2008")
Sounds like he may be best described as a “go-for boy”(emphasis, BOY....)
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