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 won’t be scared, I will just be ashamed.
The only big election he has won was against Alan Keyes...not saying much
The arrogance of these elitists beggars the imagination. On what basis does this metrosexual flim-flam man decide that I need his assistance to improve my life?
My life is very good. However, I do not doubt that he and his socialist comrades could change it for the worse.
actual title: “Obama’s Inexperience Tough to Ignore”
[“When classmates in college asked me just what it was that a community organizer did, I couldn’t answer them directly.”]
As the MaHa Rushie would say: “think Al Sharpton.”
INTREP
[Look for John McCain to begin exploiting this vulnerability after Labor Day.]
I have seen McCain come out swinging at the end (with Romney) so I am holding out hopes that he will do same with Obama.
Obama is the guy who shows up near the end of the meeting, smiles and shakes a few hands, picks up a copy of the agenda off the table, glances at it as he walks out of the room, and then heads towards the press briefing room, where he takes credit for whatever small thing was accomplished in the meeting, meanwhile forgetting to mention the other people who actually did the work he’s taking credit for.
Ha, ha. I was a “strong but silent” lawyer also, as are all attorneys who file an official appearance in court but then let the lead attorney try the case. If he appeared in court, his job was probably to take notes on witness statements and to find documents needed by the lead attorney.
As for his experience, another article seemed to indicate that his “community organizing” experience convinced him that he wanted to be on the other side—the side with the real power, and that from that moment on his entire life has been defined as a quest for more and more political power and every action has been determined by how it affects his next election.
[...Thus, Obama admitted that he accomplished little but that
he was able to cover that up with fancy talk about change...]
How fortunate for leaders that men do not think.
— Adolf Hitler —
ALINSKY’S RULES FOR REVOLUTIONS
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1972236/posts
Hillary, Obama and the cult of Alinsky
Tehran Times ^ | February 15, 2008 | Richard Poe
Posted on Monday, February 18, 2008 6:52:31 AM by 3AngelaD
Whata Weenie this guy is.
Empty suit. Big talk no action.
How did he get into Harvard?
Was he bright or was this linked with affirmative action?
A wealthy Republican beneficiary should bankroll the clean up of this mess and then highlight Obama’s false claims and shortcomings in failing to get the job done.
Chicago is distracting us from the War on Terror!
To this day, most of the asbestos remains in the apartments.
A wealthy Republican beneficiary should bankroll the clean up of this mess and then highlight Obama's false claims and shortcomings in failing to get the job done.
As far as I’m concerned Obama can keep his change and stick it up his kabootie.
While it would be a PR coup, I think most wealthy Republicans spend their money in smarter ways. I have read that too often there is more damage done ripping out asbestos than sealing it in and leaving it be. The air definitely gets contaminated in the ripping-out process, much more than if it were to stay put, even if it deteriorated over time.
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