Posted on 12/25/2008 3:29:39 PM PST by dascallie
He obviously carries some intense inner rage--was sent the below today--it was published in May...Obama is not the Mr Smoothie he is packaged up to be--as the press pushes him, he is likely to show his true colors.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
BARACK OBAMA
"Barack Obama is on the phone screaming at me."
(Jim Geraghty reporting)
There's a lot of new, fresh, eye-opening anecdotes in this long article on Obama as a state legislator by Todd Spivak of the Houston Press.
But in light of today's story of Obama's near-physical altercation, this anecdote of Obama's temper is interesting:
It's not quite eight in the morning and Barack Obama is on the phone screaming at me. He liked the story I wrote about him a couple weeks ago, but not this garbage.
Months earlier, a reporter friend told me she overheard Obama call me an asshole at a political fund-raiser. Now here he is blasting me from hundreds of miles away for a story that just went online but hasn't yet hit local newsstands.
It's the first time I ever heard him yell, and I'm trembling as I set down the phone. I sit frozen at my desk for several minutes, stunned...
In a follow-up report published a couple weeks later, I wrote about these disgruntled black legislators and the central role Senate President Emil Jones played in Obama's revived political life.
The morning after the story was posted online, I arrived early at my new offices. I hadn't taken my coat off when the phone rang. It was Obama.
The article began, "It can be painful to hear Ivy League-bred Barack Obama talk jive."
Obama told me he doesn't speak jive, that he doesn't say the words "homeboy" or "peeps."
It seemed so silly; I thought for sure he was joking. He wasn't.
He said the black legislators I cited in the story were off-base, and that they couldn't have gotten the bills passed without him.
I started to speak, and he shouted me down.
He said he liked the other story I wrote.
I asked if there was anything factually inaccurate about the latest story.
He repeated that his former colleagues couldn't have passed the bills without him.
He asked why I wrote this story, then cut me off when I started to answer.
He said he should have been given a chance to respond.
I told him I had requested an interview through his communications director.
He said I should have called his cell phone.
I reminded him that he had asked me months ago to stop calling his cell phone due to his busier schedule.
He said again that I should have called his cell phone.
Today I no longer have Obama's cell phone number. I submitted two formal requests to interview Obama for this story through his Web site, but have not heard back. I also e-mailed interview requests to three of his top staffers, but none responded.
Maybe he'll call the day after this story runs. I'll get to the office early just in case. And this time I'll have my recorder ready.
Again, my point from the earlier post stands. I don't think Obama is a hothead, or flies off the handle with any degree of frequency. It's entirely possible - nay, likely - that many of us, in Obama's shoes, would want to take a swing at state legislator Rickey Hendon as well.
But the Washington Post did a front page story on McCain's temper, leading with an anecdote of Bob Kerrey breaking up a near-fight between McCain and Sen. Chuck Grassley in 1992. Too bad Bob Kerrey says the account is false, that Grassley and McCain worked out the emotional issue at hand among themselves, and that the Post never contacted him.
In Mendell's book, we find a near mirror-image of that McCain temper anecdote. The book has been in print since last year, and no major media organization has found the story of Obama "ready to throw punches" worth mentioning.
The image of an angry Obama being restrained by others doesn't mesh well with the smooth, calm, confident, always-at-ease, ready-for-the-moment image we're being sold. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that Obama's fans in the press want to avert their eyes.
05/21 04:16 PM
I’m 62 and KNOW I could punch his lights out .
The Emperor has no clothes.
Barack Obama and Me
It was the year 2000 and I was a young hungry reporter in Chicago covering a young hungry state legislator
By Todd Spivak
Published: February 28, 2008
During his seven-year tenure in the Illinois Legislature, Obama wrote an occasional column for the Lakefront Outlook community newspaper where I worked.
In 2004, during his U.S. Senate bid, I profiled Obama for the Illinois Times.
It’s not quite eight in the morning and Barack Obama is on the phone screaming at me. He liked the story I wrote about him a couple weeks ago, but not this garbage.
Months earlier, a reporter friend told me she overheard Obama call me an asshole at a political fund-raiser. Now here he is blasting me from hundreds of miles away for a story that just went online but hasn’t yet hit local newsstands.
It’s the first time I ever heard him yell, and I’m trembling as I set down the phone. I sit frozen at my desk for several minutes, stunned.
This is before Obama Girl, before the secret service detail, before he becomes a best-selling author. His book Dreams From My Father has been out of print for years.
I often see Obama smoking cigarettes on brisk Chicago mornings in front of his condominium high-rise along Lake Michigan, or getting his hair buzzed at the corner barbershop on 53rd and Harper in his Hyde Park neighborhood.
This is before he becomes a U.S. senator, before Oprah starts stumping for him, before he positions himself to become the country’s first black president.
He is just a rank-and-file state senator in Illinois and I work for a string of small, scrappy newspapers there.
___________
see whole article at
http://www.houston-press.com/2008-02-28/news/barack-obama-screamed-at-me/full
You might get a visit talking like that
you know the saying.. there is no blinder person than one who chooses not to see.
The jackasses in the “media” can continue to proclaim him the best president we’ve ever had, even though he’s not served a day as president, but to me, he’ll always be a two-bit Chicago punk.
O tried to intimidate Joe Lieberman, too, on the Senate floor (from Roll Call, reported on HuffPo):
“Furthermore, during a Senate vote Wednesday, Obama dragged Lieberman by the hand to a far corner of the Senate chamber and engaged in what appeared to reporters in the gallery as an intense, three-minute conversation.
“While it was unclear what the two were discussing, the body language suggested that Obama was trying to convince Lieberman of something and his stance appeared slightly intimidating.
“Using forceful, but not angry, hand gestures, Obama literally backed up Lieberman against the wall, leaned in very close at times, and appeared to be trying to dominate the conversation, as the two talked over each other in a few instances.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/04/lieberman-carries-mccains_n_105179.html
This would be gold on tape. I don’t know if that would be legal wherever this was, but I would love to hear it.
What have the American people elected?
Muslim rage.
The emperor has no clothes is right.
“What have the American people elected?”
A narcissistic, sociopathic meglomaniac; an arrogant, Stalinist thug.
What they deserve.
Jeesh, grow a freaking spine.
Some state senator calls me up and racking me over the coals, the last words he hears would be "KISS MT ASS......and the phone slams down
Obama’s body language alone, speaks volumes here. Lieberman, of course or for ‘whatever reason’; denied the forceful encounter. We have seen numerous times, of course, where Obama leads with ‘body language’.
He is only tough up on a podium or on the phone.
I think that Obama is really immature and this article is just proof of his immaturity.
I also think that the reason for his immaturity is because he has never been tested. He has always scammed the system, whether it’s Ivy League affirmation action or getting elected by the Chicago Democratic machine.
The easy times for Obama are coming to an end. Foreign leaders who have their own agenda and a tanking economy aren’t going to pander to him. He has to step up and meet these challenges. I don’t think he has the personality to overcome adversity. America is in for a long rough ride with this phony.
Open mics for everybody!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.