There is no smoking gun just a lot of things that should raise questions and 0 being BP's biggest recipient is one of them. Others would include things like Rahm Emmanuel getting rent-free housing from BP consultant Stanley Greenberg and Deepwater Horizon getting exempted from an environmental study.
Now, it could be that these things are innocence and coincidence, and none of them have anything to do with "The Chicago Way" and if you want to dismiss them that is your choice.
As for me, I'll go hmmmm and keep bringing them up.
I agree! Bring up everything that seems hinky. There can’t be enough scrutiny of this man, or any President.
The BP PAC DID contribute $1000 to Obama’s Senate campaign. But I don’t think that Obama ever received so much in 2008 that it would have caught his notice one way or another. The donations he got from BP were contributed by over 150 individuals, and he raised close to $700 million in 2008, all told. The trial attorneys contributed millions and millions and millions, in comparison.
I am just wary of the “post hoc, ergo propter hoc” fallacy. Just because Event A occurred before Event B does not mean that Event A is responsible for Event B. I read Talking Points Memo for the reason that they explore in greater detail a lot of these items you mention. That Rahm Emanuel - Rose Lauro rental is one example.
The fact that the permit for the Deepwater Horizon got a waiver for drilling is suspicious. However, I’d like to find out if that exemption was itself an exception to the way MMS approved these permits, or if it was standard operating procedure in that agency.
If the approval was out of the ordinary, then it demands investigation. If such waivers were commonplace, then it doesn’t look like BP got special treatment. Have you got any more info on that?
It’s hard to examine any person’s record with an unprejudiced eye when you just don’t trust the character. However, that isn’t reason why we should presume guilt without looking at all the facts.