CNN "breaks" news about how Obama knocked off opponents to run unopposed...

[candice]

BREAKING NEWS? See how Barack Obama has used election rules to his advantage during his political career on AC 360.
Tonight, 10 p.m ET

Really....

Three months after The Houston Press article (excerpt and link below) was published and everyone else was knew about it. Great job, media!

CNN: "Obama said he'd hire the expertise he lacks, so he hires Harvard election officials to clear the playing field so he can run unopposed. His current lawyers made sure that Michigan and Florida voters couldn't revote (and donations were made so that the cost to the states would be zilch). Why was the self-declared nominee so afraid of a revote? He wouldn't lose nearly as bad as he did in Kentucky.



http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/05/29/obamas.first.campaign/?iref=mpstoryview

In his first race for office, seeking a state Senate seat on Chicago's gritty South Side in 1996, Obama effectively used election rules to eliminate his Democratic competition.
As a community organizer, he had helped register thousands of voters. But when it came time to run for office, he employed Chicago rules to invalidate the voting petition signatures of three of his challengers.
The move denied each of them, including incumbent Alice Palmer, a longtime Chicago activist, a place on the ballot. It cleared the way for Obama to run unopposed on the Democratic ticket in a heavily Democrat district."



But this fearless young reporter who worked on a newspapers in Hyde Park told the world the facts at the end of February.



http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-02-28/news/barack-obama-screamed-at-me/

"Obama has spent his entire political career trying to win the next step up. Every three years, he has aspired to a more powerful political position.
He was just 35 when in 1996 he won his first bid for political office. Even many of his staunchest supporters, such as Black, still resent the strong-arm tactics Obama employed to win his seat in the Illinois Legislature.
Obama hired fellow Harvard Law alum and election law expert Thomas Johnson to challenge the nominating petitions of four other candidates, including the popular incumbent, Alice Palmer, a liberal activist who had held the seat for several years, according to an April 2007 Chicago Tribune report.
Obama found enough flaws in the petition sheets — to appear on the ballot, candidates needed 757 signatures from registered voters living within the district — to knock off all the other Democratic contenders. He won the seat unopposed.
"A close examination of Obama's first campaign clouds the image he has cultivated throughout his political career," wrote Tribune political reporters David Jackson and Ray Long. "The man now running for president on a message of giving a voice to the voiceless first entered public office not by leveling the playing field, but by clearing it.""

[anonymous171]

1. Great. Hopefully he will knock McCain out too.

[EFerrari]

2. OMFG, we've got a winner on our hands.

:wow:

[Writer]

24. Wow. Clinton doing the same thing would be labeled "opportunist" and "conniving."

Not to mention that she'd be accused of stealing the primary.

The double-standard is remarkable.

[EFerrari]

30. We don't know because she hasn't managed to win anything yet.

Sorry, take your fake claims of a double standard and plant them where they will grow. If anything, sane people understand what a huge insider lead Clinton had and how she blew it so badly with her bad management and behavior. You have to fail pretty good to do as badly as she has.

[pathansen]

31. ?So she didn't actually win a U.S. senate seat twice now?

[EFerrari]

32. I'm sure that she's proud that her husband's influence put her in the Senate.

[knight_of_the_star]

37. So her husband has the power to appoint senators now?

Please read the Constitution and election laws again.

[mac2]

63. Wish he'd appoint more women and Progressives if that is the case.

[MonkeyFunk]

41. and when she wanted to challenge

the credentials of some texas caucus voters, people here attacked her. Just more typical hypocrisy from the Obama fan club.

[yodermon]

60. Why couldn't she get more people on her side?

What a weak candidate. "waah, people on DU attacked her". Suck it up.

[mac2]

64. She won in many states and the others were silenced...emmm

didn't follow the DLC "rules".

[highplainsdem]

69. Their double standard has been impossible to miss.

Amusingly, CNN reported that the Obama campaign whined about the story being a "hit piece." Obviously his campaign realizes that a factual story about his Chicago background conflicts with his image as a new type of politician.

And they haven't even gotten to Emil Jones and the bill-jacking yet...

If you were writing a script about an ambitious politician who as state senator asks the senate president to make him a US senator, and who then takes credit for dozens of bills other state senators did most of the work on (allowing an impressive legislative record to be created for him at his colleagues' expense), that politician would NOT be the hero.

[mac2]

73. As a Illinois Democrat I'm not supposed to know that.

I'm supposed to believe Obama is.... Just fill in the blank with hero like acts.

[scheming daemons]

3. Great! We've got a nominee that knows how to play the game and won't let his opponents cheat!

[Exultant Democracy]

10. No shit, so Obama should have let ever one else cheat is the argument here or something

I don't get it. If you can't get 700-800 legitimate signatures then you shouldn't be running for office.

[Dr Fate]

4. So Obama does what he can to win his battles and defeat his opponents.

Scandalous I say- scandalous!

[cbc5g]

5. Thank God we have a fighter n/t

[GarbagemanLB]

6. I thought you Hillbots were telling us he was too weak? Guess you guys were wrong!

[mac2]

18. Not weak crooked.

Don't compare him to anyone else. If he is about "change" then his behavior is not different is it?

[anonymous171]

19. What? He's enforcing election law. What's crooked about that?

[mac2]

21. He is twisting the law of the party to win?

[anonymous171]

23. God forbid candidate's have legitimate signatures on their petitions.

[mac2]

25. Not that but other things like this FL and MI thing.

And his land deal in Chicago.

[anonymous171]

26. Take FL and MI up with the DNC, not Obama.

Or better yet, with the MI and FL state legislatures.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

27. ZOMG!! REZKO!!!1!!1!ELEVEN

You mean, this guy?

[mac2]

66. Refko was a friend of Obama too.

Refko is being tried for fraud in Chicago. After that Vegas gets a shot at him in court. He owes them $400,000 or something like that...or so they say. He must have been hanging around with the RW Families Values man Mr. Bennett in Vegas.

Some people have to be where the power and money is to feel it themselves. He helped both parties in campaigns, etc. It back fired on him.

[knight_of_the_star]

38. This isn't showing he's a fighter

This is more like calling someone a chess master because they swept all the opposing pieces off the board with their hand while the other player had their head turned.

[w4rma]

46. Apples and oranges. Obama plays the game by it's rules. Your example does not. (nt)

[mac2]

56. Rules? Whose rules?

http://www.gregpalast.com/obama%E2%80%99s-secret-war-profiteering-tax/

[KSinTX]

59. Huh? From your link

Nevertheless, oilman George W. Bush opposes it as does Bush’s man McCain. Senator McCain admonishes us that the po’ widdle oil companies need more than 80% of their windfall so they can explore for more oil. When pigs fly, Senator. Last year, Exxon spent $36 billion of its $40 billion income on dividends and special payouts to stockholders in tax-free buy-backs. Even the Journal called Exxon’s capital investment spending “stingy.”

At today’s prices Obama’s windfall tax, teeny as it is, would bring in nearly a billion dollars a day for the US Treasury. Clinton’s plan is similar. Yet the press’ entire discussion of gas prices is shifted to whether the government should knock some sales tax pennies off the oil companies’ pillaging at the pump.

[liberalmuse]

7. Shameless!

Oh...wait, that's what he's supposed to do, right? CNN needs to get over itself.

[anonymous171]

9. How dare he verify the signatures!?

[Rosa Luxemburg]

8. Obama is not exactly a push over or an appeaser

he should be able to take out McBushCain in one blow!

[grannylib]

11. Wow, making people follow the rules...what a strong-arm tactic

that is. No wonder Senator Clinton is desperate, if she knows that Senator Obama is successful at that. Might mean SHE has to play by the rules too.

[oviedodem]

12. I suppose Hillary changing the rules b/c it will suit her is noble. Please.

[ekwhite]

13. Ummm

Isn't it standard practice to challenge your opponent's signatures? Suddenly this is a scandal?

[grantcart]

14. See here's the deal

1)this was discussed in many threads months ago.

2) Now its been in three threads today.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=6171014&mesg_id=6171014
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=6172542&mesg_id=6172542
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=6172683&mesg_id=6172683

3) We love what it says about Obama. He still takes the high road avoiding any type of personal attack on opponents but he is also tough as nails on making sure that he doesn't have a disadvantage because of illegal operations.

So he is tough as nails and takes the high road.

4) It really has very little to do about why he succeeds as this article shows that he completely change the political landscape
http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/January-1993/Vote-of-Confidence/
In the final, climactic buildup to November's general election, with George Bush gaining ground on Bill Clinton in Illinois and the once-unstoppable campaign of senatorial candidate Carol Moseley Braun embroiled in allegations about her mother's Medicare liability, one of the most important local stories managed to go virtually unreported: The number of new voter registrations before the election hit an all-time high. And the majority of those new voters were black. More than 150,000 new African-American voters were added to the city's rolls. In fact, for the first time in Chicago's history-including the heyday of Harold Washington-voter registrations in the 19 predominantly black wards outnumbered those in the city's 19 predominantly white ethnic wards, 676,000 to 526,000.

The election, to some degree, turned on these totals: Braun and Clinton had almost unanimous support among blacks. But just as important, if less obvious, are the implications black votership could have for future city and state elections: For the first time in ten years, more than half a million blacks went to the polls in Chicago. And with gubernatorial and mayoral elections coming up in the next two years, it served notice to every¬one from Jim Edgar to Richard M. Daley that an African-American voting bloc would be a force to be reckoned with in those races.

None of this, of course, was accidental. The most effective minority voter registration drive in memory was the result of careful handiwork by Project Vote!, the local chapter of a not-for-profit national organization. "It was the most efficient campaign I have seen in my 20 years in politics," says Sam Burrell, alderman of the West Side's 29th Ward and a veteran of many registration drives.


5) If you are trying to promote Senator Clinton's campaign for Vice President you actually have to come up with a compelling rationale on why she should be added to the ticket.

6) If your trying to wear us down by keep posting these same threads so that we have to rec them well we will try and keep up but these articles are great and they completely undermine the Clinton arguments that he is too naive or soft for a General Election campaign - but I think 4 in one day should be enough.

[bhikkhu]

15. A winner who challenges corruption and plays by the rules.

Thanks so much for pointing it out. We read here and there what a sink of corruption and tough politics Chicago is, and here is an example of a candidate who challenged three opponents on the validity of their petition sheets, and these three were found to be full of irregularities.

"Play by the rules or find somewhere else to play" works for me. Combine that with the community organization and registration drives, and we have a perfect example of someone doing the right thing and literally making change real. Our party is fortunate.

[Radical Activist]

16. Chicago rules? They must mean Illinois state law.

Nice spin though.

[FrenchieCat]

17. Fuck CNN and Lou Dobbs!

Like he said, he may be skinny, but he ain't no wimp.

Where were they when they should have been questioning our government instead of cheerleading taking us into war.

Wait till I do an expose on Lou Dobbs and his role in getting us into Iraq.

Maybe they should try to break some real news.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=6168635&mesg_id=6168635

Think they will?

[mac2]

20. Where was Obama? He wants policing in Iraq.

[FrenchieCat]

29. You remind me of someone!

[rocktivity]

22. Obama wouldn't have been able to "clear" the playing field

if it HADN'T been "cluttered" with bad signatures, or if someone had been able to "clear" him.

:eyes:
rocknation

[mystieus]

28. Being Chicago politics, if the worst he did was still following the rules, that's not hardball there

[Danger Mouse]

33. if you said the sky was blue...i still wouldn't believe you.

you lie like a rug, and when you get tired of that, you lie some more.

[Chisox08]

34. If I remember correctly Dead people and some people's dogs signed those petitions

So getting those signatures invalidated was the right thing to do. Especially when running against the Daley Machine

[VotesForWomen]

35. well, well, well,.... the halo has a little tarnish, it appears. nt

[shadowknows69]

51. How so, because CNN is trying to make a hit piece out of a positive story?

[casus belli]

36. "still resent the strong-arm tactics Obama employed"

The author of that article is utterly clueless. Obama's political career was nearly a "never was" because he was on the receiving end of what he accuses Obama of.

And since when does playing the game by the rules count as a liability? It's not his fault the others didn't famliarize themselves with the contest before playing. What next? Accuse the man of being ruthless when he plays chess because he goes for early checkmates? This is silly....

[LTR]

39. 'Bout time we got a Dem candidate with some fucking balls!

Chicago politics is played a bit different and a bit nastier than in other places. It's eat or be eaten.

I'm sick of milquetoast wimps that are too polite to fight back. We need a fighter, because the GOP doesn't play nice. Obama looks like the guy.

[PM7nj]

40. Well, if the signatures were bogus, Obama had every right to challenge them.

It isn't his fault that his opponents broke election laws. He used their stupidity to his advantage.

[rucky]

49. Republicans would never try to monkey with elections.

nope. never, never.

[graycem]

42. It's funny how him following election laws,

and now party rules, earns him the image of being "unethical" or anything of the sort, while his opponents then and now, were the ones with ethics problems. Seems like they're just bitter because he outstrategized and fought for his win. Sad that people can't lose gracefully.

[dana_b]

43. seems like some are offended at his youth too.

"He was just 35 when he won his first bid for political office." And?? SHould he have waited until he was 40 something?? I think it will be great to have another president in his forties. Don't know if it's true, but Jon Stewart joked about his health report coming back as "excellent" and fit on one page. I like that in a potential president.

Related: There was an 18 year old on the news who won a mayoral race recently and also another one near where I live who became the mayor of an ultra rich town a few years back. I say, good for them! They're obviously smart, well organised and have a huge future in front of them. Future presidents??

[Lone_Star_Dem]

44. Kos diary on this

Texas alternative papers publish hit job on Obama

<snip>

A few things the Mr. Spivak evidently forgot to mention:

Obama's signature ethics reform bill was passed in 1998 and the Earned Income Tax Credit in 2000, under Republican controlled legislatures.

Obama chaired the Health and Human services committee in 2003-2004 which accounts for his sponsorship of most of his legislation passed in those years.

The work that Obama did to secure the video interrogation bill against vehement opposition is well documented. Hendon's claim that he took the ball to the 1 yard line is risible.

The story about Obama gaining his senate seat by legal technicality, challenging nominating petitions and so betraying his mentor Alice Palmer completely distorts the story. Obama was encouraged to run by Palmer who was herself running in a special election for US Congress. Before he decided to run, he demanded an assurance that she would not come back after the seat if her Congressional bid failed, which she gave. Days before the filing deadline (in December) and just a few months before the primary which would surely be determinative in his Democratic district, she lost the special and decided to reclaim her state senate seat. Obama refused to step aside and she was unable to gather sufficient valid signatures to get on the ballot. Challenging nominating petitions is standard procedure in Illinois politics and while Obama has indicated he regrets having displaced a distinguished progressive politician, he was certainly entitled to pursue a race he had invested so much in already just as he had said he would in light of her promise not to contest the seat.

See the Tribune story here: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-070403obama-ballot,1,57567.story?page=1

Finally when Spivak gathered all those nasty comments about Obama he was the dark horse in a three way race for the US Senate nomination, and most of the Illinois machine was working for his opponents (namely Dan Hynes son of long time Chicago alderman and self funding millionaire Hull). Nearly all of the folks named are now outspoken advocates and supporters (but they're still hacks).

I was active in Chicago politics throughout this period. Obama was the darling of young Chicago progressives that got together through the DL21C (Democratic leadership for the 21st century). I think the notion that he was "made" by the Democratic machine is pretty much backward. Generally the machine promoted black politicians of really limited ability (see Stroger, John) as a way of keeping real political power in white ethnic hands (see Daley, Ritchey). Obama was universally viewed as a threat to nearly everyone, but was sufficiently able that just burying him wasn't feasible. Moving him on to Washington as quickly as possible was the next best thing. Similarly, the stories about how he got a free ride in his Senate race because the Republicans put up Alan Keyes again misses the point. His original opponent (Ryan) was the golden boy of Illinois Republican politics, rich, good looking, with a resume that included teaching at inner city schools. The allegations that ended his campaign weren't really disqualifying, so much as it almost instantly became clear that he wasn't gonna beat Obama with anything that undermined his standing with conservatives (and probably wouldn't have beat Obama anyway partially because he shared the last name of the scandal ridden Governor who more or less destroyed the Republican party in Illinois in that very election). Once Ryan was gone the Republicans simply couldn't find anyone that wanted any part of Obama.

Anyway, forewarned is forearmed. Hopefully this will get little attention and do little damage, but if not we should make clear to the Dallas Observer, the Houston Press and any impressionable readers that Obama really does have a great record of accomplishment in Illinois, that he conducted himself honorably there. There are lots of folks who have bought into the excitement over Obama without really knowing much about him, and so he is awfully vulnerable to this sort of "insider" slime. Since these papers won't run again until after the primary a retraction doesn't do much good but at least we can be prepared to respond.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/2/29/1120/88756/741/466064


Old news which has already been picked apart. Considering the fact that this "revelation" came out just before the Texas primary I'm all too familiar with it already.

My take: Spivak was on an ego trip simply because he had known Obama and was hoping for a brief moment of recognition for his association. The headline of his piece supports my theory, "Barack Obama and Me."

[goletian]

45. so, he used the rules to beat his opponents, meanwhile hillary wants to ignore them...

sounds like history repeats itself! hillary shouldve planned beyond super tuesday... too bad, so sad.

[Marrah_G]

47. Actions speak louder then words

This sort of thing bothers me. Not enough that I wouldn't vote for him in Nov. But it does bother me. I have a feeling that people have built the pedastal so high that they are going to be very disappointed in the reality when it hits.

[Unbowed]

48. His campaign hasn't been one of good fortune; it's been one of tough, smart strategy. n/t

[indimuse]

50. !! about time!

Posted about this for 3 days....7 months ago!!!!

me thinks...Bo pissed some MSM peeps off!

[Honeycombe8]

52. This can't be right. We all know he is where he is only because he's lucky he's black.

I mean, Ferraro just CAN'T be wrong! It would be sexist to think so!

[mac2]

58. He's black and white.

Multi-racial.

[Vinca]

53. A politician played a smart game of politics. That's news? nt

[mac2]

54. We in IL know differently.

http://obamatruth.org/

[SemiCharmedQuark]

61. Oh please don't ever speak for all of Illinois again.

[mac2]

62. Right I will remember to not remember.

[hokies4ever]

55. It was meant to be a hitjob on Obama but it fell completely flat

I think Anderson Cooper realized it too when he ended that segment with his comment, "We'll let the viewers decide."

[mac2]

57. A con on Americans is what it is.

http://www.gregpalast.com/obama%E2%80%99s-secret-war-profiteering-tax/

[Barack_America]

65. Are you saying that there's no room for 'dotting of i's and crossing of t's' in politics?

If you ask me, pinpoint attention to detail is just what our country needs right now.

All this highlights to me is that Obama has the opposite approach to the "atta boy Brownie" mentality.

And that's a very good thing.

[mac2]

68. They don't seem to go after the details of running a democracy

that's all I see. We are in an illegal war longer than WWII. We spent more and destroyed our treasury, democracy, and reputation as a leader. We aren't safer.

The world hates us and stopped listening to our lies. They won't buy our products or take our dollar (which is about useless). They haven't even read half the treasonous legislation before them before they vote on it. Now that's not detail. That's the bottom line.

[ShadowLiberal]

67. And where are stories like this on McCain, ehh 'balanced' media

It's long past time they stop giving McCain the easy treatment and show us some of his darker side. I mean they dig up months or years old stuff said or done ages ago recently even though no politician or anyone big actually brought it up in a speech or anything.

[AllentownJake]

71. You mean how McCain

Leap frogged more experienced and party loyalist candidates in 1982 by using his connections he built in the senate when he was a liason. There was a story about it but it made McCain seem like a smart guy for doing it.

[AllentownJake]

70. Knocked off?

Your OP headline makes it sound like Obama murdered people.

You are a sick sad person.

[mac2]

72. The Congress is at fault for not ending this war by impeachment

and accountability. That was murder indirectly to many in other countries.