Published: October 14, 2008 04:15 am         

On the Right Side: Obama has shaky past

Since the media have already appointed Barack Obama as their choice, you can expect not to see any objective, professional journalism coming from them.

The burden is on the individual voter to do the research him/herself.

Notice how Obama and his faithful always talk in general terms? It's because he has nothing of accomplishment to brag about and no feasible plan for the country, especially if you price out the cost of his proposals. His background doesn't even qualify him for a CEO position, let alone president of the United States.

What does his life look like to date? He graduated from college in 1983. He then went to work as a "community organizer" at age 23, from 1985 to 1988. This is the time period he brags about, so much so we'll have to talk more about that experience later.

For now, he brags about how he gave up the possibility of high-paying jobs to accept a job paying $12,000 a year. Barack, that was minimum wage. You get paid minimum wage because you have minimal responsibility, and your inexperience means you weren't worth more than that.

Then he went on to law school and graduated in May 1991. I think he briefly worked for a law firm, ran a voter-registration project and had an association with an organization known as ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now).

You have to Google "ACORN," "Barack Obama," and "Madeline Talbott" to do your research. You won't find it in any of the Obama-loving press.

ACORN has been indicted or under investigation in 13 states so far. One subpoenaed witness, Lateala Goins, 21, said, "You can tell them you're registered as many times as you want _ they don't care. They will follow you to the buses, they will follow you home, it doesn't matter."

She simply signed her name to numerous registration forms; the ACORN people filled in everything else. Freddie Jones, also subpoenaed, filled out 72 registration forms. And these are only a few of the hundreds of stories out there.

The point of all this is that ACORN is actively participating in (and found guilty of) voter fraud, a felony, and other criminal activity. Obama trained these people, made sure they were funded with taxpayer dollars and benefited from campaign donations in return.

Don't you also expect that since Obama impacted so many lives (his claim), at least one or two of these individuals would come forward and offer testimonials on his behalf?

After this honorable exercise in radical, left-wing activism, he went on to serve seven years as an Illinois state senator. During this time he accomplished nothing noteworthy except for not voting up or down on critical issues but merely voting "present" more than 130 times.

In November 2004, he was elected a U.S. senator and has served a mere three-plus years, two of which have been campaigning for the presidency.

He has not been the leader on even one signature issue during this time. He misses critical votes and waits to determine which way the political (radical left) winds are blowing before he votes on the others. Again, nothing accomplished.

This lack of accomplishment has forced him to enhance (lie about) his claims of accomplishments. During his visit to Israel, The Jerusalem Post quoted him as saying, "Just this past week, we passed out of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee _ which is my committee _ a bill to call for divestiture."

CNN, hardly a critic, had to point out that Obama wasn't even on that committee.

One more claim, pointed out by The Jerusalem Post, "We're told that Obama passed laws' that extended health care for wounded troops who'd been neglected.'"

As the Post pointed out, the bill passed the Senate by a vote of 91 to 3. Six senators did not vote _ including Obama.

And yes, even though his supporters try to discount the facts, there are his associations with the convicted Tony Rezco, William Ayres, the domestic terrorist and killer (lots of proven contacts, and not just a man he knows who lives in his neighborhood), his racist minister Jeremiah Wright (20 years), and more.

Either he is stupid and naive about the backgrounds of these despicable people, or he is lying about his relationships with them. I choose the latter explanation.

I know the Kool-Aid group of Obama fans won't do their own research. They wouldn't know a fact if it hit them in the face. I am appealing to the independents and the common-sense crowd. This is an extremely important election coming up, and Obama's record just doesn't cut it.

Just as his running mate, Joe Biden, has said about Obama, "The presidency doesn't lend itself to on-the-job-training."

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Tom Sears is a professor of accounting at Hartwick College in Oneonta. He can be reached at SearsT@hartwick.edu. His column appears every other week.