Does Barack Obama support the First Amendment? (answer: well, it depends)

Is Barack Obama a strong proponent of the First Amendment? Does he support free speech, even by those who strongly disagree with him? The answer is: not really.

I'll keep track in reverse chronological order (note, of course, that there are other examples throughout the time period):

* 10/27/08: Student reporters who uncovered voter fraud receive threatening letters from an Obama attorney warning that he will "read what you write and watch what you say". He later apologizes. (link)

* 10/26/08: the BHO campaign was apparently angered over the questions asked by one or two other TV stations; see these videos: link, link, link. One of the questions asked concerned the report "Biden routes campaign cash to family, their firms" (link).

* 10/25/08: Angered by Joe Biden being asked semi-tough questions, the Obama campaign gives a cold shoulder to a Florida TV station.

* 10/17/08: Obama tells the New York Times: "I am convinced that if there were no Fox News, I might be two or three points higher in the polls. If I were watching Fox News, I wouldn't vote for me, right? ...Because the way I'm portrayed 24/7 is as a freak! I am the latte-sipping, New York Times-reading, Volvo-driving, no-gun-owning, effete, politically correct, arrogant liberal. Who wants somebody like that?" That doesn't mean that, if he becomes president, he'll push something like the Fairness Doctrine. However, he or his surrogates will probably use Fox as a scapegoat when his policies meet resistance and those surrogates might take action against Fox in some way.

* 10/8/08: ABC, NBC CBS, Time-Warner, CW, Fox, and others refuse to run ads for a WND book called "The Audacity of Deceit: Barack Obama's War on American Values". The ads may or may not cross the line, and some of the rejections may be due to pressure from the BHO campaign's lawyers (link).

* 9/27/08: According to the local paper, signs were banned from an Obama/Biden appearance at the public University of Mary Washington (link).

* 9/25/08: Public officials in St. Louis/Missouri threaten Obama opponents with criminal libel? (apparently under the direction of or with the input of the BHO campaign)

* 9/25/08: Barack Obama threatens licenses of stations running NRA ad (National Rifle Association)

* 9/15/08: The BHO campaign told their followers to call in to Chicago's WGN-AM in an attempt to prevent author David Freddoso from discussing his anti-BHO book; a spokesman says: "The Action Wire serves as a means of arming our supporters with the facts to take on those who spread lies about Barack Obama and respond forcefully with the truth, whether it's an author passing off fiction as biography, a Web site spreading baseless conspiracy theories or a TV station airing an ad that makes demonstrably false claims" (link, link).

* 8/27/08: the BHO campaign tried the same technique as they did with Freddoso (above) in an attempt to prevent National Review author Stanley Kurtz from discussing his attempts to obtain more information on Obama's work for the Annenberg Challenge (link).

* 8/26/08: the BHO campaign threatened TV stations over an ad from the American Issues Project, including trying to get the Department of Justice to investigate the group (link)

* 8/14/08: the Obama campaign's "debunking" of Obama Nation by Jerome Corsi included them "creatively editing" one of Corsi's quotes in order to make him look bad.

* 7/13/08: Obama quote: "[immigrants and illegal aliens are] counting on us to stop the hateful rhetoric filling our airwaves – rhetoric that poisons our political discourse, degrades our democracy, and has no place in this great nation." That's a reference to commentators such as Rush Limbaugh and Lou Dobbs, two people that Obama has not only smeared but lied about. Clearly, he doesn't just disagree with them, he doesn't want them to have the right to speak.

There's another roundup here; apparently BHO's followers reported supportive reviews of the Corsi book to Amazon, resulting in some being pulled. And, an opinion piece/roundup is here.

Comments

We all know Juan McCain is bad enough. Not only is Juan a Bush buddy but also a pal of Sen. Kennedy. Making him [in my opinion] unfit for the job. But compared to Obama...OMFG! This guy will surely take the weakened and invaded USA to the next level of Socialism. He will most certainly try to outlaw right wing "hate" speech. And that would be a mistake and probably the last straw before the revolution.