The Non-Partisan Case Against Barack Obama

Posted Wed, Oct 29, 2008 at 3:45 pm

You don't have to be a conservative or a Republican to be opposed to Barack Obama. Here are some of the reasons that almost anyone should oppose him:

1. PERSONALITY CULT
As a host of Youtube videos, comments on blogs, chants at rallies, and even tattoos show, Obama clearly has a growing personality cult. About the only policy positions some of those supporters could name would be "hope" and "change". Most of his supporters find little fault with him and are willing to believe in him whole-heartedly. In the U.S., we should be supporting ideas, not blindly following Great Leaders. Such movements are extremely dangerous in all cases, including when the Great Leader eventually is shown to be a mere mortal. Who knows how his supporters will react should he finally be shown to be an empty suit.

2. SMART, BUT UNTESTED
Obama is indeed smart. However, a good part of his reputation is due to his speaking skills and the fact that he's only very rarely been challenged. He's frequently said things that, were someone around to engage him in dialogue, would reveal that he hasn't thought things through in much depth. However, the media has completely given him a pass. During the last debate he was momentarily flustered after he was called on his past associations and on about the only occasion when he was pressed by the media he did not respond too well. He clearly has a narcissistic personality, and that personality type is prone to breaking down when challenged in the right fashion. America's enemies will attempt to take advantage of that.

3. HIS INDOCTRINATION PLAN FOR PRE-TEENS
No, really. Right on their website, the Obama campaign is specifically reaching out to pre-teens, and he wants to use those kids 12 and under to get votes. That plan is like something from Red China or the Soviet Union.

4. PART OF THE CHICAGO MACHINE
While Obama wasn't originally part of the Machine, he is now. Electing him will bring Machine politics to our national government. It won't be as bad as, for instance, electing Mayor Daley (either one) to be president, but there's no way that someone who's part of the Machine and who has advisors and supporters linked to the Machine will not give them something.

5. DIRTY CAMPAIGNING
Obama himself has largely kept his hands clean, while his surrogates have done the dirty work. Nothing McCain or Palin have said or done comes remotely close to the dirty campaigning that Obama's surrogates and supporters - including those in the media - have done. An Obama win would validate all of the tactics that Obama's supporters have engaged in.

6. SUPPORTING QUESTIONABLE PEOPLE WITH QUESTIONABLE LINKS
The person Obama supported to be Illinois Treasurer had little experience and a questionable background. Such links go beyond Obama's links with radicals.

7. VALIDATION OF INCREDIBLE MEDIA BIAS
In this election, the mainstream media has become little more than an arm of the Obama campaign. The smallest infraction by McCain is blown out of proportion and Sarah Palin is taken to task for failing to state things in the most exact and legalistic terms. At the same time, Obama is allowed to make false statements and propose plans that have hugely obvious flaws. The press has served as both the source for and amplifier of outrageous smears, especially those targeted at Palin. They've also failed to ask Obama tough questions at the same time as engaging in ambush journalism against Palin. They've even taken quotes out of context. An Obama win would completely validate and reward the media's coverage. An Obama defeat would also be a crushing, humiliating defeat to the mainstream media.

8. RACE CARD
Obama himself has played the race card; as he said, he's not like all the presidents on the dollar bills. But, his surrogates and supporters have taken it to a new level, with one of them even claiming that "socialist" was a code-word for "black". The supposed "post-racial candidate" is in many ways simply a slicker version of Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson.

9. NEARLY ONE-PARTY CONTROL
If Obama wins, the Congress will be Democratic, the mainstream media will continue lying and covering up for Obama as they have been doing, and Obama's past associates will still be around. And, millions of people at various levels within various public agencies will be more or less controlled by Obama through their unions: teachers, office workers, low-level bureaucrats, etc. While extreme Democratic Party hacks will certainly have no problem with something approaching one party rule, everyone else should be deeply concerned. Those who are extremely partisan should also note that any failures will clearly be the responsibility of the Democrats.

10. THE PERMANENT GOVERNMENT
Just as George Bush has done, Obama will stock the permanent government - the faceless mid-level bureaucrats, Assistant Undersecretaries, etc. - with his cronies. Some of those will come from the Chicago Machine.

11. SOME SUPPORTERS HAVE FASCISTIC TENDENCIES
It used to be that liberals would oppose corrupt foreign governments "losing" a reporter's paperwork in order to shut them up. Now, see the response from some of those in Obama's netroots base to such a case. While some at those sites no doubt oppose such things, very few of them spoke out against it. Some of the people highlighted at the previous link would have been right at home in East Germany. [UPDATE: the important point here is that those netroots supporters would gain political power should Obama win. While every candidate has questionable supporters, in McCain's case he isn't going to invite them to the White House. The same can't be said about, say, Kos if Obama wins.]

12. ASSOCIATIONS WITH RADICALS
In 'Dreams from My Father', Obama said, "To avoid being mistaken for a sellout, I chose my friends carefully... The more politically active black students. The foreign students. The Chicanos. The Marxist professors and structural feminists.". That's continued until very recently, with a long line of associations with radicals, extremists, and those on the far-left. Most politicians would not associate with largely unrepentant terrorists, racists, and the like. And, in fact, Obama has thrown several of his past friends and affiliates under the bus, but only after his association with them became an issue. Just as one might expect that a politician who spends their days going to Chamber of Commerce events has some sympathy with the positions of the Chamber of Commerce, Obama clearly has sympathies with the positions of the radicals with whom he's been associated. In fact, it's difficult to find many past Obama associates who are completely mainstream.

13. CRITICISM WILL NOT BE TOLERATED
The case of Joe the Plumber should be shocking to anyone who supports the U.S. Constitution. Someone dared to ask Obama a question and was later mentioned several times during a debate. Obama's supporters and surrogates responded by leaking private information on him and by trying to drive him out of work. The Obama campaign was probably involved in that, and at the least they did absolutely nothing to stop it. Those are the types of activities more commonly found in authoritarian societies. If Obama is president expect similar situations and perhaps even worse. [UPDATE: the possibility that the Obama campaign was involved in hampering JTP's work prospects is based in part on things like "Plumbers union rips McCain on 'Joe the Plumber'" (link), where the Obama-endorsing 'United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry' pointed out in a statement that JTP did not have a plumber's license, something that he might not need.]

14. THE FIRST AMENDMENT
Barack Obama is a clear threat to the First Amendment. Some Democratic leaders support the Fairness Doctrine and the like; for instance, the Center for American Progress supports more government control over radio station ownership. And, Obama himself has said that "hate" has no place on the airwaves. However, the "hate" part was a reference to Lou Dobbs and Rush Limbaugh, both of whom he's also smeared. Whether Obama personally pushes it or not, the Democrats will attempt to pass some sort of bill having an impact on what you can hear on the radio and perhaps on the TV as well. Petitioning the government is also a key part of the First Amendment; as described above, Joe the Plumber was almost driven out of work after asking Obama a question.

15. THE GREAT UNKNOWN
There's been controversy over Obama's eligibility to be president, with some thinking he could be a citizen of Kenya or Indonesia. There's a very good chance that he is indeed a U.S. citizen, but he has not proved it despite what you might have heard from "fact checkers". He could have easily prevented all the speculation by releasing his original birth certificate and other information to, for instance, an impartial judge. Yet, he did not. And, he even refuses to release something as simple as his college applications. Even the New York Times has noted that Obama isn't telling the truth about his years at Columbia University ("Obama's Account of New York Years Often Differs From What Others Say", link). His failure to release even the most basic background information isn't just a stunt designed to tie up his opponents; it's clear that there's something that he does not want to reveal. His opponents will only fight harder to discover potentially embarrassing information if he's elected. If something damning is found it will have a dramatic impact not just on his administration but also on the Democratic Party and all of those public figures who supported him.

16. CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS
The head of Obama's transition team and some of his advisors come from one of the lowest-wattage think tanks around, the Center for American Progress. They also support illegal immigration; per them, a "progressive" precept is opposition to xenophobia, and in their case that's manifested by supporting illegal activity. One of their senior fellows is part of the Mexican government's extended network. They also run the blog ThinkProgress, a juvenile site that specializes in gaffes, mockery, enforcing political correctness, and the like. That blog also refers to mainstream rightwing talk radio as "hate radio".

17. IMMIGRATION
Both Obama and McCain support illegal and massive immigration, both would allow it to continue, both are panderers, and both would push amnesty ("comprehensive immigration reform"). McCain might try to push it earlier in his administration than Obama would, since his goals are less sweeping and he'd have less to do. However, Obama has shown himself even worse than McCain, such as by uttering 'reconquista'-style comments, thanking an open borders extremist for his work, and the like. The American public blocked amnesty once, and it can be blocked again.

18. BUSH'S SPP.GOV
Obama supports a Bush trade scheme called the Security and Prosperity Partnership (spp.gov). That highly secretive plan - conducted completely without Congressional oversight - has been called "NAFTA on steroids", and some think it's a precursor to a North American Union. One doesn't have to be a "conspiracy theorist" to think that a highly secretive Bush trade scheme could be much more than we're being told. Obama continued the secrecy surrounding the plan by speaking in code when he came out in support of it.

19. HABIT OF LYING
McCain and Palin have both made false and misleading statements. However, Obama has taken it to a new level by uttering obviously false statements that he's rarely been called on. See, for instance, the list here. His campaign has also silently modified his website as his lies were revealed and silently omitted part of a quote to make someone look bad. See also this ad which even Joe Klein eventually called him on. In one case he even admitted to having been deceptive.

To summarize: please do not vote for Barack Obama.

~~~~~ BONUS ~~~~~

20. VERY QUESTIONABLE FUNDING
Obama has received hundreds of millions in campaign contributions, and millions of that are questionable. Unlike McCain or Clinton, the Obama campaign didn't try to ensure that those donations were legal. Unlike McCain, they aren't publishing a list of the donors who've given amounts under $200. They've received hundreds of millions in such donations, and large amounts of money could have been funneled to them by foreign citizens or even foreign governments simply by making a large number of small donations. And, they intentionally disabled address verification. They may also have broken federal law.

~~~~~ UPDATES ~~~~~

* Regarding the personality cult, some supporters are now tattooing numbers having to do with tasks performed for the Obama campaign on their wrists: dailykos.com/story/2008/10/29/212558/98/530/646276

* The state of Hawaii says his birth certificate exists, but that raises more questions than it answers.

* Since this was written, Obama played the race card again, and the interesting thoughts of Obama advisor Charles Ogletree came to light.

Tags:

fairness doctrine

center for american progress

comprehensive immigration reform