David Freddoso, who will be Nocturnal Warrior’s* guest tonight, reports from Denver in his article, Investing In Obama, Government Favors for Chicago Benefactors:

When state Senator Barack Obama cosponsored legislation creating and increasing subsidies for low-income housing developers in Illinois, and wrote letters to get $14 million specifically for two of them (one was Tony Rezko), his official acts benefited several friends and donors in that industry. A similar thing happened when Obama earmarked $200,000 for Jesse Jackson’s investment fund in Chicago and $225,000 for Father Michael Pfleger’s neighborhood ministry.

Those are just a few among dozens of examples of how, when Senator Obama governs, his friends do well. Such arrangements give the lie to Obama’s self-projected image as a reformer who wants to change government and restore America’s faith in politics. But they do not make him especially awful — such arrangements are typical among politicians in both parties. Earmarks and narrowly crafted bills go one way, campaign contributions go the other. Old friends who deliver votes are rewarded with taxpayers’ money. The “right” former staffers get the six-figure lobbying jobs, and the “right” companies get the contracts.

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(CNN) – Hillary Clinton will campaign for Barack Obama on two dates in August, the Obama campaign announced Tuesday.

She will hold rallies and voter registration drives in the swing states of Nevada and Florida on August 8 and 21, respectively. Obama won’t attend Friday’s event since he is taking a planned vacation with his family — and it’s not yet clear whether he’ll be at the latter date, which falls just days before the Democratic convention in Denver.
Obama has said on several occasions that he hopes for both Bill and Hillary Clinton’s help campaigning to win in November.

“I am proud to call [Hillary] my friend, and I know that I desperately need her and Bill Clinton involved in this campaign,” Obama said in New York.

I think that is the first truth I have heard out of Senator Obama’s mouth in a while – he desperately needs Hill and Bill to campaign for him. Desperate is the correct word. Otherwise, I doubt we would hear anything of the kind from him.

I guess he saw his internal polling numbers and they don’t look so good.
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Democratic candidate Barack Obama on Saturday backed away from rival John McCain’s challenge for a series of joint appearances, agreeing only to the standard three debates in the fall.

Odd after Senator Obama’s earlier statement to McCain that he would meet anytime, anywhere to debate “the real issues.”

In summer, stumping on the campaign trail, McCain has often noted that Obama had not followed through and joined him in any events.

This harkens back to an interview Lou Dobbs did with respected political consultant, Hank Sheinkopf, recently, who said “Obama just needs to keep his head down and not make any mistakes until the Convention.”

I think that ship has sailed. Even the adoring media treatment Senator Obama was enjoying until very recently has started to sour. According to Dana Milbank of WaPo, some reporters are now referring to Obama as a “prom queen.” (more…)

Reporters who have covered Obama’s biography or his problems with certain voter blocs have been challenged the most aggressively. “They’re terrified of people poking around Obama’s life,” one reporter says. “The whole Obama narrative is built around this narrative that Obama and David Axelrod built, and, like all stories, it’s not entirely true. So they have to be protective of the crown jewels.” Another reporter notes that, during the last year, Obama’s old friends and Harvard classmates were requested not to talk to the press without permission.

It’s clear that Obama’s Orwellian campaign is airbrushing the fairy tale for popular consumption. Thing is, most voters see through “tall tales.”

Then I popped over to Memeorandum.com, and saw this monster list of stories:

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As it turns out, the troops get to request which news outlets they prefer and FOX is always included. Yes, Barack, sometimes you just can’t control everything around your own self-absorbed world. Sometimes, people get choices. I know this is hard for you to believe, since your entire candidacy has been an Axelrod production.

FOX just happens to be very popular over there in the war zones. You see, Barack, the men and women over there are tired and weary, and their lives are in danger daily. (more…)

CNN’s Friday, July 11, latest masterpiece in manipulation, indicates the degree to which the obama (I refuse to ever capitalize his name) campaign is worried. Giving Hillary more continuous air coverage, in this 60 minute special, than it ever did during the vote-getting season, the network hinted that Hillary deserves some credit, after all. While they pointed out (in their version) that, although she ran a terrible campaign which got off on a failing footing - due to her “arrogant” presumption of entitlement to office (a perspective the MSM, not Senator Clinton, generated) - it’s now come to light that the Clintons hold sway with millions of voters.  

Now, isn’t that an extraordinary insight we needed ‘the world’s largest news network‘ to make clear? And that being the case, it’s time to give this she-devil her due - for, without her, it appears their Golden Boy might fall short of their mutual aims. While the same evidently illiterate geniuses at work continue to blur all distinctions between Hillary’s platforms and Barack’s, they and obama’s conjoined Corporate cause has begun, at last, to realize his polling results are shakier, week by week, and that will not serve. A strategic new spin is, thus, demanded. 

And this one, as demonstrated by Andersen Cooper and friends, requires due deference to the more qualified Clinton, her unswerving supporters and even (however demeaning to acknowledge) her husband, with his record of salvaging our Republic from the ravages of the first Bush. We really should give MSM credit due. It musn’t be easy to stoop to inviting back two genuine, intelligent Hillary supporters (not the backstabbers they usually prefer to include). Next, think of the editing gymnastics involved in juxtaposing these candid commentaries on the Clintons’ undying merits with enough punctuating invalidations by network anti-Clintons to convey their  real message. It goes something like this: 

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Obama’s Speechwriter: A Baby Faced, 26-Year-Old White Guy 

So, Obama is really, really successful at reading a teleprompter, and delivering someone else’s words. A puppet, you might say. 

Then we learned that Obama was regurgitating words originally given by his friend Patrick Deval. Not once, but many times. 

And we not only learned about *borrowed* speeches but also borrowed phrases. 

“Sí Se Puede” or “yes we can” is from the United Farm Workers. 

 “Together we can” was the campaign slogan of Deval Patrick in 2006

“Fired Up! Ready to Go!” is from the NAACP in South Carolina, used by Jondelle Harris Johnson in the Civil Rights marches. 

“We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” is a Hopi Indian saying, used by Alice Walker as the title of her book.

But now we learn that not only is Obama a puppet when it comes to giving speeches, but his foreign policy isn’t his either. I knew he had very little foreign policy experience, if any, but doesn’t he have to do anything?? A cast of 300 prepare him daily? Who are these people that are affecting our foreign policy? Shouldn’t they be running for office, or at least vetted, since they are doing all the work? 

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Not unlike a naughty child who just threw a water balloon at teacher and doesn’t want to get caught.

First we have the Obama Presidential Seal – i.e., Obama as Übermentsch. This blue hellaciousness was a grotesque lift of the real Presidential seal even though he is only the presumptuous nominee. Remember, he hasn’t yet ‘arrived’ at the Convention. How arrogant and how sad. To think he needs to stand behind a symbol like this to make himself “look” more presidential. You know, sort of like subliminal advertising in commercials and/or the ‘Vulcan mind-meld.’

Gee, Senator, how about doing your job once in a while? You know, like holding even one subcommittee meeting on Afghanistan these past 18 months, you know, since, umm, you are, like, the Chairman of the Subcommittee on European Affairs. That might be kinda presidential. And our troops and our citizens might really appreciate it. (more…)

With the collapse of IndyMac and Bear Stearns, mounting home foreclosures, a tanking economy and no end in sight in Iraq, we need someone far smarter and more knowledgeable than we are on matters of foreign and economic policy, national security, and our place in the global community. Someone who regards as sacrosanct the role of the President in upholding our Constitution. Someone who will stand up for what is right. FISA comes to mind. Senator Clinton kept her word and voted against giving telecommunications companies retroactive immunity while Senator Obama blithely reneged on his, throwing the 4th amendment under the bus.

As President Franklin Delano Roosevelt famously said “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Senator Obama’s campaign manager, David Axelrod, has done his level best to make you fear – not voting for his candidate. If you don’t vote for Obama, we will consider you a racist. If you don’t vote for him, they will overturn Roe v. Wade, they will nominate conservative Justices, they will keep us in Iraq for 100 years.

Most worrisome to me, however, is that whenever I speak to an Obama supporter, they can give me nothing to rest their hopes for change on. (more…)

Got your attention? While the cover of this issue of the New Yorker will likely be the topic of countless blogs and tv spots tomorrow, don’t miss the article.

It is a fascinating piece on Obama’s early years in Illinois politics. Seems like some of his early supporters have buyer’s remorse. Many people have questioned how Obama could rise so quickly in Chicago politics. This article attempts to trace his rise and finds some interesting parallels to this year’s presidential race.

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