IF it suddenly seems like the Obama campaign doesn’t have any idea what it’s doing, maybe that’s because it doesn’t.

Barack Obama has never run a campaign against a real Republican. And his main strategist, David Axelrod, is way out of his areas of expertise.

Axelrod specializes inurban politics. He’s run a bunch of mayoral races (usually in cities with lots of blacks), plus contests in true-blue states like Massachusetts and New York.

By creating a culture war between the so-called Whole Foods Nation and working class Americans, Axerod’s tactics worked for Deval Patrick, but not for Freddy Ferrer in the 2005 New York race for mayor or for John Edwards’ primary run in 2004. Cunningham points out Axelrod’s overt class warfare tactics, which included naming sides: (more…)

He’s been called “the Faulkner of crime fiction.” James Lee Burke’s novels are more than just brilliantly-plotted thrillers; they’re lyrical explorations of the American soul. He’s won the Edgar Award twice, been nominated for a Pulitzer, and seen three of his books made into films (the latest, In The Electric Mist With Confederate Dead, is due out this year and stars Tommy Lee Jones as Cajun detective Dave Robicheaux.) Now he’s back on the bestseller list with Swan Peak, the 17th book in the Robicheaux series.

Listen to the livestream broadcast tonight from 9pm to 10pm ET on NoQuarter Radio. The call-in number for questions is (347) 677-0792. (more…)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWXqpHEsrxc[/youtube]

I was struck by the high quality of the ad. It tweaks Obama’s celebrity status, and then unleashes a full-throttle class attack on Obama. “Life in the spotlight must be grand,” intones a woman’s voice, dropping her voice off for emphasis, “but for the rest of us times are tough. Obama voted to raise taxes on people making just $42,000.”

Contrast this ad with the lingering image of Obama in Europe, a trip which I think cost him dearly. Obama is trying to stretch his image into that of a statesman; he tried to fill the shoes of real presidents by going on the Euro-Disney tour of historic moments of American presidential history. But these staged events actually make Obama seem smaller, like the scared guy hiding behind a faux presidential seal:

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The title tells the story:

Then blogger J. Justin Wilson reveals the depressing details:

I just got off the AFL-CIO’s kick-off conference call with Obama. What a tragedy of errors.

First of all, Sen. Obama was about 40 minutes late to the show. You can image how fantastic 40 minutes of Muzak went over. Finally, John Sweeney introduced Obama.

Next … (more…)

Barack Obama has made recent claims indicating pay equity for women would be a top priority if he were elected President. Sounds great. In fact, it might compel some to seriously consider his candidacy.

Don’t be fooled. What we’ve seen of Mr. Obama is a candidacy based on opportunism. Whenever convenient, he will use his prose to proclaim lofty ideals, ideals that many want so badly to believe in, ideals so many want to become realities.

Mr. Obama is all talk. How do we really know if his lofty ideals will translate into actual policy? We certainly can not point to his legislative accomplishments. There are too few. He may have been present but what the hell does that mean - nothing in the context of policy.

Anyone can advocate anything. A true leader turns advocacy into bona-fide action. We’ve not seen this from Mr. Obama. We have seen, unfortunately, reversals and inconsistencies. (more…)

• Our TexasDarlin pointed out the favorable treatment the Obamas received compared to the “neglected slums” of their impoverished neighbors in unimaginably horrific “public” housing that Obama helped privatize so that his rich longtime buddies — like Tony Rezko and Allison Davis — could scoop up tens of millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money while the properties were left in such disrepair that many became uninhabitable.
• LisaB addressed the mysterious payments of property taxes for the Obamas.
• Now, Flopping Aces resurrects the mystery of Iraqi billionaire Nadhmi Auchi who helped an in-debt Tony Rezko (in exchange for what?) around the time Rezko somehow managed to help the Obamas buy their mansion:
  

  While there is no evidence that the bank in question had a program like Countrywide did, it sure does smell like political favoritism. Not as big of a deal as Johnson’s, Dodd’s, and Conrad’s, but you combine that with Tony Rezko’s involvement in the house deal when Rezko did not have the money to buy the property (at which point Iraqi financier Auchi comes in) and you get a fishy smell.

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However, shortly, we will reveal additional details about the membership of the Chicago-headquartered billionaire Crown family on the board of directors of Northern Trust, which granted the Obamas their advantageous loan. Crown family members have been major donors to Obama’s campaigns, and serve on his elite fundraisers group for his presidential campaign.

Among the most disturbing stories of Obama’s many efforts to give political and legislative advantages to the Crown family’s holdings, Senate candidate Barack Obama promised Illinois’ Maytag workers he’d work to protect their jobs — and took campaign donations from the beleagured workers — but then met with Lester Crown, on the board of directors of Maytag, to take his campaign donations. Crown later told the press that Obama never raised the workers’ fate with him. The machinists lost their jobs to Maytag’s Mexican plant. From my story, “Machinists’ Union TELLS It Like It Is ,” quoting a must-read article at TradingMarkets.com, “Obama’s fundraising, rhetoric collide: Union says senator did little to save jobs“:

Obama had a special connection to Maytag: Lester Crown, one of the company’s directors and biggest investors whose family, records show, has raised tens of thousands of dollars for Obama’s campaigns since 2003. But Crown says Obama never raised the fate of the Galesburg plant with him, …

These are the ties that bind:

Barack Obama plays the “populist” routine in his campaign speeches, but he delivers to his billionaire benefactors, not the common working stiffs who are losing their jobs and their homes.

Now for a quick round-up of bloggers’ reports on the Obamas’ “sweetheart” home mortgage from Northern Trust, on whose board a billionaire member of the Crown family sits: (more…)

“I have always opposed NAFTA.”

“I don’t think NAFTA has been good for America - and I never have.”

“Ten years after NAFTA passed, Senator Clinton said it was good for America. … Well, I don’t think NAFTA has been good for America - and I never have.” –Senator Barack Obama in Toledo, Ohio on February 24, 2008

Now in an interview with Fortune magazine out on Monday June 23, 2008, the very junior Senator from Illinois wants us to believe that was just rhetoric. He really didn’t mean what he said.

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Evidently, Obama has hijacked the DNC and moved it lock, stock, and barrel to CHICAGO!!! WOWIE ZOWIE!! How do the OTHER 57 states feel that the DNC has now become the BONC? Holy freakin’ Toledo.

This is really hard to fathom. Obama is a JUNIOR Senator. Hell, he has barely been there for his first term, and certainly has done very little real work since he has been so busy stealing - um, I mean - campaigning - for votes.

As we all know by now, he could not even chair his own subcommittee on piddly matters like AFGHANISTAN and NATO because he was busy running around the country on his Unity Unicorn. And now, and NOW - he has essentially taken over the ENTIRE DNC.

How does this happen, I ask you? Is it that people have HANDED over that much power to him, and if so, WHY? Why would they give a junior senator who has essentially ZERO experience, the reins to the WHOLE enchilada??? If I were still a Democrat, I’d be mighty upset by this.

Even still, I have never, in my entire 50 years on this planet, EVER heard of a presidential candidate having THIS much power over the organization, never mind one who had so little experience. Oh, wait - there hasn’t BEEN a presidential candidate with so little experience before - maybe THAT’S the issue!! (more…)

Our first installment began the task of decoding Barack Obama’s curious appeal to our right-of-center friends and relatives. (His point man on domestic policy is also the DLC’s Senior Economist — a deregulatin’, free tradin’, globalizin’, sharp-shootin’ son-of-a-centrist-gun from Waco Texas, Milton Academy, Yale’s Skull and Bones society and the Chicago school.)

The second member of Obama’s policy advisor triad is Harvard’s Jeffrey Liebman. Specialty: “pensions and poverty”, i.e., “entitlements”, i.e., “Social Security“.

Liebman’s reputation: centrist alarmist and moderate privatizer. [CONTINUED below]

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