Tuesday Terminology: Scandal, Part 1

There are a lot of headlining scandals which are questionable. A lot of accusations but not a lot of actual information. There are several surrounding each candidate, especially Barack Obama and Sarah Palin. No politician has a clean history, and yet each side picks the most salacious and inflammatory detail from 10 + years ago, and makes it seem relevant and essential. I think the most important thing is to educate yourself and decide whether it is relevant and persuasive enough to swing your vote either way. So I am attempting to break down certain accusations, questionable connections, and down right lies and give you the real story. I am starting with Senator Obama.

Sidenote: In my attempt to find 'facts', I started at what I thought would be the most unbiased and reasonable resource, factcheck.org. As I tried searching the 'facts' about Sen. Obama, I was noticing the majority of the articles were about the McCain-Palin campaign. Some would argue it is because they are spouting most of the lies. I would like to throw out there that this website is not delving into Sen. Obama's past because their financial contributor, Annenberg Foundation, was at one point Sen. Obama's employer. He worked as the founding chairman of the board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, an educational innitiative.

ACORN: To many of you, including my husband, this is simply a nut, a fruit of the oak tree. But in the political scene it stands for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. I am sure you have heard about them in the news for voter fraud. Michigan, Nevada, Colorado, Florida, Minnesota...hmmm, all swing states? ACORN has come under investigation because they hold the majority of the fraudulent registration forms, including Mickey Mouse, Dallas Cowboys roster, etc. What does this have to do with Obama? Sen. Obama represented ACORN in a legal dispute in the early 1990's, and also did training seminar's to help with their Project VOTE campaign. Also, ACORN receives a majority of their funding through federal grants, including a chunk from the Bail Out Bill. Of course they would benefit from having one of their own in the White House, but I don't believe that Sen. Obama is personally pushing for voter fraud.

Robert Blackwell, Jr: In 2001, after losing a bid for the U.S. House of Representatives, Sen. Obama went back to working in the Illinois State Senate, but needed some additional forms of income. He received a legal consulting contract to represent Robert Blackwell's company Electronic Knowledge Interchange, a $8000/month retainer. After being compensated in full (around $112,000 dollars), then state Senator Obama sent a 'request on state letterhead urging Illinois officials to provide a $50,000 tourism promotion grant to another Blackwell company, Killerspin'. Since then, Blackwell and his company Killerspin, has been recognized as donating $100,000-$200,000 to Sen. Obama's Presidential Campaign.

Antoin Rezko: A well-known corrupt Chicago entrepreneur has been connected to Sen. Obama in a variety of ways. Initially, Sen. Obama did some legal representation for Rezko's company, Rezmar. (Reportedly helping the company get $43 million in government funding). Rezko served on Obama's 2003 U.S. Senate campaign finance committee, helping raise money. Rezko also threw a fundraiser in his home. After he won the senate race, he used Rezko's real estate connections to buy his home. The sellers were selling both the home and the adjacent lot, which Obama paid $300,000 under the asking price for the house on the same day Rezko's wife paid the full asking price for the land. At the time of Sen. Obama's connection with him, Tony Rezko was under investigation by the U.S. Attorney and the FBI.

My Take: I could make a guess that as I look into all of the names on the Presidential Ticket, I would find similar scandals. I would love to find anyone in Washington that doesn't have some 'questionable' dealings in their past. BUT, the media has focused majority of their 'scandal coverage' on the right of the aisle, had hasn't scrutinized Sen. Obama's past. All of it needs to be discussed, not just the dirty laundry in the Republican basket. Sen. Obama appears to be a genuinely decent man, with questionable judgement. Either he has blind optimism in people's goodness or he will use whoever he can to get ahead, both of which are not the best qualities in my book. I apologize for such a lengthy post, but I find it very important to get to know every aspect of each candidate. Next, I will attempt to take an unbiased look into Sarah Palin's scandals, including Troopergate.