What We Know About ObamaThe illusion of pragmatism advances far-left goals, in baby steps.
By Stanley Kurtz
Reflecting on all that I’ve written about Barack Obama over these past six months, four inter-related points stand out: Obama’s radicalism, his stealthy incrementalism, his interest in funding and organization-building, and his willingness to use — or quietly support — Alinskyite intimidation tactics. Since we stand on the cusp of the election, I’ll lay out the bottom line. For those who want to know more, go back and read the detailed studies on which I base these conclusions.
Obama’s troubling associations are more than isolated friendships or instances of bad judgment. His ties to Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, Rashid Khalidi, Michael Pfleger, James Meeks, ACORN, the New Party, and the Gamaliel Foundation all reflect Obama’s sympathy with radical-left ideas and causes — wealth redistribution prominent among them. At both the Woods Fund and the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, for example, Obama and Ayers channeled money into ACORN’s coffers. ACORN, a militant group pursuing economic redistribution, succeeded in undermining credit standards throughout the banking system, thereby modeling the New Party’s plans to tame capitalism itself. So the association with Ayers is not an outlier issue, but part and parcel of a network of radical ties through which Obama’s supported “major redistributive change.” Via ACORN, that project has already nearly wrecked our economy. What will happen when it’s generalized?
Similarly, Obama’s “association” with Wright was far more than a mere pastor-parishioner — or even mentor-protégé — relationship. Obama’s work with the Gamaliel Foundation required him to “organize” left-leaning churches into a larger political force. His real interest in Wright, Pfleger, and Meeks was to turn them into the nucleus of a far broader politicized coalition of radical black churches — as shown, for example, by his work with them on the Illinois racial-profiling bill. Again, we are not dealing with mere “associations,” but with intentional political partnerships.
Excerpt, please read the rest here, at National Review Online.
3 comments:
More Bad News Today:
Monday, November 3, 2008 - 10:28 AM EST
New poll: Obama leads by 10 points in Pa.
Pittsburgh Business Times
A new poll finds Democrat Barack Obama holding a substantial lead over Republican John McCain in Pennsylvania, as the two candidates campaign down to the wire Monday.
The final pre-election poll from Quinnipiac University shows Obama with a 10-point lead over McCain. Obama leads 52 percent to 42 percent, the poll found, compared to last week's poll, which showed Obama with a slightly larger lead of 11 points, with 53 percent to McCain's 41 percent.
Obama also leads McCain in Ohio by seven percentage points, 50 percent to 43 percent. The other swing state in Quinnipiac's poll, Florida, is still too close to call, the poll found.
The poll surveyed likely voters between Oct. 27 and Nov. 3.
Poll Shows Obama Deflected Recent Attacks
Republicans Challenged Democrat on Taxes, Readiness and Crisis Management
Monday, November 3, 2008; Page A09
With one day to go, Democrat Barack Obama appears to have rebuffed recent GOP efforts to label him as "too liberal" or too big a gamble.
The new Washington Post-ABC News tracking poll puts Obama well out in front over Republican John McCain and finds that Obama has firmly reestablished his advantage on handling the economy, beaten back a challenge on taxes and has an edge in terms of perceptions about which candidate would better deal with an unexpected major crisis.
November 2, 2008, 7:00 PM
CBS Poll: Obama Maintains 13 Point Lead
Posted by Brian Montopoli| 138
With two days left until the presidential election, Barack Obama continues to lead John McCain by 13 points among likely voters, 54 percent to 41 percent, a new CBS News poll finds. The margin in the new poll, released Sunday, is identical to that in a CBS News poll released Saturday.
As the number of undecided voters has dwindled, so has the number that says their minds can still change. More than nine in 10 of each candidate’s voters now say they have made up their minds about who to vote for and are not likely to change. Just seven percent of Obama voters and 8 percent of McCain voters say they still might change their minds.
With two days to go, only 8 percent of likely voters are uncommitted – either they have not yet chosen a candidate, or their minds could still change. Nearly all of these uncommitted voters say they plan to vote.
ABC News
Daily Tracking Poll: Not Just Economy and Bush; Palin Is Trouble for McCain Too
Obama Leads McCain 54-43 in Latest ABC News/Washington Post Poll
ANALYSIS by GARY LANGER
Nov. 3, 2008
Barack Obama's strong close in the 2008 campaign has been boosted by more than the shell-shocked economy and the Bush legacy. There's also Sarah Palin, and the concern she incites, especially among voters who are worried about John McCain's age.
More PhotosForty-six percent of likely voters now say having Palin on the ticket makes them less likely to support McCain -- up 14 points in just the past month and more than double what it was in early September. And among those who call the candidates' age an important factor in their vote, more, 61 percent, say Palin makes them less likely to back McCain.
Nat Public Radio
All Things Considered, November 2, 2008 · The final Pew Research Center poll of the 2008 presidential election gives Barack Obama a 49 to 42 percent lead over his rival, John McCain. Though still a significant lead, it's suddenly a much tighter race than Obama's 15-point lead from last week.
There are two things closing the gap, says Andrew Kohut of the Pew Research Center. First, McCain has made some gains among whites, independents and middle-income voters. But the other boost he's enjoying comes from narrowing the pool of responses from registered voters to likely voters.
Typically, Republican voters tend to vote more regularly than some Democratic voting groups — particularly young people and blacks, Kohut says. So while turnout is up among those groups, it's also up across the board — giving Republicans a boost when the poll focuses on likely voters.
It may not be as strong as a week ago, but Obama's lead in the Pew poll agrees with several national polls that have him ahead by a 5-point average.
"This is a pretty substantial lead," Kohut says. "We haven't had a lead for a candidate this substantial since 1996, when President Clinton was leading Sen. Dole in the final weekend of the campaign."
But that's not the only poll data leaning in Obama's favor.
The strength of each candidate's support among likely voters has historically been a significant indicator of a race's outcome. According to the Pew poll, 36 percent of likely voters say they strongly support Obama, while only 24 percent say they are strong supporters of McCain.
"Typically," Kohut says, "if we look back to elections going back to 1960, invariably the candidate with the stronger support wins the election."
What Happened to the GOP's Investor Class?
Posted: Nov 3, 2008 12:32 PM EST
From BusinessWeek.com more>>
What Happened to the GOP's Investor Class?
The pounding of the U.S. economy and stock markets seems to have shaken the support of key "investor class" voters for the Republican Presidential nominee, Arizona Senator John McCain.
In a nationwide telephone poll of 1,208 people taken from Oct. 26-30 by Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby, McCain edged the Democratic nominee, Illinois Senator Barack Obama, among those who identified themselves as "investors" by 50.4% to 43.8%, with 5.8% "not sure." That was down sharply from a 15-point lead for McCain in a similar poll taken a month earlier. (Among non-investors, Obama led 56% to 36.1% in the most recent survey.)
"[The data] underscores more than anything else how much the financial crisis hurt McCain," says John Zogby, founder of the Utica (N.Y.)-based polling firm Zogby International. "In response to the crisis, McCain was erratic, frantic, and misspoken."
Aw, polls shmolls, I don't read much into them. They vary so widely, that it really makes them all look very unscientific. All that matters are the final results.
Fine summing up of The One by Stanley Kurtz. At core, his Leftism, and not a more pragmatic, finger-to-the-wind approach, would seem to be the driving force.
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