The Post About ACORN...
So, here we go again...
The latest attacks from right-wing bloggers, McCain sympathizers, and CNN's Mr. Independent, Lou Dobbs, have to do with Senator Obama's "ties" to ACORN. The right really has nothing to talk about. The McCain campaign-- through McCain advisor Greg Strimple-- has already said that it intends to "turn the page" on the economy, and focus on personal attacks in the final 26 days. Speakers at McCain rallies use Obama's middle name (Hussein) in an attempt to somehow cast him as a radical Muslim in some terrorist cell. A McCain campaign co-chairman and former Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating went as far as to belittle Obama as simply a "guy of the street... who used cocaine." He also went on to discuss Rev. Jeremiah Wright , even though Senator John McCain himself said that topic was off-limits. The rhetoric from the McCain camp is so intense that it is affecting the attitudes of people going to his rallies. People could be heard shouting "Kill him!" and "terrorist!" as VP wannabe Sarah Palin attempted to link Obama to Bill Ayers .
The bottomline is this-- the McCain people are desperate and they're willing to throw anything and everything at Senator Obama... including an ACORN.
As many may or may not know, ACORN has gotten into some trouble over the past few weeks for voter registration fraud. Apparently, dead people and the Dallas Cowboy's want to vote in this election, which would be admirable if it were truely them registering. As with the Ayers scandal, the slightest connection to this controversial group translates into HUGE and CLOSE ties in the minds of the right-wing, who scream at the media for failing to ask Obama serious questions about his ties to ACORN, Ayers, Wright, or space invaders. The fact is, his relationship to all of them has been thoroughly investigated by the media and internet bloggers over the last 19 months.
Let's start at the begining...
According to Fox News, there are "three stages of connection" between ACORN and Senator Obama: he represented ACORN in court; he trained ACORN orgainzers; and that he was appointed head of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge board by Bill Ayers, and then the two used government money to fund ACORN.
Let's take the first charge...
In 1995, Barack Obama, in conjunction with the US Department of Justice, represented a group of organizations that were trying to force the State of Illinois to comply with a federal voting access law, called the Motor Voter law. One of those organizations just happened to be ACORN. In fact, much of Obama's early work in Chicago was related to civil and voting rights, and for his efforts he was rewarded with the IVI-IPO Legal Eagle Award in 1995.
... and then the second charge...
Barack Obama never trained or organized for ACORN. In 1992, Obama did orgainze with the non-partisan group Project Vote in their registration drive, which many of the right-wing blowhards cite as proof positive of his links to ACORN. Unfortunately for them, the facts are in the way. ACORN and Project Vote did not begin to co-ordinate their efforts until 1994-- for those conservatives out ther who can't do math, that's two years. The National Director for Project Vote's 1992 voter registration was Sanford Newman, who wrote an editorial in the Wall Street Journal to debunk the myth that Obama was organizing for ACORN. Newman also wrote
that Obama turned down lucrative and far more prestigious job offers to accept the "meager salary" of Project Vote. As Newman noted, this was Obama's "deep commitment to strengthening the democratic process [which] is something that all Americans should applaud regardless of their party or politics."
...and the last charge...
On Saturday October 3, 2008, the New York Times reported that:
Some bloggers have recently speculated that Mr. Ayers had engineered that post for him. In fact, according to several people involved, Mr. Ayers played no role in Mr. Obama’s appointment. Instead, it was suggested by Deborah Leff, then president of the Joyce Foundation, a Chicago-based group whose board Mr. Obama, a young lawyer, had joined the previous year... Ms. Leff suggested that Mr. Obama would make a good board chairman, she said in an interview. Mr. Ayers was not present and had not suggested Mr. Obama, she said. Ms. Graham said she invited Mr. Obama to dinner at an Italian restaurant in Chicago and was impressed. “At the end of the dinner I said, ‘I really want you to be chairman.’ He said, ‘I’ll do it if you’ll be vice chairman,’ ” Ms. Graham recalled, and she agreed.
The McCain camp needs to throw a Hail Mary. The polls look bad for McCain, but the Electoral map looks even worse. If recent poll findings hold, or move more into Senator Obama's favor, then Senator McCain has no chance of victory come this November 4th. That is what is enraging his supporters. Those hardline Republican's have been angrily demanding that McCain go after Obama more aggressively.
I agree. He should.
But here's why--
John McCain cannot win by simply appealing to his base. He is going to need the support of Independents, but he is not going to get their support by making personal attacks against Obama's character. They want to hear about issues that matter to them.
Bill Ayers doesn't matter to them.
ACORN doesn't matter to them.
What matters to them is health care, the war, the economy, and changing Washington. If John McCain wants to play in the mud, then let him. He's only spelling out his own doom..
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