Friday, August 15, 2008

The Case Against Barack Obama

Books about Barack Obama are in vogue this month, topping the New York Times and Amazon.com best seller. The most talked about of these books has been Obama Nation. Unfortunately, it appears Obama Nation includes every case of hearsay, internet rumor, and urban legend about Obama—many of those unsubstantiated and some even disproven. Works like these give conservatives a bad name, giving the impression we would do (or say) anything to win an election (indeed, this is true of many Republicans).

On the other hand, The Case against Barack Obama by David Freddoso, which I am currently reading, is well-research, and heavily documented using reputable sources. Freddoso quickly dismissed some of the more absurd claims about Obama (e.g. "he won't salute the flag", "he was sworn in on the Koran"), which he properly notes were circulated by Obama's Democratic opponents, and it hurt rather than helped them.

Freddoso does a fine job of chronicling how Obama won his first election to the state senate in 1996 by getting his opponents thrown off the ballot, his connections to the Chicago political machine, his votes against reform in the US Senate, his support of ethanol special interests, and his stances on abortion.

While I didn't need any convincing that Obama wasn't my kind of candidate, I know enough people who do believe Obama (if not a messiah) is at least a different type of candidate, and a true reformer who will clean up Washington. The Case against Barack Obama refutes any idea that Obama will "change" America, and exposes him as a typical politician guilty of the same dirty tricks and old-school politics. I will be sharing this book – and the website with more updates – with my more naïve friends and colleagues.

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