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1) Barack Obama
is "palling around" with terrorists. ALLEGATION: Obama is sympathetic to domestic terrorists, since his home in Chicago is in the same neighborhood as 60's radical William Ayers and his wife Bernadine Dohrn, and the two have also worked together. Ayers and Dohrn, former members of the radical Weather Underground, a group that carried out a string of bombings of federal buildings, spent 10 years as fugitives before all charges were eventually dropped. Ayers and Dohrn both eventually became professors in Chicago. FACTS: Starting in 1995, Ayers and Obama worked with the non-profit Chicago Annenberg Challenge on a vast school improvement project, which invited cities to compete for $50 million grants to improve public education. Whle Ayers was working to bring the grant to Chicago, and Obama was recruited onto the board. Additionally, from 1999 through 2001, both Ayers and Obama were board members on the Woods Fund, a charitable foundation that gave money to various causes, including the Trinity United Church that Obama attended and Northwestern University Law Schools' Children and Family Justice Center, where Dohrn worked. 2) Barack Obama takes campaign advice from Fannie Mae executives. ALLEGATION: John McCain started smearing Barack Obama about ties to Fannie Mae in some of his attack ads. Anonymous smear emails have found a life of their own, following McCain's lead by fabricating even more connections. FACTS: The non-partisan fact-check website Snopes.com looked into these allegations and concluded about Fannie Mae executives that "none of them has (or apparently ever had) ongoing roles with the campaign as chief economic advisors." 3) Barack Obama is really a Muslim. ALLEGATION: This rumor became widespread around the time Obama announced his run for president. The argument was that he attended a Muslim school in his youth and that his father was a radical Muslim. Various photos featuing Obama wearing Muslim-influenced clothing helped fuel this rumor. FACTS: For more than 20 years Barack Obama has been a Christian, regularly attending Sunday service at the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. His father was a Muslim at one time, but he eventually became an Atheist. The photos that added fuel to this rumor were of a trip Obama took to Africa in which he posed for a photo wearing the traditional Muslim garb as a sign of respect, not because he is a Muslim. 4) Barack Obama was sworn into office with a Qu'ran, and will do the same if elected president. ALLEGATION: Barack Obama was sworn into the Senate with his hand on a Qu'ran instead of the Bible. FACTS: Barack Obama was sworn into office with his hand on his own family Bible. The first Muslim member of congress, Keith Ellison, was elected in November, 2006, and sworn in with his hand on a Qu'ran. Apparently when the media got wind of this story, they began associating it with Barack Obama. In fact the elected president sworn into office with a Bible. 5) Obama attended a Madrassa for four years. ALLEGATION: While living in Indonesia as a child, Barack Obama attended a Madrassa (Muslim school) for 4 years. FACTS: Barack Obama has stated that heattended 2 years of Catholic school and two years at a public school in Indonesia. In addition, the school he attended in Jakarta is a public school that has never been a Madrassa. 6) Obama tried to hide his smoking habit. ALLEGATION: Obama is trying to hide his smoking habit. FACTS: In December 2005, Obama told the Chicago Tribune that his smoking habit "is an uphill battle". He has never denied that he smokes, but he also doesn't bring it up unless directly asked about it. 7) Barack Obama was involved in a shady land deal. ALLEGATION: Obama was involved in a questionable real estate transaction with Tony Rezko. FACTS:* Many articles were written about this real estate transaction. One indicated Obama had "ethics" issues while another ran the caption "BarackWater". These articles never really provided any evidence of wrongdoing on Obama's part. There has yet to be any evidence brought forward to suggest that anything illegal was done. 8) Obama has never introduced a Bill in Congress ALLEGATION: Former Clinton Advisor and current Fox political Advisor Dick Morris claimed on FOX that Obama has never introduced a Bill in Congress. FACTS: Prior toDick Morris' statement on December 18, 2006, Obama had been the primary sponsor on 152 Bills. Additionally, more than 14 bills that Obama has sponsored or co-sponsored have become law. |
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lucyinthesky said – Fri, 23 Jan 2009 13:53:50 -0000 ( Flag Edit Link )
True enough – it’s easy to find yourself in a cult of personality when it comes to very charismatic people like Barack Obama. After all, we’re expecting so much “change” from someone who has not even been in office for a week. I think the reason why people are expecting so much is because the previous person in office pretty much set the bar at a new low when it came to public approval.
I can’t deny that he’s an effective orator and represents a wide variety of people. I think we note that this new movement and sphere of progress is a bit separate from his actual politics and policies. But it’s good that we always question what someone is doing. I heard a quote from a long time ago that if everyone is following it and no one is questioning it, you’re in trouble.