- A man gets elected to the Senate.
- His wife then gets a single year raise from $122k to $317k.
- The Senator gets an earmark for Congress for $1 Million for his wife’s employer.
I would think most normal citizens, in the same situation, would just see the appearance of this as being a problem. It certainly is not the kind of appearance that one who speaks of ‘changing Washington’ would be looking for.
So does this speak of naivety; of having been exposed to such for too long to realize the issue; or does it speak of a level of official arrogance? Or some combination? That, I think, should be determined before Barack Obama becomes President.
Filed under: Barack Obama, Election 2008
This is the most serious charge agaisnt Obama to date. All that preacher, muslim, rezko stuff is baseless.
Rezko is hardly baseless; not well defined, but the real estate deal sure raises the same kind of eyebrows as this earmark does.
The preacher stuff; not so much so, though Barack needs to make clear his strong disagreement with a lot of the Preacher’s rantings.
I find guilt by association arguments to be the least convincing of political gossip charges. The preacher stuff is nonsense. Dave Nate is right that this is the first real corruption-esque charge against Obama, and the most serious allegation. Whomever preaches at his church matters little to me. But what Obama did in office does.
[...] with Rezco was innocent and does not taint Barack. They haven’t addressed the issue yet about the million dollar earmark for his wife’s employer, which gave her a 261% annual raise right after…. But, however this and the other issues pan out, Obama looks a lot less like a political Messiah, [...]