Flashback: How Obama Got His Senate Seat to Begin With
Posted on December 10, 2008
Update: Excellent timeline on Obama’s dirty Chicago politics experience.
With the whole Blagogate stuff blowing up, I thought it would be timely for a friendly reminder of how Obama got his Senate seat in the first place. Good ol’ fashioned, dirty Chicago politics:
Don’t blame me for being suspicious of Obama’s involvement in this. Afterall, you do know how he got his Senate seat in the first place, don’t you?
In his first race for office, seeking a state Senate seat on Chicago’s gritty South Side in 1996, Obama effectively used election rules to eliminate his Democratic competition.
As a community organizer, he had helped register thousands of voters. But when it came time to run for office, he employed Chicago rules to invalidate the voting petition signatures of three of his challengers.
The move denied each of them, including incumbent Alice Palmer, a longtime Chicago activist, a place on the ballot. It cleared the way for Obama to run unopposed on the Democratic ticket in a heavily Democrat district.
“That was Chicago politics,” said John Kass, a veteran Chicago Tribune columnist. “Knock out your opposition, challenge their petitions, destroy your enemy, right? It is how Barack Obama destroyed his enemies back in 1996 that conflicts with his message today. He may have gotten his start registering thousands of voters. But in that first race, he made sure voters had just one choice.”
Obama’s challenge was perfectly legal, said Jay Stewart of the Chicago’s Better Government Association. Although records of the challenges are no longer on file for review with the election board, Stewart said Obama is not the only politician to resort to petition challenges to eliminate the competition.
“He came from Chicago politics,” Stewart said. “Politics ain’t beanbag, as they say in Chicago. You play with your elbows up, and you’re pretty tough and ruthless when you have to be. Sen. Obama felt that’s what was necessary at the time, that’s what he did. Does it fit in with the rhetoric now? Perhaps not.”
Or, perhaps so. Obama knows how to play Chicago style, so forgive me if I suspect that he may not have completely quit it cold turkey. He’s still smoking aint he?
» Filed Under 1st Amendment, Barack Obama, Dems In Charge: Now What?, History, Illegal Activities, News, Politics As Usual, Uncategorized
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4 Responses to “Flashback: How Obama Got His Senate Seat to Begin With”
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If i recall correctly…the Chosen One was in a close race with Jack Ryan when all of a sudden, low and behold, Ryan’s sealed court records mysteriously pop up in the newspapers forcing Jack out of the race and pitted against–ugh–Allan Keyes. I believe that Ryan actually had a lead when all this came out. Funny how noone knows where the sealed records came from. Gotta love Chicago politics
If I recall correctly a lawsuit was filed by the Los Angeles Times to release the records of that lawsuit and were made available that way. I’m pretty sure I read something to that effect a while back. It was during the time when the LA Times was refusing to release the video they held of the dinner at which BO and his circle of friends were saying goodbye to Kahlidi. I guess you release only the information you want to release.
The story is about State Senate seat not the US senate seat.
No the story is about Obama coming out of the most corrupt Democratic political sewer in the US and pretending that he is here to serve the people. It involves the way he got into power. Dirty politics – Chicago style. In the Sate race he got the opposition removed from the ballot. In the Us Senate Ryan got removed by the scandal.
How the hell can anybody in their right mind think Obama didn’t know how the system works? Get real – he is a dirty as Blagoyevich.
And ask yourself this simple question. Why was Blago mad at Obama? Because he said he would not pay that price. Thats why. Obama wanted a cheaper deal. That is some real change.
Democrat = dirty politics