The Obama machine is in overdrive to distance itself from the scandal that threatens to not only take down the Governor of Illinois, but many of Obama’s own confidants and close associates. JJJ appears to be next on the chopping block and other high profile Obama team members may be next. After 8 years of scandal after scandal from GWB, it appears that even before they get out of the gate, the Obama camp is up to their eyeballs in their own pile of sleaze.
And true to the Bush model, Obama will use all the forces at his disposal, including a docile, pliant media, to make sure that he avoids taking responsibility for any of his unethical or criminal wrongdoings.
First we have Obama’s own transition website, which according to Politico’s Ben Smith, has ironically been regularly censoring questions about the Blagojevitch scandal on its “Open for Questions” section:
It was suggested when it launched that the tool would bring uncomfortable questions to the fore, but the results so far are the opposite: Obama’s supporters appear to be using — and abusing — a tool allowing them to “flag” questions as “inappropriate” to remove all questions mentioning Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich from the main pages of Obama’s website.
The Blagojevich questions — many of them polite and reasonable — can be found only by searching words in them, like “Blagojevich,” which produces 35 questions missing from the main page of the site.
“Given the current corruption charges involving Blagojevich, will ’serious’ campaign finance reform that takes money completely out of politics through publicly funded elections be a priority in the first term?” asked Metteyya of Santa Cruz, California.
This submission was removed because people believe it is inappropriate,” reads the text underneath it.
Of course it was inappropriate. The questioner made the mistake of even mentioning Blago’s name in context with Obama, even if it wasn’t connecting the two Chicago politicians. Anyone who remembers what I call the “Day of the Long Knives”, or the day after Super Dooper Tuesday when many of us found ourselves banned from prominent “progressive” blogs are all too familiar with this tactic by the obots. Nothing negative about “the one” will be tolerated, even if it is only a tangential connection between Blago and Obama’s take on campaign finance reform. Some other examples of “inappropriate” questions:
“In light of the recent corruption scandals (Blagojevich, Rangel, Jefferson, Stevens, etc) that have dominated the political scene,is there any ethics legislation being crafted to actually curb corruption and prevent another wave of nixonian cynicism?”, a question from “lupercal,” of Gainesville.
And: “Is Barack Obama aware of any communications in the last six weeks between Rod Blagojevich or anyone representing Rod Blagojevich and any of Obama’s top aides?”, a question from Phil from Pennsylvania.
If I know my obots, they will somehow try to explain how these questions, despite seeming straightforward and genuine, are in fact racist attacks on Obama and have therefore been censored. But this is not just a blogger boy fan site, it is run by the almighty and powerful “Office of the President-Elect”, so what do they have to say about it?
So far, Obama’s team does not seem to have stepped in to allow uncomfortable questions to rise to the top, and instead is allowing his supporters to sanitize the site.
So what else is new…
Oh, I know. Not only is the Obama camp itself “sanitizing” the connection between Obama and Chicago, his Ministry of Propaganda, the AP is working overtime as well. Take this noxious piece labeled as “analysis”, titled “Obama avoids stain of Chicago’s political scandals”. So much so in fact, that they had to write a whole article about it just to make sure nobody dared to think otherwise. This article is a propaganda masterpiece.
On the campaign trail, Barack Obama liked to boast that he was a tough survivor of the bare-knuckled world of Chicago politics. But the president-elect also has steered clear of most of its scandals, navigating a careful middle ground that has left him relatively unscathed in a city synonymous with corruption.
Yeah, if by “relatively unscathed” you mean ignored by the media. There has been scandal after scandal rolling out of Chicago, from Blago, to JJJ, to Rezko, and Obama is intimately connected to all of them. the fact that it has been ignored by the AP and others is proof enough for them that it doesn’t even exist.
One of the hallmarks of good propaganda is to appear to show balance by offering a counterpoint to the lie you are trying to reinforce, and this piece is no different. For example, in this portion, the author admits that Obama has “mostly” remained above the corruption
Obama has managed to remain mostly — but not entirely — untarnished by local political corruption. Some analysts and former legislative colleagues cite various reasons: his skill, brains and character, his reform-minded base and his path to power, which did not involve climbing through the ranks of the Chicago Democratic Machine.
His skills, brains, and character???? But what part of him was tainted with corruption, you know, the “not entirely” part? The author doesn’t go into that so much. Most of the rest of the article is a series of glowing remarks by Obama’s cronies and close friends:
Rather than being above the fray, I think he has sidestepped the fray,” said Don Rose, a longtime political strategist. “It’s a tightrope-walking skill. “The guy is a progressive and is more or less reform-minded,” Rose said. “He doesn’t need to be a machine guy. The fact that he chose Hyde Park to live in, the fact he chose to work in … a law firm that had taken on City Hall shows he made his choices outside of the machine and in some cases, with opponents of the machine.”
“He was able to do what few legislators are able to — and that’s to really cut a middle ground,” said Cindi Canary, executive director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform…”He would not violate his personal integrity to muddy himself in the political waters,” she added.
And in case you don’t believe them, the author explains what it means to be part of the political “machine”
In Chicago politics, the traditional route to political success has gone through the office of a ward committeeman, whose clout makes or breaks careers. But when Obama first ran, he was a lone wolf — a Harvard-educated, former community organizer beholden to no one.
Ooooh, now that just makes me feel all tingly inside. Not important, I guess, is the fact that in typical Obama style, he found a shortcut to working the “machine”, he married into it…
Michelle’s late father, Frasier Robinson, was a city pump operator and a Democratic precinct captain.
But why let something pesky like the truth get in the way of the unadulterated adulation. For example, Obama is less susceptible to corruption because he is not an ambitious man…
“He didn’t want to be Senate president,” he said. “He didn’t want to be mayor. You can make fewer compromises and accommodations when you have those kind of goals. … The things you’re involved in are not at the center of things where there tends to be corruption or the temptation of corruption.”
No, he just wanted to be President. That kept him busy enough, I guess, to keep him out of trouble.
How long will it take for the American people to wake up from their media induced coma and see Obama for the corrupt, criminal sleazebag that he is? Well, It took 8 years with Bush, so I won’t hold my breath.
Posted by garychapelhill 
