Obama's Earmark Total Nears $1 Billion

One of Sen. Barack Obama's campaign talking points against Sarah Palin is that she is not a instrument of change because she fought for $27 million in earmarks as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska. But what hasn't been reported lately is that Obama's earmark total for the four years he has been in the Senate has totaled almost $1 billion, according to a report from CNN.

In the heat of his primary battle with Sen. Hillary Clinton, Obama released list of his earmarks. Christopher Drew and Jo Becker of The New York Times reported on March 14 that the senator included a request for $1 million for the hospital that Michelle Obama works. The senator and hospital officials said Michelle Obama had nothing to do with the request.

In other cases, Mr. Obama’s requests benefited political supporters.

His campaign’s list said the senator had secured $1.3 million of an $8 million request in 2006 for a high-explosive technology program for the Army’s Bradley Fighting Vehicle. The list said the program was overseen by General Dynamics.

One of Mr. Obama’s top supporters, James S. Crown, serves on the board of General Dynamics, a military contractor. Mr. Crown is a member of Mr. Obama’s national finance committee.

Mr. Obama also secured $750,000 of a $3 million request for renovation of a space center named for Mr. Crown’s grandfather, Henry Crown, at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.

In addition to the University of Illinois, Mr. Obama secured several million dollars for a project at Chicago State University. Emil Jones Jr., the president of the Illinois State Senate and an early and powerful political benefactor of Mr. Obama’s, has been a dogged champion of Chicago State, and one of Senator Obama’s closest friends. A Chicago businessman, James Reynolds, sits on its board.

CNN reports that state records and the organization Taxpayers for Common Sense show that Palin has asked for about $450 million in federal money since she became governor. But she also gets some credit. "As governor, she has, by all records, started to reduce the number of earmark requests ... so it's a downward trajectory by our analysis but still significant earmark requests," Steve Ellis of Taxpayers for Common Sense said.

Obama and Public Allies: Boot Camp for Radicals?

Investors Business Daily published an editorial, headlined "Michelle's Boot Camp For Radicals," yesterday linking Obama and his wife Michelle to a non-profit community activist group called Public Allies, in which it said was a radical protest group against the military that Obama hopes to federally fund. Parts of the editorial read:

Barack Obama was a founding member of the board of Public Allies in 1992, resigning before his wife became executive director of the Chicago chapter of Public Allies in 1993. Obama plans to use the nonprofit group, which he features on his campaign Web site, as the model for a national service corps. He calls his Orwellian program, "Universal Voluntary Public Service."

Big Brother had nothing on the Obamas. They plan to herd American youth into government-funded reeducation camps where they'll be brainwashed into thinking America is a racist, oppressive place in need of "social change."

The pitch Public Allies makes on its Web site doesn't seem all that radical. It promises to place young adults (18-30) in paid one-year "community leadership" positions with nonprofit or government agencies. They'll also be required to attend weekly training workshops and three retreats.

In exchange, they'll get a monthly stipend of up to $1,800, plus paid health and child care. They also get a post-service education award of $4,725 that can be used to pay off past student loans or fund future education.

But its real mission is to radicalize American youth and use them to bring about "social change" through threats, pressure, tension and confrontation — the tactics used by the father of community organizing, Saul "The Red" Alinsky.

"Our alumni are more than twice as likely as 18-34 year olds to . . . engage in protest activities," Public Allies boasts in a document found with its tax filings. It has already deployed an army of 2,200 community organizers like Obama to agitate for "justice" and "equality" in his hometown of Chicago and other U.S. cities, including Cincinnati, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, New York, Phoenix, Pittsburgh and Washington. "I get to practice being an activist," and get paid for it, gushed Cincinnati recruit Amy Vincent.

The editorial continues:

The Obamas discourage work in the private sector. "Don't go into corporate America," Michelle has exhorted youth. "Work for the community. Be social workers." Shun the "money culture," Barack added. "Individual salvation depends on collective salvation."

"If you commit to serving your community," he pledged in his Denver acceptance speech, "we will make sure you can afford a college education." So, go through government to go to college, and then go back into government.

What Exactly Are You Watching?

Whose watching the Democratic Convention in Denver? About 22 million of you in 17 million households, according to Nielsen.

But are you really watching the convention, or your favorite pundit? Whether it 's Keith Olbermann trying to talk through the whistles of a locomotive, or an hour of Bill O'Reilly in the upper deck, most of the convention has come an gone without a clear picture of what's going on.

Sure, we all saw the big stars. Michelle Obama had wall-to-wall coverage, and so did Hillary Clinton's much-anticipated and well-delivered speech last night. But the real workings of the convention, such as the development of a party platform, has gone unnoticed by all the major media. If you want the meat of a convention, turn over to C-SPAN.

AP had this to say today:

When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was addressing the convention Monday, drawing a contrast between Obama and Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly was in a booth far above the delegates interviewing a pollster. O'Reilly waved in the direction of Pelosi on stage with a dismissive hand.

"Now we have Nancy Pelosi bloviating, and I say that in an affectionate way, behind us," O'Reilly said. "It doesn't seem like the crowd is on the edge of their seats."

Katie Couric and Jeff Greenfield were talking on CBS when Craig Robinson was onstage talking about his sister, Michelle Obama. During a Jimmy Carter tribute, Fox aired clips of demonstrators outside the convention hall. Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill got little airtime.

"How can you cover a convention when you're talking while the main speakers are speaking?" asked PBS anchor Jim Lehrer, whose network lingered more on the speakers.

I'm sure things will be different tomorrow night as Barack Obama takes center stage at Invesco Field at Mile High. We'll see all of that. But wouldn't you just love the drama of a good old-fashioned floor fight followed by a tight roll call? Maybe a reporter being arrested on the convention floor? Ah, the good old days, when democracy would play out right before our eyes.

Michelle Obama's Focus on Family

Michelle Obama was the highlight of the opening night of the Democratic convention in Denver, telling the party faithful of her strong family ties.

"I come here tonight as a sister, blessed with a brother who is my mentor, my protector and my lifelong friend," Obama said. "And I come here as a wife who loves my husband and believes he will be an extraordinary president. And I come here as a mom, as a mom whose girls are the heart of my heart and the center of my world — they're the first things I think about when I wake up in the morning, and the last thing I think about before I go to bed at night.

"Their future – and all our children's future – is my stake in this election."



Frank James of The Chicago Tribune wondered if the speech, which was very good, would play well in Peoria:

It's difficult to tell how Michelle Obama's speech played out in flyover country. She obviously has a great personal story, this South Side Chicago girl.

But is it enough to overcome her earlier controversial comments and conservative attempts to make her seem like a radical who's far out of the mainstream? Hard to say.

Michelle Obama, FOX and Her Candor

Lauren Collins, in the New Yorker last March, wrote about The Other Obama. Some of what was written was a negative for Michelle and her husband. But FOX this morning dusted it off this excerpt, which appears on the third page of the 10-page report:

Obama begins with a broad assessment of life in America in 2008, and life is not good: we’re a divided country, we’re a country that is “just downright mean,” we are “guided by fear,” we’re a nation of cynics, sloths, and complacents. “We have become a nation of struggling folks who are barely making it every day,” she said, as heads bobbed in the pews. “Folks are just jammed up, and it’s gotten worse over my lifetime. And, doggone it, I’m young. Forty-four!”

From these bleak generalities, Obama moves into specific complaints. Used to be, she will say, that you could count on a decent education in the neighborhood. But now there are all these charter schools and magnet schools that you have to “finagle” to get into. (Obama herself attended a magnet school, but never mind.) Health care is out of reach (“Let me tell you, don’t get sick in America”), pensions are disappearing, college is too expensive, and even if you can figure out a way to go to college you won’t be able to recoup the cost of the degree in many of the professions for which you needed it in the first place. “You’re looking at a young couple that’s just a few years out of debt,” Obama said. “See, because, we went to those good schools, and we didn’t have trust funds. I’m still waiting for Barack’s trust fund. Especially after I heard that Dick Cheney was s’posed to be a relative or something. Give us something here!”

This is a low blow by FOX. It's five months old, and there is nothing new in FOX's reporting today to imply that the story was advanced. But stuff like this is not new for FOX. Back in June, FOX used the phrase "Obama's Baby Mamma" under a picture of Michelle Obama during a report.



It's reports such as this that give FOX the reputation it has as a partisan network. I would imagine this is not the message the Obama campaign wanted out on the eve of the convention. But it also sends a message that FOX is advancing an agenda and not reporting facts in a "fair and balanced" manner.

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