Obama Fundraiser Tony Rezko Guilty On 16 Of 24 Charges
Tony Rezko, a prominent fundraiser for Barack Obama, was convicted Wednesday of fraud and money laundering.
The jury found Rezko guilty on 16 of 24 charges after he schemed with the government’s star witness to get kickbacks out of money management firms wanting state business.
Obama’s buddy was acquitted him of some other charges, including attempted extortion.
Sentencing is set for September 3rd at 10 a.m. The maximum sentence he could face is 20 years in prison.
According to the CBS television station in Chicago, “Rezko has known Obama since he entered politics and was involved in a 2005 real estate deal with the Democratic presidential candidate.”
Obama has referred to his questionable real estate deal with Rezko as “a bone-headed mistake.”
That Obama has some crew of friends. At least he got a sweet house out of the Rezko deal, but at what price?
McCain Challenges Obama to Ten Joint Townhalls
John McCain has challenged Barack Obama to a series of ten joint townhall meetings, as detailed below in a message sent to Obama from McCain.
June 4, 2008
The Honorable Barack Obama
Obama for America
P.O. Box 8102
Chicago, Illinois 60680Dear Senator Obama:
In 1963, Senator Barry Goldwater and President John F. Kennedy agreed to make presidential campaign history by flying together from town to town and debating each other face-to-face on the same stage. In Goldwater’s words, those debates “would have done the country a lot of good.” Unfortunately, with President Kennedy’s untimely death, Americans lost the rare opportunity of witnessing candidates for the highest office in the land discuss civilly and extensively the great issues at stake in the election. What a welcome change it would be were presidential candidates in our time to treat each other and the people they seek to lead with respect and courtesy as they discussed the great issues of the day, without the empty sound bites and media-filtered exchanges that dominate our elections. It is in the spirit of President Kennedy’s and Senator Goldwater’s agreement, in the spirit of the politics of change, and to do our country good, that I invite you to join me in participating in town hall meetings across the country to discuss the most important issues facing Americans. I also suggest we fly together to the first town hall meeting as a symbolically important act embracing the politics of civility.
I propose these town hall meetings be as free from the regimented trappings, rules and spectacle of formal debates as possible, and that we pledge to the American people we will not allow the idea to die on the negotiation table as our campaigns work out the details. I suggest we agree to participate in at least ten town halls once a week with the first on June 11 or 12 in New York City at Federal Hall until the week before the Democratic Convention begins at locations to be determined by our campaigns. Federal Hall is particularly fitting as it was the place where George Washington took the oath of office as our first President and the birthplace of American government hosting the first Congress, Supreme Court and Executive Branch offices. These town halls should be attended by an audience of between two to four hundred selected by an independent polling agency, could be sixty to ninety minutes in length, have very limited moderation by an independent local moderator, take blind questions from the audience selected by the moderator and allow for equally proportional time for answers by each of us. All of these are suggestions that can be finalized by our campaigns. What is important is that we commit to participate in these history making meetings to join in the higher level of discourse that Americans clearly would prefer.
To show our good faith, we should both commit to the first town hall I have suggested. In the mean time, we can work out dates for future town hall meetings.
I look forward to your favorable reply and to the opportunity to work with you to give Americans a better opportunity to understand our differences, our agreements and the leadership we offer them.
Sincerely,
John McCain
Will Barack Obama accept the challenge or give an eloquent speech on how he doesn’t see a need to address the issues head on?
Obama’s AIPAC Talk an “odd, alternative reality”
Barack Obama gave a speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in Washington this morning, which was labeled representative of an “odd, alternative reality” by Randy Scheunemann, national security advisor to John McCain.
Senator Joe Lieberman stated that there existed a “disconnect between what [Obama] said today with regards to Iran and what he has said earlier.”
Lieberman was referring to Obama’s opposition to last year’s Kyl-Lieberman amendment which designated the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization, and which a majority of the Democratic leadership supported, as evidence that disconnect.
It’s a lot more difficult to play both side of an issue in the age of YouTube, Barack!
More at Real Clear Politics.
Obama Records His Second to Last Loss
The results are in for the Democratic Primary in South Dakota, and Hillary Clinton beat Barack Obama by double digits.
You’d think it was unanimous around the United States that Obama was destined to be the next President, but the reality is that his last two months of elections have been a study in failure.
According to Real Clear Politics, Obama has a slight edge over Hillary for the popular vote.
However, Obama recorded less than 50% of the popular vote.
And if you include Michigan, Hillary beats Obama by hundreds of thousands of votes for the total popular vote across all of the primaries.
Here are the winners for Democratic primaries over the past two months where Obama lost 50% of the time to Hillary:
- 06/03/08 Montana - Obama
- 06/03/08 South Dakota - Clinton
- 05/27/08 Idaho - Obama
- 05/20/08 Kentucky - Clinton
- 05/20/08 Oregon - Obama
- 05/13/08 Nebraska - Obama
- 05/13/08 West Virginia - Clinton
- 05/06/08 Indiana - Clinton
- 05/06/08 North Carolina - Obama
- 04/22/08 Pennsylvania - Clinton
So on June 3, 2008, Obama lost his last election for the primary season. Five months until the next election, and the next loss.
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