October 12, 2010

Obama’s Chamber Smear Is Business As Usual

The most noteworthy aspect of President Barack Obama’s slander of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for allegedly “stealing our democracy” by laundering foreign corporate donations is that such disgraceful behavior is par for the course for this self-described post-partisan president.

The most noteworthy aspect of President Barack Obama’s slander of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for allegedly “stealing our democracy” by laundering foreign corporate donations is that such disgraceful behavior is par for the course for this self-described post-partisan president.

It is a mistake to believe that he was making a mistake. The baseless charge was calculated and part of the Alinskyite strategy he and his thuggish team have used in virtually every political battle. That’s all they know.

They pick, isolate and demonize targets instead of debating the merits of their policy agenda items. We saw this approach on cap and trade, the stimulus bill, Obamacare and the financial reform bill, and now they’re using it for the upcoming elections.

They throw out damaging allegations knowing they’re untrue and doggedly pursue them even when their hand is called. In the case of the chamber smear, CBS’ Bob Schieffer challenged Obama’s senior adviser David Axelrod to substantiate the administration’s claim. He said, “Mr. Axelrod … do you have any evidence that it’s anything other than peanuts?”

Axelrod, displaying the signature arrogance of the administration, didn’t even bother to offer anything concrete. He said, “Well, do you have any evidence that it’s not, Bob?”

In other words, they can make whatever false charges they want, and the burden of proof then shifts to their target to prove a negative. How can any American citizen regard this cavalier behavior from the people’s White House as anything less than contemptible?

It appears the administration’s only source for the smear is the Center for American Progress, which is the administration’s political arm. So the administration is the one, not the Chamber of Commerce, guilty of laundering – the laundering of misinformation. It is serving as its own source via the manufactured tale spun by its incestuous political appendage.

Even the liberal New York Times wrote, “Closer examination shows that there is little evidence that what the chamber does in collecting overseas dues is improper or even unusual, according to both liberal and conservative election-law lawyers and campaign finance documents.” The controversy, noted the Times, says “more about the Washington spin cycle – where an Internet blog posting can be quickly picked up by like-minded groups and become political fodder for the president himself – than it does about the vagaries of campaign finance.”

Even with that unexpected smack-down, Obama is without contrition. Some say he backed off, because he modified his charge to say it’s possible the chamber is engaging in such behavior. That’s letting Obama off way too easy. He knows his fabricated allegation was not true, so it doesn’t suffice for him to weasel out of it with language of probabilities. He deserves no slack for this. Indeed, in his Philadelphia speech in which apologists say he backed off, he broadened the sweep of his claim, saying that other special interest groups are “spending unlimited amounts of money on attack ads. … It could be the oil industry. It could be the insurance industry. It could even be foreign-owned corporations.” Yes, it could be Martians, too.

Why some people continue to give him the benefit of the doubt is beyond me. We read about the great disparity between the unpopularity of his agenda and his favorable personal approval ratings. Assuming poll respondents provide honest answers, I dare say they are unaware of the volume of evidence that reveals Obama to be the partisan bully he is – evidence that I lay out in copious detail in my book.

Seeing just a partial list of these examples together shows how persistently he engages in this behavior. Just consider his and his administration’s false claims that insurance companies were making obscene profits, that surgeons would amputate the foot of a diabetic’s at charges of up to $50,000 rather than prescribe a diet, that pediatricians would order the removal of tonsils when a less intrusive treatment could work, that the Cambridge police had acted stupidly when he didn’t have all the facts, that hedge fund creditors were bailout companies who wouldn’t sacrifice for the public good when they objected to his grossly unfair Chrysler creditor restructuring plan favoring his union friends (they were not TARP fund recipients), that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell only opposed Obama’s financial reform bill because he was in the pocket of Wall Street’s “fat cat bankers,” that Fox News is not a news organization but a political arm of the Republican Party, that Arizona lawmakers had crafted a law to authorize racial profiling when the law expressly forbade it, that Republicans didn’t have any ideas on health care – just before he claimed he had adopted Republican ideas in his plan – that AmeriCorps inspector general Gerald Walpin was confused and incompetent in his finding that Obama’s friends had misused stimulus money, and dozens of other examples.

COPYRIGHT 2010 CREATORS.COM

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.