Crain's Chicago Business has an analyis of Sen. Barack Obama's business votes, both in Springfield and Washington. Like the Wall Street Journal, Crain's is typically not friendly to Democrats. Some excerpts:
His recent voting record in Washington contrasts with the surprisingly pro-business reputation he carved out as a state senator in Springfield.
Between 1997 and 2002, he voted at least half the time in favor of the Illinois Manufacturers' Assn.'s (IMA) stance on issues.
For the final two years of his Illinois Senate tenure, Obama's record on business issues was mixed, Crain's reports.
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But the group says Sen. Obama voted with business only four times in 30 key votes over the last two years (in Washington), and two of those were votes for widely supported energy and highway legislation.
While he voted for a trade deal with Oman, he voted against a much larger one with Central America, as well as against bankruptcy and asbestos liability reforms, to name a few of the most important business issues he opposed.
Barack Obama's workout pal, Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun-Times, has a post on her blog about Hillary Clinton's Chicago area roots. Hillary Rodham Clinton was born in Chicago in 1947. Four years later the Rodhams moved to the heavily Republican suburb of Park Ridge. It's still Republican, but the GOP isn't as dominant there now.
In the early 1970s, Hillary Rodham moved to Arkansas with her boyfriend, and you know the rest of that story.
Some of the local media is trying to make a big deal about Hillary's roots in the Chicago area, as they did during Bill Clinton's successful 1992 run for the presidency.
But that was 15 years ago, it doesn't mean much now. The Chicago Tribune's John Kass summed it up best, saying Hillary's Illinois days are "ancient history."
For better or worse, Sen. Barack Obama is the home state candidate now.
Above is a picture of the old Rodham house at 235 Wisner Street in Park Ridge. I took it last winter.
It's time for your voice to be heard. Pajamas Media has a presidential an online straw poll up for both 2008 Democratic and Republican sides of the race.
Okay, it's time for me to talk about the Barack Obama madrassa story. Based on your source, Barack Obama attended a Muslim school, that is a madrassa, while living in Indonesia with his Kansas-born mother and her Muslim Indonesian second husband for two years--the other two years the future senator attended a Catholic school there. Or he went to a Muslim school all four years in Indonesia.
According to his book Audacity of Hope, Obama lived Indonesia for four years, 1967-1971. In the book, Obama doesn't get specific about his schooling there, writing:
Without the money to go to the international school that most expatriate children attended, I went to local Indonesian schools and ran the streets with the children of farmers, servants, and clerks.
Barack's father, Barack Hussein Obama Sr. was raised a Muslim, but according to the Illinois senator, the elder Barack was an atheist.
Both Obama Sr. and his mother, Ann Dunham, are deceased.
Obama's stepfather, Lolo Soetoro--I don't know if he's still living--is generally described as a non-practicing Muslim in the few sources where I can find mention of him.
Then there's the e-mail with the heading, "Let Us Remain Alert!" The e-mail can be found in this Nation article.
In essence the e-mail portrays Obama as a Muslim "Manchurian Candidate" brainwashed by Wahhabi extremists at his madrassa, and that he could be a threat to the United States if he wins the presidency. Problem: Saudi Arabia, home of the extreme form of Islam known as Wahhabism, didn't have the money to fund Muslim schools outside its borders until OPEC began its continuing and unfortunately successful policy of price gouging in 1973.
By that time Obama was living in Hawaii with his maternal grandparents, attending an elite private school.
My faith is complicated by the fact that I didn't grow up in a particular religious tradition.
Last week Insight Magazine published an article on Barack's madrassa past, and claims the information on Obama came from the Hillary Clinton camp. But what's in the Insight article matches what's in the "Let Us Remain Alert!" e-mail. But who wrote the e-mail and started distributing it? Is this the first dirty trick of the 2008 presidential campaign?
I received the e-mail several times; the first time was two weeks ago. The Obama people undoubtedly got it too, and in a possible counterstrike, managed today to get this Chicago "free registration required" Tribune article about the church where Obama is a member, the Trinity United Church of Christ, into the paper on the front page, below-the-fold.
The large South Side Chicago church gets a lot of inspiration from the late 1960s "Black Power" movement.
The term "Audacity of Hope," Obama wrote, comes from a sermon by the church's pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright.
I instantly noticed two glaringly obvious errors in the Fox & Friends report on Obama and his madrasssa schooling. Steve Doocy says that Obama lived in Indonesia for a decade--and as I stated earlier, Obama lived there for only four years. Brian Kilmeade claims that Obama's use of composite characters in his first book, Dreams from My Father, was first noticed by the Chicago Tribune, and the paper blew the whistle on him.
But as Obama writes in the introduction of that book:
For the sake of compression, some of the characters that appear are composites of people I've known, and some appear out of precise chronology. With the exception of my family and a handful of public figures, the names of most characters have been changed for the sake of privacy.
I'm reading Dreams from My Father now.
Barack's full name is Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. Over the last month, much has been made of his middle name. While discussing this with a friend of mine this morning during weekly downtown running get-together with some friends of mine, "Hussein" came up.
And one of my buddies responded, "But he didn't choose that name."
I still believe Obama's biggest hurdle to overcome is the well-documented muck of Illinois politics, as I blogged last week.
Hat tip to Pat Curley of Brainster for the Fox & Friends link.
UPDATE Jan. 22: While plowing through Dreams from My Father, I discovered that Obama's stepfather, Lolo Soetoro, died many years ago of liver disease.
About Soetoro's faith: Here's what Obama wrote in the same book:
Lolo followed a brand of Islam that could make room for the remnants of more ancient animist and Hindu faiths. He explained that a man cold take on the powers of whatever he ate: One day soon, he promised, he would bring home a piece of tiger meat for us to share.
Earlier this morning, Fox & Friends did a follow up story on their Friday report, the one available from YouTube. They said that the Obama camp said it was "completely false" that Obama attended a radical Islamic school. Also, Hillary Clinton's staff denies feeding the story to Insight Magazine.
UPDATE Jan. 23:CNN sent reporter John Vause to Obama's old school yesterday, and Vause discovered, as I stated above, that the school is not a Wahhabi-inspired institution. CNN tracked down an ex-classmate of the senator, who described the school as "general."
For only the second time in the Super Bowl era, the Chicago Bears will be playing in the big game.
Amidst the snowflakes that are still falling in Chicago, the Bears topped the New Orleans Saints 39-14.
I'll admit I was a bit nervous when the Saints, with the Bears on top 16-14, seemed to be on the verge of taking the lead with a field goal. But that kick was short, and the Bears scored 23 unanswered points.
The Bears much-maligned quarterback Rex Grossman was pretty awful most of the game, but he was good enough when it counted.
The Bears defense, and the rushing of Thomas Jones (119 yards) are why the Bears are going to Miami for the title game.
I just got back from my morning run in downtown Chicago and it's quite windy with snow flurries. Not good for the New Orleans Saints. At times the snow was mixed with sleet--which was quite painful as it pinged my face--those warm weather dome creatures the Saints may be worse for the wear by the end of the game.
However the last time the Bears were in the NFC championship game, it was in Chicago against the San Fransisco 49ers. It snowed. The Bears still lost.
The Chicago Bears play the New Orleans Saints today at Soldier Field.
Mark Pavelka has a ticket to this afternoon's game. But with his pregnant wife's due date tomorrow, they left nothing to chance. His wife Colleen, a Chicago public school teacher, had her labor induced yesterday so he can go to the game.
The Republican presidential candidate who generates the most contempt among the Left is Kansas Senator Sam Brownback. On Saturday he announced that he's officially entering the race for the Republican nomination.
Brownback wants to position himself as the "true conservative" among Republican presidential candidates. He's a vocal opponent of gay marriage and abortion.
He's attracting notice from both ends of the political spectrum.
As I've remarked earlier about Brownback, left-wing gay activists have taken to mockingly nicknaming the senator "Brownback Mountain."
Despite meager support among Republicans when they ran for president in 2000, some gays couldn't stomach the very idea of Gary Bauer and Alan Keyes. running.
Sex advice columnist and gay-rights activist Dan Savage, pictured above, took his Bauer-Keyes hatred to a bizarre level seven years ago. He volunteered for Gary Bauer's campaign shortly before the Iowa caucuses--while suffering from the flu. By licking pens, doorknobs, and any other device that could be touched by other Bauer staff, Savage hope to use germ warfare to undermine the Bauer effort.
At his caucus--which non-Iowan Savage voted in--he selected Alan Keyes with his caucus vote.
You see, when I vote in Republican primaries or caucuses -- and I almost always do -- I vote for the person who can most damage the Republican Party in the upcoming general election.
Not exactly Jeffersonian democracy.
A warning to the Brownback campaign. Watch out for the guy in the picture.
For those Chicago Bears fans--or those who want to be (and who wouldn't want to be?), here are the lyrics for the Bears fight song, Bear Down, Chicago Bears:
Bear Down, Chicago Bears. Make every play clear the way to victory! Bear Down, Chicago bears. Put up a fight with a might so fearlessly!
We’ll never forget the way you thrilled the nation, with your T formation.
Bear Down, Chicago Bears. And let them know why you’re wearing the crown.
You’re the pride and joy, Of all Illinois.
Chicago Bears, Bear Down!
The New Orleans Saints travel to Chicago for Sunday afternoon's NFC championship showdown. The winner goes to the Super Bowl.
I just got back with from a rare evening run during which I listened to the latest Glenn & Helen Show podcast. This time Gordon Crovitz calls in for an interview with Glenn Reynolds and Dr. Helen Smith.
Crovitz say he's "the last person in the country with 'newspaper publisher' in his title who nonetheless is an optimist."
Not that the Wall Street Journal doesn't have an online presence, it's OpinionJournal is one of the internet's most popular sites.
Recently the print edition went through a re-size; it's being touted as computer screen size, but for some reason, I was more reminded of a Blackberry or Treo-friendly display while I thumbed through today's weekend edition.
There you'll find a good interview with Sen. Joe Lieberman, which is also posted in the OpinionJournal.
Obama lived Indonesia for four years, 1967-1971. In the book, Obama doesn't get specific about his schooling there, writing:
