BARACK H.

OBAMA
RESEARCH DOSSIER



TIMELINE
August 4, 1961

Barack Hussein Obama Jr. is born in Hawaii.

1967 – 1971

Barack Obama and his mother move to Indonesia to live with her second husband Lolo Soetoro.

1971 – 1979
Barack Obama moves back to Hawaii and attends Punahou Academy (5th – 12th grade). Co-
curricular Activities: 1975 Intermediate Football – 8th grade; 1976 Boys’ Chorus One – 9th
grade; 1977 Concert Choir – 10th grade; 1977 Junior Varsity Basketball – 10th grade; 1978
Varsity A Basketball One; 1979 Varsity AA Basketball (state champions); and 1979 Ka Wai Ola
(Punahou’s high school literary journal).

1979 – 1981

Barack Obama attends Occidential College in Los Angeles.

1981 – 1983

Barack Obama attends Columbia University and graduates in 1983.

1983 – 1984
Barack Obama works at Business International Corporation and NYPIRG before moving to
Chicago to take a job as a community organizer.

1985 - 1988

As Director of the Developing Communities Project, he worked with low-income residents in

Chicago's Roseland community and the Altgeld Gardens public housing development.

1988 – 1991

Barack Obama attends Harvard University Law School.

1988

Barack Obama meets his future wife Michelle Robinson when Obama takes a job as a summer
associate at the law firm of Sidley Austin where Michelle was an associate.

1992

Obama moves back to Chicago and he works on voter registration (Illinois Project Vote!) for the
Clinton-Gore ticket.

October 1992

Barack Obama marries Michelle Robinson.

1993 - 1996

As an associate attorney with Miner, Barnhill & Galland from 1993 to 1996, he represented
community organizers, discrimination claims, and voting rights cases.[28] He was a lecturer of
constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1993 until his election to the U.S.
Senate in 2004.

1996 – 2004

Elected and serves in the Illinois State Senate 13th District in the south-side Chicago neighborhood
of Hyde Park.

2000

Lost congressional primary to Rep. Bobby Rush. Bill Clinton endorsed Rush.

November 2004

Elected to the U.S. Senate.

January 2007
Barack Obama announces his candidacy for President of the United States.

January 2009

Barack Obama sworn in as 44th President of the United States.

“Sen. Hillary Clinton, when asked about the Barack Obama phenomenon, used
a quote from Obama to describe her opponent. ‘I think the best description
actually is in Barack’s own book’ Clinton said, ‘where he said that he is a
blank screen and people of widely different views project what they want to hear.’
Clinton continued saying ‘he just hasn’t been around long enough.’ Clinton
continued saying ‘But with the blank screen it gives you a chance to just really
infuse it with whatever you hope for, whatever you want without knowing.’” (ABC
News, February 28, 2008)

“For Mr. Obama, words are merely a means to hide a left-leaning agenda behind
the cloak of centrist rhetoric. That garment has now been torn. As voters see
what his agenda is, his opponents can now far more effectively question his
authenticity, credibility, record and fitness to be leader of the free world.” (The
Wall Street Journal, February 21, 2008)

EXPERIENCE
Once upon a time, the torch was passed to a new generation of Americans, and a charismatic young
President, gifted as a speechmaker but little tested as an executive, was finding his way through his
first 100 days. On Day 85, he stumbled, and the result for John F. Kennedy was the disastrous Bay
of Pigs...For scholars of the presidency, Kennedy’s failure to scuttle or fix the ill-conceived invasion
of Cuba is a classic case of the insufficiency of charisma alone. No quips, grins or flights of rhetoric
would do. Kennedy needed on-the-job training, as he later admitted to a friend: ‘Presumably, I was
going to learn these lessons sometime, and maybe better sooner than later.’ Unfortunately, when a
President gets an education, we all pay the tuition…Obama arrived in the Oval Office with less
executive experience than most of his predecessors… From the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to the
stumbling economy, national takeover of banks and the car industry, from the China challenge to
the health-care mess, from loose nukes to oil dependence to (some things never change) Cuba policy
— Obama has stumbled and fumbled his way through his first months in office. The national press
discounted the warnings of Obama’s non-existent experience during the campaign as character
assassination, however those warnings are now proving all too accurate.
THE ECSTASY OF BARACK
Much was made of the religious tenor of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. Reports of women
weeping and swooning became frequent events in the heavenly realm of Obama. His rhetoric,
meanwhile, drips with hints of resurrection, redemption and second comings. ‘We are the ones
we've been waiting for,’ he said on Super Tuesday night. And his people were glad… So what is the
source of this infatuation with Obama? How to explain the hysteria? The religious fervor? The
devotion? The weeping and fainting and utter euphoria surrounding a candidate who had the
audacity to run for leader of the free world on a platform of mere hope?...To play weatherman for a
moment, he is a perfect storm of the culture of narcissism, the cult of celebrity, and a secular society
in which fathers (both the holy and the secular) have been increasingly marginalized from the lives
of a generation of young Americans.

“All of these trends have been gaining momentum the past few decades. Social critic Christopher
Lasch named the culture of narcissism a generation ago and cited addiction to celebrity as one of
the disease’s symptoms -- all tied to the decline of the family. That culture has merely become more
exaggerated as spiritual alienation and fatherlessness have collided with technology (YouTube,
Facebook, MySpace, etc.) that enables the self-absorption of the narcissistic personality… One of
Obama’s TV ads, set to rock 'n' roll, has a Woodstock feel to it. Text alternating with crowd scenes
reads: ‘We Can Change The World’ and ‘We Can Save The Planet.’”

“Those are some kind of campaign promises. The kind no mortal could possibly keep, but never
mind. Obi-Wan Obama is about hope -- and hope, he'll tell you, knows no limits. It is thus no
surprise that the young are enamored of Obama. He's a rock star. A telegenic, ultra-bright redeemer
fluent in the planetary language of a cosmic generation. The force is with him. But underpinning
that popularity is something that transcends mere policy or politics. It is hunger, and that hunger is
clearly spiritual. Human beings seem to have a yearning for the transcendent -- hence thousands of
years of religion -- but we have lately shied away from traditional approaches and old gods. Thus, in
post-Judeo-Christian America, the sports club is the new church. Global warming is the new
religion. Vegetarianism is the new sacrament. Hooking up, the new prayer. Talk therapy, the new
witnessing. Tattooing and piercing, the new sacred symbols and rituals. And apparently, Barack
Obama is the new messiah. Here’s how a 20-year-old woman in Seattle described that Obama
feeling: ‘When he was talking about hope, it actually almost made me cry. Like it really made sense,
like, for the first, like, whoa ...’ This New Age glossolalia may be more sonorous than the guttural
emanations from the revival tent, but the emotion is the same. It's all religion by any other name.
Whatever the Church of Obama promises, we should not mistake this movement for a renaissance
of reason. It is more like, well, like whoa.” (The Bellingham Herald, February 22, 2008)

THE 1996 STATE SENATE CAMPAIGN

“The day after New Year’s 1996, operatives for Barack Obama filed into a barren hearing room of
the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners. There they began the tedious process of challenging
hundreds of signatures on the nominating petitions of state Sen. Alice Palmer, the longtime
progressive activist from the city's South Side. And they kept challenging petitions until every one of
Obama's four Democratic primary rivals was forced off the ballot. Fresh from his work as a civil
rights lawyer and head of a voter registration project that expanded access to the ballot box, Obama
launched his first campaign for the Illinois Senate saying he wanted to empower disenfranchised
citizens.”

“But in that initial bid for political office, Obama quickly mastered the bare-knuckle arts of Chicago
electoral politics. His overwhelming legal onslaught signaled his impatience to gain office, even if
that meant elbowing aside an elder stateswoman like Palmer. A close examination of Obama’s first
campaign clouds the image he has cultivated throughout his political career: The man now running
for president on a message of giving a voice to the voiceless first entered public office not by
leveling the playing field, but by clearing it. One of the candidates he eliminated, long-shot
contender Gha-is Askia, now says that Obama's petition challenges belied his image as a champion
of the little guy and crusader for voter rights. ‘Why say you're for a new tomorrow, then do old-style
Chicago politics to remove legitimate candidates?’ Askia said. ‘He talks about honor and democracy,
but what honor is there in getting rid of every other candidate so you can run scot-free? Why not let
the people decide?’”(Chicago Tribune, April 3, 2007)

In 1996, Obama was endorsed by the Chicago branch of the Democratic Socialists of
America.

Obama's socialist backing goes back at least to 1996, when he received the endorsement of the
Chicago branch of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) for an Illinois state senate seat.
Later, the Chicago DSA newsletter reported that Obama, as a state senator, showed up to eulogize
Saul Mendelson, one of the "champions" of "Chicago's democratic left" and a long-time socialist
activist. Obama's stint as a "community organizer" in Chicago has gotten some attention, but his
relationship with the DSA socialists, who groomed and backed him, has been generally ignored.
(Accuracy In Media, February 14, 2008)

Obama Voting “Present” On Votes

In 1999, Barack Obama was faced with a difficult vote in the Illinois legislature -- to support a bill
that would let some juveniles be tried as adults, a position that risked drawing fire from African-
Americans, or to oppose it, possibly undermining his image as a tough-on-crime moderate. In the
end, Mr. Obama chose neither to vote for nor against the bill. He voted ‘present,’ effectively
sidestepping the issue, an option he invoked nearly 130 times as a state senator…The record has
become an issue on the presidential campaign trail, as Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New
York, his chief rival for the Democratic nomination, has seized on the present votes he cast on a
series of anti-abortion bills to portray Mr. Obama as a ‘talker’ rather than a ‘doer.’ Although a
present vote is not unusual in Illinois, Mr. Obama’s use of it is being raised as he tries to distinguish
himself as a leader who will take on the tough issues, even if it means telling people the ‘'hard truths’
they do not want to hear…An examination of Illinois records shows at least 36 times when Mr.
Obama was either the only state senator to vote present or was part of a group of six or fewer to
vote that way.”

“…In Illinois, political experts say voting present is a relatively common way for lawmakers to
express disapproval of a measure. It can at times help avoid running the risks of voting no, they add.
‘If you are worried about your next election, the present vote gives you political cover,’ said Kent D.
Redfield, a professor of political studies at the University of Illinois at Springfield. ‘This is an option
that does not exist in every state and reflects Illinois political culture.’”

“The vote on the juvenile-justice bill appears to be a case when Mr. Obama, who represented a
racially mixed district on the South Side of Chicago, faced pressure. It also occurred about six
months before he announced an ultimately unsuccessful campaign against a popular black
congressman, Bobby L. Rush. State Senator Christine Radogno, a Republican, was a co-sponsor of
the bill to let children as young as 15 be prosecuted as adults if charged with committing a crime
with a firearm on or near school grounds. The measure passed both houses overwhelmingly. In
explaining his present vote on the floor of the Senate, Mr. Obama said there was no proof that
increasing penalties for young offenders reduced crime, though he acknowledged that the bill had
fairly unanimous support. ‘Voting present was a way to satisfy those two competing interests,’ Ms.
Radogno said in a telephone interview. Thom Mannard, director of the Illinois Council Against
Handgun Violence, said political calculation could have figured in that vote. ‘If he voted a flat-out
no,’ Mr. Mannard said, ‘somebody down the road could say Obama took this vote and was soft on
crime.’”

…“In other present votes, Mr. Obama, who also taught law at the University of Chicago while in
the State Senate, said he had concerns about the constitutionality or effectiveness of some
provisions. Among those, Mr. Obama did not vote yes or no on a bill that would allow certain
victims of sexual crimes to petition judges to seal court records relating to their cases. He also voted
present on a bill to impose stricter standards for evidence a judge is permitted to consider in
imposing a criminal sentence. On the sex crime bill, Mr. Obama cast the lone present vote in a 58-
to-0 vote.”

In 2000, Mr. Obama was one of two senators who voted present on a bill on whether facts not
presented to a jury could later be the basis for increasing an offender's sentence beyond the ordinary
maximum…The bill sailed through both chambers. Out of 174 votes cast in the House and Senate,
two were against and two were present, including Mr. Obama’s.”

“Mr. Obama was also the sole present vote on a bill that easily passed the Senate that would require
teaching respect for others in schools. He also voted present on a measure to prohibit sex-related
shops from opening near schools or places of worship. It passed the Senate. In both of those cases,
his campaign said, he was trying to avoid mandates on local authorities.” (The New York Times,
December 20, 2007)

Obama Pushing The Wrong Button On Votes

Los Angeles Times: “Obama Said Oops On 6 State Senate Votes; He Pushed The Wrong
Button, He Asserted At The Time. Two Of The Admitted Flubs Were On Hotly Contested
Issues.”
Barack Obama angered fellow Democrats in the Illinois Senate when he voted to strip millions of
dollars from a child welfare office on Chicago's West Side. But Obama had a ready explanation: He
goofed. ‘I was not aware that I had voted no,’ he said that day in June 2002, asking that the record
be changed to reflect that he ‘intended to vote yes’…But some lawmakers say the practice also
offers a relatively painless way to placate both sides of a difficult issue. Even if a lawmaker admits an
error, the actual vote stands and the official record merely shows the senator’s ‘intent.’

The Votes In Question.

“Four of Obama’s admitted flubs drew little controversy. On March 19, 1997, he announced he had
fumbled an election-reform vote the day before, on a measure that passed 51 to 6: ‘I was trying to
vote yes on this, and I was recorded as a no,’ he said. The next day, he acknowledged voting
‘present’ on a key telecommunications vote. He stood on March 11, 1999, to take back his vote
against legislation to end good-behavior credits for certain felons in county jails. ‘I pressed the
wrong button on that,’ he said. Obama was the lone dissenter on Feb. 24, 2000, against 57 yeas for
a ban on human cloning. ‘I pressed the wrong button by accident,’ he said.”

“But two of Obama’s bumbles came on more-sensitive topics. On Nov. 14, 1997, he backed
legislation to permit riverboat casinos to operate even when the boats were dockside. The measure,
pushed by the gambling industry and fought by church groups whose support Obama was seeking,
passed with two ‘yeas’ to spare -- including Obama’s. Moments after its passage he rose to say, ‘I’d
like to be recorded as a no vote,’ explaining that he had mistakenly voted for it.”

“Obama would later develop a reputation as a critic of the gambling industry, and he voted against a
similar measure two years later. But he was clearly confused about how to handle the issue at the
time of his first vote, telling a church group on a 1998 campaign questionnaire that he was
‘undecided’ about whether he backed an expansion of riverboat gambling. And, months earlier, he
had voted in favor of a version of the bill.

The senator who led the opposition to the gambling measure, Republican Todd Sieben, said he took
Obama at his word that the initial vote was an error. But Sieben also said the thin margin of victory
was a sign that perhaps there was more to the vote than met the eye. ‘He was obviously paying
attention to this vote. It was a major, major issue in the state, and it was a long debate,’ Sieben said.
‘The inadvertent 'Oops, I missed the switch' -- I'd be kind of skeptical of that.’

On June 11, 2002, Obama’s vote sparked a confrontation after he joined Republicans to block
Democrats trying to override a veto by GOP Gov. George Ryan of a $2-million allotment for the
west Chicago child welfare office. Shortly afterward, Obama chastised Republicans for their
‘sanctimony’ in claiming that only they had the mettle to make tough choices in a tight budget year.
And he called for ‘responsible budgeting.’ A fellow Democrat suddenly seethed with anger. ‘You
got a lot of nerve to talk about being responsible,’ said Sen. Rickey Hendon, accusing Obama of
voting to close the child welfare office. Obama replied right away. ‘I understand Sen. Hendon’s
anger. . . . I was not aware that I had voted no on that last -- last piece of legislation,’ he said.
Obama asked that the record reflect that he meant to vote yes. Then he requested that Hendon ‘ask
me about a vote before he names me on the floor.’”

“Hendon declined to discuss the episode. ‘I try to block out unpleasant memories,’ said Hendon,
who has endorsed Obama. ‘If I tried really hard to remember it, I probably could, but I'm not going
to try hard because I'm supporting the senator all the way.’ Hendon said ‘it happens’ that senators
press the wrong button. But he was quick to add: ‘I've never done it.’” (Los Angeles Times, January
24, 2008)

Obama Wants To Return To Tax Rates Of The 1990s

While expressing support for entrepreneurship and business, Obama also argued for a fairer tax
code and a repeal of the Bush tax cuts. ‘John McCain promises to make them permanent,’ Obama
said of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, ‘embracing the central principle of the Bush economic program.’
Obama suggested that the current tax cuts should be rolled back to where they were in the 1990’s, a
time when he says the people were prosperous. ‘I would argue that most rich people were doing
pretty good in the ‘90’s,’ he said. ‘They were rich then and they will still be rich after I am
president.’” (CBS News, February 28, 2008)

“1993 saw a tax hike on the wealthy (via two new brackets at the top), and then 2001 through 2003
saw a series of tax cuts that lowered the tax brackets as follows.”

1993 - 2003 -
1992 2001 2002
2000 2008

10% 10%

15% 15% 15% 15% 15%

28% 28% 27.5% 27% 25%

31% 31% 30.5% 30% 28%

36% 35.5% 35% 33%

39.6% 39.1% 38.6% 35%

(http://www.moneychimp.com/features/tax_brackets.htm)

More On Obama’s Leftist Economic Proposals

“…That MoveOn.org and Sen. Edward Kennedy have endorsed Obama ought to be enough for
any conservative - even moderate - to pause before heading toward the electoral altar. But Obama
has offered more cause for alarm by heralding his left-wing economic philosophy in a recent
interview with The New York Times…During last Thursday’s debate with Hillary Clinton, Obama said
he would pay for his proposed new programs, including mandatory health insurance, by imposing
higher taxes on ‘the wealthy’ and raising the tax on Social Security wages…The era of big
government is not over, as Bill Clinton proclaimed in his 1996 State of the Union address; it has just
begun. If either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama becomes president, government will grow even
larger and become more intrusive.” (The Washington Times, February 6, 2008)

Obama On Judicial Selections

“Obama also won a laugh at the expense of Chief Justice John Roberts, saying that judgments of
Roberts’ character during his confirmation hearings were largely superficial. ‘He loves his wife. He’s
good to his dog,’ he joked, adding that judicial philosophy should be weighted more seriously than
such evaluations. ‘We need somebody who’s got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it’s like to
be a young teenage mom. The empathy to understand what it’s like to be poor, or African-
American, or gay, or disabled, or old. And that’s the criteria by which I’m going to be selecting my
judges.’” (http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/07/17/274143.aspx)

How Does Obama Intend To Pay For “All This”

“In an effort to add a larger dose of substance to his rhetoric, Barack Obama unveiled a detailed
economic plan last week. In doing so, he provided unmistakable proof why the National Journal's
ideological ratings, based upon votes, ranked him as the Senate’s most liberal member for 2007. On
the spending side of the ledger, Mr. Obama proposed a 10-year, $60 billion ‘National Infrastructure
Reinvestment Bank,’ which is a highfalutin name for a scheme to fund dubious pork-barrel projects
that can't pass muster in our pork-addicted Congress. The $60 billion is just a down payment; it will
be used to leverage ‘almost half a trillion of additional infrastructure spending.’ Guess who’s going
to pay for all that. Not to worry because the whole scheme will ‘generate nearly 2 million new jobs.’
Mr. Obama has also proposed a 10-year, $150 billion program ‘to establish a green energy sector
that will create up to 5 million new jobs.’ His nearly universal health care plan, which he implausibly
asserts will reduce the average family’s insurance premium by $2,500 per year, is projected to cost
between $50 billion and $65 billion per year.”

“If Mr. Obama is beholden to taxpayer-funded, government-designed highway and energy pork
projects, he has gone hog wild over ‘refundable tax credits,’ which is the polite description of
taxpayer-financed cash payments to people who pay no income taxes. Mr. Obama promises a $4,000
refundable tax credit to finance college tuition for students who spend 100 hours performing
community service. There will be a refundable 10 percent mortgage-interest tax credit for married
couples who take the $10,900 standard deduction because their itemizable deductions (including
mortgage interest) fall below that level. Couples will also receive a refundable $1,000 tax credit to
offset payroll taxes even if their refundable earned-income tax credit (EITC) has already eliminated
their payroll-tax burden. Taxpayers will also finance a $500 refundable tax credit to augment a
$1,000 savings-account deposit made by families earning up to $75,000.”

“Mr. Obama also promises to ‘triple the [EITC] benefit for minimum-wage workers.’ Let’s do the
math. For a married couple with two children working full-time and earning the minimum wage
($5.85 per hour, $24,336 per year), their refundable EITC would rise from $3,225 to $9,675. They
already qualify for refundable child tax credits totaling about $1,850. Mr. Obama would increase
their refundable child-care tax credit to $3,000. Don’t forget his refundable $1,000 tax credit to
partly offset their $1,500 Social Security taxes, which had already been more than offset by their
nearly $10,000 refundable EITC. If they put that $1,000 in the bank, they would get another
refundable tax credit of $500. A future editorial will examine how Mr. Obama intends to pay for all
this.” (The Washington Times, February 20, 2008)

NEW SPENDING PROPOSALS

Obama’s Out-Of –Control Spending Proposals (As Of February 13, 2008)

If Obama Could Enact All Of His Campaign Proposals, Taxpayers Would Be Faced With
Financing Over $850 Billion In New Spending Over One White House Term!

Obama’s Health Care Plan Will Cost Up To $65 Billion A Year--Equal To $260 Billion Over
Four Years.

“[Obama] campaign officials estimated that the net cost of the plan to the federal government would
be $50 billion to $65 billion a year, when fully phased in, and said the revenues from rolling back the
tax cuts were enough to cover it.” (The New York Times, May 30, 2007)

Obama's Energy Plan Will Cost $150 Billion Over 10 Years--Equal To $15 Billion Annually
And $60 Billion Over Four Years.

“Obama will invest $150 billion over 10 years to advance the next generation of biofuels and fuel
infrastructure, accelerate the commercialization of plug-in hybrids, promote development of
commercial-scale renewable energy, invest in low-emissions coal plants, and begin the transition to a
new digital electricity grid.” ( www.barackobama.com, January 14, 2008)

Obama’s Tax Plan Will Cost Approximately $85 Billion A Year--Equal To $340 Billion Over
Four Years.

“[Obama’s] proposed tax cuts and credits, aimed at workers earning $50,000 or less per year, would
cost the Treasury an estimated $85 billion annually.” (McClatchy Newspapers, September 19, 2007)

Obama’s Economic Stimulus Package Will Cost $75 Billion.

“Barack Obama’s economic plan will inject $75 billion of stimulus into the economy by getting
money in the form of tax cuts and direct spending directly to the people who need it most." (
www.barackobama.com, January 13, 2008)

Obama's Early Education And K-12 Package Will Cost $18 Billion A Year--Equal To $72
Billion Over Four Years.

"Barack Obama's early education and K-12 plan package costs about $18 billion per year." (
www.barackobama.com, November 20, 2007)
Obama's National Service Plan Will Cost $3.5 Billion A Year--Equal To $14 Billion Over
Four Years.

"Barack Obama's national service plan will cost about $3.5 billion per year when it is fully
implemented." (www.barackobama.com, December 5, 2007)

Obama Will Increase Our Foreign Assistance Funding By $25 Billion.

"Obama will embrace the Millennium Development Goal of cutting extreme poverty around the
world in half by 2015, and he will double our foreign assistance to $50 billion to achieve that goal."
(www.barackobama.com, January 14, 2008)

Obama Will Provide $2 Billion To Aide Iraqi Refugees.

"He will provide at least $2 billion to expand services to Iraqi refugees in neighboring countries, and
ensure that Iraqis inside their own country can find a safe-haven." (www.barackobama.com, January
14, 2008)

Obama Will Provide $1.5 Billion To Help States Adopt Paid-Leave Systems.

"As president, Obama will initiate a strategy to encourage all 50 states to adopt paid-leave systems.
Obama will provide a $1.5 billion fund to assist states with start-up costs and to help states offset
the costs for employees and employers." (www.barackobama.com, January 14, 2008)

Obama Will Provide $1 Billion Over 5 Years For Transitional Jobs And Career Pathway
Programs--Equal To $200 Million A Year And $800 Million Over Four Years.

"Obama will invest $1 billion over five years in transitional jobs and career pathway programs that
implement proven methods of helping low-income Americans succeed in the workforce."
(www.barackobama.com, January 14, 2008)

Obama Will Provide $50 Million To Jump-Start The Creation Of An IAEA-Controlled

Nuclear Fuel Bank.

Obama: "We must also stop the spread of nuclear weapons technology and ensure that countries
cannot build -- or come to the brink of building -- a weapons program under the auspices of
developing peaceful nuclear power. That is why my administration will immediately provide $50
million to jump-start the creation of an International Atomic Energy Agency-controlled nuclear fuel
bank and work to update the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty." (Foreign Affairs, July-August, 2007)

Democrats Promise A Lot, But Who Will Pay The Bill?

“To listen to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama campaign in Ohio and Texas is to hear pledges on
health care, middle-class tax cuts, mortgage assistance, tuition help, energy initiatives and more. It's
all very appealing. It's also almost certainly too good to be true. In 2009, when the next president
takes office, the government is expected to spend $400 billion more than it takes in, adding to a
national debt that tops $9 trillion. Yet Clinton and Obama both offer a long list of new spending
proposals that suggests a lack of seriousness in confronting the nation's fiscal condition.

Obama has received more criticism, perhaps deservedly so, because his list is somewhat longer. But
Clinton also appears to be overpromising on what she would do and under delivering on how she
would pay for it. As detailed below, both candidates have major new health care initiatives and
other spending proposals; Obama tacks on a major tax cut for working Americans to offset Social
Security tax payments. While it's hard to come up with a precise price tag given the lack of specifics
in many of their proposals, these plans are likely to cost the Treasury well into the hundreds of
billions of dollars a year. The National Taxpayers Union, a conservative group that favors lower
taxes and smaller government, gives a very rough estimate of $287 billion for Obama and $218
billion for Clinton.

How would the candidates pay for all these new programs without driving the deficit to new
heights? Some have specific funding sources; some don't. The candidates rather vaguely claim that
costs would be covered primarily by repealing President Bush's tax cuts and ending the Iraq war.
This is where the math gets fuzzy. A rollback of Bush's tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans could
generate perhaps $75 billion next year. The Iraq war savings are much harder to figure. The war has
been costing about $100 billion per year. But a Democratic president, once in office, might decide
that national security demands a gradual withdrawal, or a redeployment to Afghanistan. Health care
for Iraq war veterans will run into the billions for decades. It's unlikely that winding down the war
will produce a large, quick peace dividend capable of supporting a host of new programs.

To make matters worse, any tax increases and military reductions might be needed just to cover the
government's existing shortfalls caused principally by rising health care costs and the pending baby
boomer retirement. None of this seems to trouble the candidates. Clinton — who also promises to
bring back the fiscal responsibility of her husband's administration, when the budget moved into
surplus — and Obama present their ideas with a mix of inspirational rhetoric and populist anger…It
appears, however, that the Democrats have looked at the Bush administration's record and decided
that responsibility is no match for the short-term political allure of gifts from the government.

For four decades, Democratic candidates have had to move to the center to have a chance of getting
to the White House. But now, sensing a shift in the national mood, both candidates are reverting to
liberal orthodoxy. Perhaps the winner of the nomination will shift to the center somewhat in the
general election. If not, the Democratic platform going into November could be one in which the
voters are asked to suspend their disbeliefs and ignore fiscal realities. That would be — to
paraphrase former president Bill Clinton — one big fairy tale.” (USA Today, February 25, 2008)

NATIONAL SECURITY
During the campaign “Hillary Rodham Clinton characterized rival Barack Obama … as rash and
inconsistent on foreign policy issues. Shifting to foreign policy after two days of hammering the
Illinois senator over their differences on health care, Clinton paired two of Obama's campaign
statements to support her conclusion. ‘'He wavers from seeming to believe that mediation and
meetings without preconditions can solve some of the world's most intractable problems to
advocating rash, unilateral military action without the cooperation of our allies in the most sensitive
part of the world,’' Clinton said in a speech at The George Washington University. The former first
lady has sharply criticized her rival for the Democratic presidential nomination for saying during a
televised debate last summer that he would be willing as president to meet with the leaders of Cuba,
Iran and other hostile nations without preconditions. He reiterated that willingness last week. ‘We
simply cannot legitimize rogue regimes or weaken American prestige by impulsively agreeing to
presidential talks that have no preconditions,’ Clinton said. ‘It may sound good, but it doesn't meet
the real world test of foreign policy.’”

“Obama has also said he would be willing to send U.S. troops into Pakistan if there were ‘'actionable
intelligence’' that the country is harboring terrorists. Hoping to slow Obama's surging candidacy
before primaries in Texas and Ohio next week, Clinton painted a picture of a dangerous world in
need of seasoned and wise U.S. leadership. She portrayed Obama as a national security novice and
suggested he would need a ‘'foreign policy instruction manual’ to keep the country safe. Once again,
she compared her Democratic rival's foreign experience to that of President Bush upon taking office
eight years ago. Voters have already seen the ‘'tragic result’' of electing a commander in chief with
little experience in national security and global affairs, she said. ‘We can't let that happen again.
America has already taken that chance one time too many.’ (The Associated Press, February 25, 2008)

Top Obama Flip-Flops According To The Washington Post

“1. Special interests. In January, the Obama campaign described union contributions to the campaigns
of Clinton and John Edwards as ‘special interest’ money. Obama changed his tune as he began
gathering his own union endorsements. He now refers respectfully to unions as the representatives
of ‘working people’ and says he is ‘thrilled’ by their support.

2. Public financing. Obama replied ‘yes’ in September 2007 when asked if he would agree to public
financing of the presidential election if his GOP opponent did the same. Obama has now attached
several conditions to such an agreement, including regulating spending by outside groups. His
spokesman says the candidate never committed himself on the matter.

3. The Cuba embargo. In January 2004, Obama said it was time ‘to end the embargo with Cuba’
because it had ‘utterly failed in the effort to overthrow Castro.’ Speaking to a Cuban American
audience in Miami in August 2007, he said he would not ‘take off the embargo’ as president because
it is ‘an important inducement for change.’

4. Illegal immigration. In a March 2004 questionnaire, Obama was asked if the government should
‘crack down on businesses that hire illegal immigrants.’ He replied ‘Oppose.’ In a Jan. 31, 2008,
televised debate, he said that ‘we do have to crack down on those employers that are taking
advantage of the situation.’

5. Decriminalization of marijuana. While running for the U.S. Senate in January 2004, Obama told
Illinois college students that he supported eliminating criminal penalties for marijuana use. In the
Oct. 30, 2007, presidential debate, he joined other Democratic candidates in opposing the
decriminalization of marijuana.” (The Washington Post, February 25, 2008)

Obama & Cocaine

“In the book, Obama acknowledges that he used cocaine as a high school student but rejected
heroin. ‘Pot had helped, and booze; maybe a little blow when you could afford it. Not smack,
though,’ he says. In an interview during his Senate race two years ago, Obama said he admitted
using drugs because he thought it was important for ‘young people who are already in circumstances
that are far more difficult than mine to know that you can make mistakes and still recover. ‘I think
that, at this stage, my life is an open book, literally and figuratively,’ he said. ‘Voters can make a
judgment as to whether dumb things that I did when I was a teenager are relevant to the work that
I’ve done since that time.’” (The Washington Post, January 3, 2007)

Obama & Weather Underground

“…Obama could face questions about his relationship with William Ayers, a former member of the
radical group the Weather Underground who is now a professor of education at the University of
Illinois in Chicago. Ayers donated $200 in 2001 to Obama’s Illinois state Senate campaign and
served with him from 1999 to 2002 on the nine-member board of the Woods Fund, an anti-poverty
group. The Weather Underground carried out a series of bombings in the early 1970s -- including
the U.S. Capitol and the Pentagon. While Ayers was never prosecuted for those attacks, he told the
New York Times in an interview published Sept. 11, 2001, that ‘I don't regret setting bombs.’ Bill
Burton, Obama’s spokesman, said Ayers ‘does not have a role on the campaign.’' Ayers said he had
no comment on his relationship with Obama.” (Bloomberg, February 15, 2008)

More On Ayers

“In 1995, State Senator Alice Palmer introduced her chosen successor, Barack Obama, to a few of
the district’s influential liberals at the home of two well known figures on the local left: William
Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn. While Ayers and Dohrn may be thought of in Hyde Park as local
activists, they’re better known nationally as two of the most notorious – and unrepentant — figures
from the violent fringe of the 1960s anti-war movement. Now, as Obama runs for president, what
two guests recall as an unremarkable gathering on the road to a minor elected office stands as a
symbol of how swiftly he has risen from the Hyde Park left to a man closing in fast on the
Democratic nomination for president. ‘I can remember being one of a small group of people who
came to Bill Ayers’ house to learn that Alice Palmer was stepping down from the senate and running
for Congress,’ said Dr. Quentin Young, a prominent Chicago physician and advocate for single-
payer health care, of the informal gathering at the home of Ayers and his wife, Bernardine Dohrn.
“[Palmer] identified him as her successor.’ Obama and Palmer ‘were both there,’ he said.”

Obama’s connections to Ayers and Dorhn have been noted in some fleeting news coverage in the
past. But the visit by Obama to their home—part of a campaign courtship—reflects more extensive
interaction than has previously reported. Neither Ayers nor the Obama campaign would describe
the relationship between the two men. Dr. Young described Obama and Ayers as ‘friends,’ but
there’s no evidence their relationship is more than the casual friendship of two men who occupy
overlapping Chicago political circles, and served together on the board of a Chicago foundation.
But Obama’s relationship with Ayers is an especially vivid milepost on his rise, in record time, from
a local official who unabashedly reflected a very liberal district to the leader of national movement
based largely on the claim that he can transcend ideological divides…‘Ayers was a terrorist.
Bernardine Dohrn was a terrorist. Ayers has never offered one word of apology – he glories in it,
thinks it’s terrific. And that to me is not what I would call acceptable or mainstream behavior,’ said
Dan Polsby, a former law professor at Northwestern who is now dean of George Mason University
Law School. ‘If Obama takes a different view on that--well, ok, that’s data about Obama.’” Many
details of the 1995 meeting are shrouded by time and by Obama’s and Ayers’ refusals to discuss it.”
(Politico, February 22, 2008)

Obama & Guevara

“How is it a front-runner for the highest office in the land can reject an American flag on his lapel
but permit the display of a huge Cuban flag at one of his offices, emblazoned with a mass
murderer’s mug? Improbable as it sounds, it’s true. Barack Obama, displaying the same ‘anything
goes’ standard of patriotism he showed when he ostentatiously refused to wear a U.S. flag in his
lapel, now shows he’s got a whole different idea about patriotism. One of Obama’s volunteer
offices in Houston was caught operating under a huge flag of communist Cuba with Che Guevara’s
face printed on it, according to images shown on Fox News. Flak from bloggers ensued -- followed,
of course, by spin control. But rather than repudiate the image, Obama would only call it
‘inappropriate,’ apparently without insisting it be taken down. That contrasts with his dismissal of
his Senate colleagues who wear lapel flags as ‘hypocrites.’ Some hypocrites. The display of the
Castroite flag with Che’s picture on it sends a particularly disturbing message about his campaign.
Apparently, Obama tends to attract the kind of people who think of mass murderers like Che and
Fidel as romantic revolutionaries. Those same people see Obama as a man with a messianic
message. These are the voters he’ll be indebted to should he win higher office. Worse yet, it signals
that a U.S. commander in chief tolerates supporters with loyalties to nations other than the U.S.,
including those loyal to enemy states that spy on and seek to harm the U.S. It coincides
uncomfortably with Obama’s call for no-strings-attached diplomatic relations with communist Cuba.
He’s even offered to meet with the dictators of Cuba, sanctimoniously implying that other
administrations had no good reason for not doing so.”

“Obama’s naive idealism is based on a false understanding of history. Cuba is a nation that aimed
Soviet missiles at us in 1962 and is likely to do the same if and when Venezuelan dictator Hugo
Chavez gets advanced weapons from Russia or Iran. That’s not all:

** Also in 1962, Cuba attempted to launch the first 9/11-style attack on New York’s subways and
department stores -- with the mastermind behind that none other than Che Guevara himself.

** In 1982 it tried to get the USSR to launch nukes at the U.S.

** In 1996, Cuba shot down two U.S. planes, killing six Americans whose only ‘crime’ was trying to
rescue Cuban refugees at sea. Had a political candidate in Latin America pasted up a picture of Che
at election time, there’d be no doubt where he stood -- ones who did just that are now running
countries with names like Bolivia and Venezuela. Is that what Obama really stands for?” (Investor’s
Business Daily, February 13, 2008)

Obama & Lobbyists

When it comes to lobbyist ties, Barack Obama's rhetoric once again excludes his contradictory
record,’ said regional RNC spokesman Paul Lindsay. In an experience theme I suspect we'll be
hearing a lot from McCain forces, Mr. Lindsay called Mr. Obama ‘an untested politician.’ As for the
GOP spokesman's claims about the Illinois senator's money practices, go to the jump and judge for
yourself. As I said earlier, FactCheck.org has partially disputed Mr. Obama's claims. Republican
National Committee email about Obama campaign money sources:

In The Recent Past, Obama Has Accepted PAC And Lobbyist Contributions:

Obama Stopped Accepting Contributions From PACs And Lobbyists When He Launched His
Presidential Campaign. "Obama doesn't accept campaign contributions from lobbyists or political
action committees, but that's a change from his past practices. He accepted their donations until he
launched his presidential campaign." (Christopher Wills, "10 Things About Barack Obama," The
Associated Press, 1/10/08)

Chicago Sun-Times' Lynn Sweet: "Obama experienced a conversion once he decided to run for the
White House, changing his policy and declining to take money from currently registered federal
lobbyists and PACs." (Lynn Sweet, Op-Ed, "Rezko Question Dogs Obama," Chicago Sun-Times,
5/17/07)

During His 2004 Campaign, Obama Accepted "Thousands Of Dollars" From Pharmaceutical
Employees And Lobbyists. "In addition, Obama and Hynes have accepted thousands of dollars in
campaign contributions from employees of pharmaceutical firms and their lobbyists, records show."
(David Mendell, "Senate Candidate Criticizes Drugmakers, But Heavily Invests In Them," Chicago
Tribune, 3/1/04)

"[B]arack Obama Also Has Pharmaceutical Investments. And Obama Has Accepted Campaign
Contributions From Pharmaceutical Lobbyists." (Carol Slezak, Op-Ed, "Heel Or A Hero?" Chicago
Sun-Times, 3/10/04)

During His 2004 Campaign, Obama Accepted Over $1.2 Million In Contributions From PACs And
Candidate Committees. (CQ Money Line Website, moneyline.cq.com, Accessed 1/15/08)

Labor PACs Contributed $248,500 To Obama. (CQ Money Line Website, moneyline.cq.com,
Accessed 1/15/08)

Single Issue Group PACs Contributed $231,747 To Obama. (CQ Money Line Website,
moneyline.cq.com, Accessed 1/15/08)
Finance And Insurance PACs Contributed $173,549 To Obama. (CQ Money Line Website,
moneyline.cq.com, Accessed 1/15/08)

Health Care PACs Contributed $85,000 To Obama. (CQ Money Line Website, moneyline.cq.com,
Accessed 1/15/08)

Law PACs Contributed $72,964 To Obama. (CQ Money Line Website, moneyline.cq.com, Accessed
1/15/08)

As Recently As November Of 2006, Obama Accepted PAC Contributions Through His Hopefund
PAC; During The 2006 Election Cycle, Hopefund Accepted At Least $115,083 In PAC
Contributions. (CQ Money Line Website, moneyline.cq.com, Accessed 2/12/08)

Obama Used Hopefund To Build Support For His Presidential Campaign. "Obama then used those
PAC contributions [to Hopefund] - including thousands from defense contractors, law firms, and
the securities and insurance industries - to build support for his presidential run by making
donations to Democratic Party organizations and candidates around the country." (Scott Helman,
"PACs And Lobbyists Aided Obama's Rise - Data Contrast With His Theme," The Boston Globe,
8/9/07)

While In IL State Senate, Obama Played Poker And Golf With Lobbyists:

Obama Played Golf And Poker With Lobbyists While In The IL Senate. "Mr. Obama worked hard
at building connections. Aside from taking up golf he joined a weekly poker game." (Janny Scott, "In
Illinois, Obama Proved Pragmatic And Shrewd," The New York Times, 7/30/07)

"He ... Played Poker With Lobbyists, Studiously Took Up Golf. ('An Awful Lot Happens On The
Golf Course,' A Friend, Jean Rudd, Says He Told Her.)" (Janny Scott, "In Illinois, Obama Proved
Pragmatic And Shrewd," The New York Times, 7/30/07)

“Obama’s Communist Mentor”

“In his books, Obama admits attending ‘socialist conferences’ and coming into contact with Marxist
literature. But he ridicules the charge of being a ‘hard-core academic Marxist,’ which was made by
his colorful and outspoken 2004 U.S. Senate opponent, Republican Alan Keyes. However, through
Frank Marshall Davis, Obama had an admitted relationship with someone who was publicly
identified as a member of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). The record shows that Obama was
in Hawaii from 1971-1979, where, at some point in time, he developed a close relationship, almost
like a son, with Davis, listening to his ‘poetry’ and getting advice on his career path. But Obama, in
his book, Dreams From My Father, refers to him repeatedly as just ‘Frank.’”

“The reason is apparent: Davis was a known communist who belonged to a party subservient to the
Soviet Union. In fact, the 1951 report of the Commission on Subversive Activities to the Legislature
of the Territory of Hawaii identified him as a CPUSA member. What's more, anti-communist
congressional committees, including the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC),
accused Davis of involvement in several communist-front organizations… But you will find it
briefly discussed, sort of, in Obama's own book, Dreams From My Father. He writes about ‘a poet
named Frank,’ who visited them in Hawaii, read poetry, and was full of ‘hard-earned knowledge’ and
advice. Who was Frank? Obama only says that he had ‘some modest notoriety once,’ was ‘a
contemporary of Richard Wright and Langston Hughes during his years in Chicago...’ but was now
‘pushing eighty.’ He writes about ‘Frank and his old Black Power dashiki self’ giving him advice
before he left for Occidental College in 1979 at the age of 18.”

“This ‘Frank’ is none other than Frank Marshall Davis, the black communist writer now considered
by some to be in the same category of prominence as Maya Angelou and Alice Walker. In the
summer/fall 2003 issue of African American Review, James A. Miller of George Washington
University reviews a book by John Edgar Tidwell, a professor at the University of Kansas, about
Davis's career, and notes, ‘In Davis's case, his political commitments led him to join the American
Communist Party during the middle of World War II-even though he never publicly admitted his
Party membership.’ Tidwell is an expert on the life and writings of Davis. Is it possible that Obama
did not know who Davis was when he wrote his book, Dreams From My Father, first published in
1995? That's not plausible since Obama refers to him as a contemporary of Richard Wright and
Langston Hughes and says he saw a book of his black poetry.”

“The communists knew who ‘Frank’ was, and they know who Obama is. In fact, one academic who
travels in communist circles understands the significance of the Davis-Obama relationship.
Professor Gerald Horne, a contributing editor of the Communist Party journal Political Affairs, talked
about it during a speech last March at the reception of the Communist Party USA archives at the
Tamiment Library at New York University. The remarks are posted online under the headline,
‘Rethinking the History and Future of the Communist Party.’”

“Horne, a history professor at the University of Houston, noted that Davis, who moved to
Honolulu from Kansas in 1948 ‘at the suggestion of his good friend Paul Robeson,’ came into
contact with Barack Obama and his family and became the young man's mentor, influencing
Obama's sense of identity and career moves. Robeson, of course, was the well-known black actor
and singer who served as a member of the CPUSA and apologist for the old Soviet Union. Davis
had known Robeson from his time in Chicago. As Horne describes it, Davis ‘befriended’ a ‘Euro-
American family’ that had ‘migrated to Honolulu from Kansas and a young woman from this family
eventually had a child with a young student from Kenya East Africa who goes by the name of
Barack Obama, who retracing the steps of Davis eventually decamped to Chicago.’”

“However, Obama writes in Dreams From My Father that he saw ‘Frank’ only a few days before he left
Hawaii for college, and that Davis seemed just as radical as ever. Davis called college ‘An advanced
degree in compromise’ and warned Obama not to forget his ‘people’ and not to ‘start believing what
they tell you about equal opportunity and the American way and all that shit.’ Davis also complained
about foot problems, the result of ‘trying to force African feet into European shoes,’ Obama wrote.”
(Accuracy In Media, February 18, 2008)