Less than five years ago, no one outside of Chicago, Illinois knew who Barack Obama was. Obama was a state senator. However, considering how far he has come, we know that a series of events have occurred which allowed State Senator Obama to rise to U.S. Senator, and eventually the Democratic nominee for President in 2008.
Five short years. Such an amazingly stratospheric rise in politics hasn’t been seen since Teddy Roosevelt. So, the million dollar question is, “How did he do this?”
Let’s go back to the 2004 Illinois Senate race. His major opponent in the Democratic Primary was Blair Hull, a well known Democrat, who had loads of money, and a large lead in the polls just weeks before the primary. For all intents and purposes, Blair Hull was going to be the nominee. What happened to him?
In the weeks leading up to the primary, supporters of Barack Obama discovered that Hull probably had some skeletons in his closet, in the form of private, sealed divorce records. These records had been sealed for some time, but Obama supporters (among others) worked tirelessly to convince the powers that be to unseal them. In the end, the private records became public, against the wishes of Hull. Sure enough, allegations of Hull abusing his wife emerged. Hull dropped in the polls, and he would eventually lose to Barack Obama in the primary.
With the Democratic nomination in his grasp, Barack Obama turned to his general opponent, the popular Jack Ryan. At this time, Jack Ryan had higher favorability ratings that Obama. However, in a fortunate twist for Obama, a private controversy was swirling around Jack Ryan and his divorce records.
Therefore, supporters of Barack Obama felt that Jack Ryan probably had skeletons in his closet, in the form of private, sealed divorce records. These records had been sealed for some time, but Obama supporters worked tirelessly to convince the judge to unseal them. Jack Ryan attempted to intervene, chanting that “these are PRIVATE records.” However, in the end, the private records became public, exposing Ryan’s poor behavior. Once the decision to release the records had been made, Barack Obama naturally made a statement that he opposed the releasing of these private records. The statement made no difference, because his supporters had already worked to have the records released.
Once released, Jack Ryan was forced to drop out of the race, allowing Barack Obama to soar to election, becoming the junior senator from the great state of Illinois. Thus, the rise of Obama to national politics was complete. So what has been learned?
First, Jack Ryan and Blair Hull are despicable. Nothing excuses them for their rotten behavior. However, do they not have the privilege of privacy?
As for Obama, I think it’s important to see how he rose to prominence in America. Now, I believe that these tactics that his supporters used were pretty unfortunate, but I’m not going to heavily criticize the moves themselves, simply because it’s politics. Politics is a nasty business, and things like this are always going to occur.
What REALLY bothers me is the hypocrisy. For years, Barack Obama has been preaching several ideas:
“A new kind of politics.”
“No personal attacks.”
“Post-Partisan politics.”
Barack Obama holds himself to a higher standard, which sounds great. The ideas that he espouses sound great, and when you hear him talk about rising above the political fray, you say to yourself, “Yeah…I like that. Political attacks really need to go away. He’s so hopeful and enthusiastic.”
However, when you hold yourself to a higher standard, as Senator Obama has done, the public must hold you to a higher standard also. As such, his feet should be held to the fire. In fact, the entire reason that he is known nationally is because of shady tactics in the IL-Senate race four years ago. If his supporters had not pushed for the release of not one, but TWO sets of private records, he would not have become a United States Senator, in all likelihood.
I highlight this in particular because is demonstrates that Barack Obama does NOT transcend politics, as he wishes you to believe. He is NOT beyond political nastiness. Simply stated, Barack Obama is a politician, and let us never forget that. He may preach hope, but I personally hope we don’t believe that he is “beyond the pettiness of politics.” In fact, the pettiness of politics is a major reason the entire world knows his name.
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2 comments:
I agree with the points of your argument but your example does not support it. You acknowledge that it was his supporters that broke the seal not him. He even came out and said that he was against it. Unless he was behind the unsealing, which hasn't been shown, your example does not show what you are trying to prove. I wish I could remember off hand but there are many examples from the primaries where he used ads and said things that were very normal politics.
Correct. His supporters were among those who wanted the records unsealed.
However, his statement of "I do not think the records should be released" really doesn't do it for me. At any time in those previous weeks, he could have made this statement (and it would have been more believable). He could have told his people to stop or he could have made a passionate plea to the Chicago media market, begging them to keep the records private. He did none of that, simply because he wanted to win, i.e. he's a politician.
Also, the odds that Senator Obama did NOT know about the shady work of his people are astronomically low.
As such, I feel that the burden of proof lies not with me, but with him, to prove that he had nothing to do with it.
And yes, during the primary, he was a normal politician in regards to ads.
Another point that I did not convey is that it seems as though his rise to national prominence has been carefully orchestrated.
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