| Obama And "Pay-To-Play" |
|
By Nancy Morgan RightBias.com January 12, 2009
Lets see if I have this right. By
virtue of the fact that Obama has been elected President, a man
who has achieved nothing of note in his 47 year-old life except
getting elected President, he is now the world's expert on
everything.
Now that Obama is the
President-elect of the US, Americans must assume that he is
automatically invested with the implied virtue and high moral
standing of the office he will soon occupy. We must also assume
his proposed solutions to America's problems are grounded in
reality and common sense. In other words, we must ignore the
evidence of his actions.
We must ignore his consorting with America haters and domestic terrorists. We must overlook his 20 year acceptance and endorsement of a hate-whitey and damn America ideology spewed by his mentor and pastor. We must avert our eyes from the legitimate questions arising from his convoluted purchase of additional acreage for his home in Chicago from Tony Rezko.
And questioning how a political
novice managed to rise to the top of the corrupt Chicago machine
without being part of it is considered evidence of either racism
or hate.
Obama's former colleagues and
current political appointees continue to bite the dust, being
indicted and/or being investigated for corruption at an alarming
rate, yet we are to assume all this corruption happened without
Obama either noticing it or being a part of it. Americans are
now required to ignore the evidence of their own eyes, ignore
common sense conclusions, and give this man the benefit of the
doubt.
Presumption of innocence is one
thing, ignoring facts and common sense is quite another.
Despite what the media and
political elites would have us believe, a man can and may be
judged by who he chooses to associate with. If a kid hangs with
a gang, its reasonable to assume he agrees and accepts the
actions of his fellows. If a politician associates with fellows
that continue to be exposed as corrupt, it is reasonable to
assume that he is, at the very least, a willing participant.
Despite what the media and
political elites would have us believe, character counts.
Character affects every area of decision making a president is
involved in. Appointing heads of agencies, cabinet members and
leaders of our military based on political considerations
instead of merit, as Obama seems to be doing, undermines and
weakens our system of government. And it is not 'change.'
Pay to play' is a new term,
coined by the outrageous actions of Illinois Governor
Blagojevich's blatant auctioning Obama's former senate seat
to the highest bidder. And pay to play is emerging as the
dominant feature of Obama's new administration.
Consider: When Obama is asked to comment on the Israeli/Gaza conflict, he has repeatedly stated that there can only be one president at a time. Thus, he has neatly avoided being forced to publicly choose between Israel and the Palestinians terrorists.
Obama's 'only one president
at a time' explanation, however, didn't stop him from
proclaiming "We must close Guantanamo", thereby rendering
illegitimate America's right to remove our enemies from the
battlefield. Payback to the far left who were responsible
for his election?
Despite the economic crisis
facing our economy, the very first legislative action of the
newly elected 111th Congress was approving a bill making
clear that women who are victims of gender-based
discrimination can sue for compensatory and punitive
damages. Payback to the trial lawyers and feminists?
Was Obama's proposal of
adding 600,000 new government jobs a payback to the unions?
Was opening the floodgates of
the US Treasury to arbitrarily hand-picked winners of the
bail-out lotto a payback to campaign supporters? Was the
promise that the 3 million, (oops, now 4 million) new
'green' jobs he has promised to create a payback to the
powerful environmental lobby? Maybe, maybe not. We'll never
know, because none of these questions are being asked.
Every question posed above
might not stand on its own. After all, there is a powerful
presumption of innocence and, by the way, we must not be
judgemental. But taken together, Obama's actions, not his
words, paint a picture of business as usual. His actions
point to a pattern of payback to political factions.
Translation: Pay to play or you're toast.
Barack Obama is my
president. The respect I have for the office and the
institution requires that I give him every opportunity,
every benefit of the doubt, every encouragement. But the
same respect I hold for the presidency requires, demands,
that the president act in the best interest of the country.
And judging by his actions to date, I regretfully conclude
that Obama's decisions reflect instead the 'pay-to-play',
business as usual mode of governance. And I don't expect
this will change.
Nancy Morgan is
a columnist and news editor for
RightBias.com |