Obama and the Bad Associations

I kind of put off saying anything about this story only because I thought everyone else was saying it better, so I didn't want it to become a "me, too" kind of thing. But considering how much this story seems to be building, I feel like I have to say something at this point.

For those who aren't regular blog readers, Illinois senator and presidential candidate Barack Obama is in trouble. Many might have heard about the more recent controversy over his pastor. But at the same time he's dealing with questions about his association with Tony Rezko, who is currently on trial for fraud, money laundering and extortion.

So what do these associations mean in the big picture? If the press keeps ignoring them, not a whole lot. If the public pays attention, however, a whole lot more.

In life, associations matter. And most of the time, in politics they matter, also, if the press pays attention. Recently, Geraldine Ferraro resigned from the Hillary Clinton campaign because of comments that suggested that Obama was only as far as he was because he was black. Clinton immediately disavowed her comments. In college, if you are part of a Greek organization and you do something to bring shame onto that organization, you are either depledged or put on suspension depending on the situation.

But it seems that the press is so enamored of the idea of "making history" it has blinded them to the idea that he might not be any more than just a politician who is no different than any other politician out there. As much as he tries to deny how close of an association that he has to these people, information keeps coming out showing that he is, in fact, closer to these people than he lets on.

For example: Tony Reszko. Obama claimed that Reszko didn't raise that much money for his campaign. But more information comes out that he actually raised more money than initially reported. He is still trying to downplay his connection to him, claiming that he didn't know what Reszko was doing. Okay, it can be somewhat credible. However...

Jeremiah Wright is a different story. Now, Obama claims to not have been in church on the days that he gave his more controversial sermons -- such as the comments he made about "God Damn America" and "The U.S. of KKK-A." His sermons are divisive, blaming white people for all of the black people's ills. Obama has worked to distance himself from those sermons, but so far a lot of conservative blogs hare having a hard time buying it. He claims to not have been there for the most divisive sermons (although in at least one case he might have been telling the truth), said that he wasn't that close to him, and made excuses that Wright was retiring, anyway.

If you go on Wright's page, though, he lists as one of his spiritual mentees -- Barack Obama.

So, on the whole, Obama is about as credible as any other politician out there.