Michael Gaynor
Obama's a revolutionary and beatable in 2012
By Michael Gaynor
Obama wants to keep looking ahead, because his past may be catching up to him.
ACORN founder and chief organizer from 1970 to 2008 Wade Rathke candidly titled a recent post "Community Organizing is a Revolutionary Tool" (http://chieforganizer.org/2011/02/27/community-organizing-is-a-revolutionary-tool/) highlights a mistake in Sarah Palin's memorable Republican vice presidential nomination acceptance speech, treating Obama's community organizing as akin to being a small-town mayor without responsibilities.
Palin, a former mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, said: "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a "community organizer," except that you have actual responsibilities.
Rathke is much more familiar with community organizing (and Obama) than Palin was and now he's essentially admitted that community organizers like Barack Obama are revolutionaries, not small-town mayor wannabes.
Rathke: "I retweeted something last week where someone had said, 'Glenn Beck takes the left more seriously than anyone else,' or words to that affect, simply because it was true. For all of his buffoonery and conspiracy theories, Beck is on to something: he knows community organizing is serious business, and he knows that it threatens the status quo. Liberals make the mistake of simply seeing community organizing as nice, harmless civic participation, which is also true, but only part of the story, which is why in the assault on ACORN they often drew the line inaccurately at form, rather than recognizing that the substance of the attack was deeply targeted at substance, and as it turned out the very right of a mass-based, socially responsive, politically active membership organization of low-and-moderate income families to even exist. It wasn't then and isn't now a question of the name, but the very game itself."
The way Rathke played "the game" helped enable Obama to move into the White House.
As I reported in late October 2008 (www.webcommentary.com/php/ShowArticle.php?id=gaynorm&date=081029):
"Zach Polett, former Executive Director of Project Vote and former director of ACORN Political Operations mentioned that Obama had worked for us and that he even supervised him during a ACORN Political staff retreat in November 2007 (based on direct knowledge).
"Obama in the last presidential debate: 'My only involvement I've had with ACORN was I represented them alongside the U.S. Justice Department in making Illinois implement a motor voter law that helped people get registered at DMVs.'
"That's a lie, not a fact.
"Yes, Obama represented ACORN in that lawsuit and the Clinton Justice Department predictably sided with ACORN.
"But that was NOT Obama's only involvement with ACORN.
"And Obama looked into the camera during the last presidential debate and flat out lied to the American people about it (in his calm, seemingly non-threatening manner).
"ACORN is the organization with which Obama has been associated throughout his adult life, as organizer, trainer, lawyer, funder and political beneficiary...and Obama's Achilles heel."
If you doubt, ponderthis quote from Obama that appeared on his presidential campaign web site in 2008: 'I've been fighting alongside ACORN on issues you care about my entire career. Even before I was an elected official, when I ran Project Vote voter registration drive in Illinois, ACORN was smack dab in the middle of it, and we appreciate your work."
Obama definitely should appreciate ACORN!
There is an effort underway to make ACORn favorite Barack Obama the favorite, if not unbeatable, in the 2012 presidential election.
This is an attempt to transform Team Obama wishful thinking into a fait accompli and, ironically, some Republicans are helping for their own reasons.
Jonathan Martin, "GOP reality check: Obama looking tougher to beat in 2012" (www.politico.com/news/stories/0211/50308.html):
"Just four months after posting historic election gains, Republicans are experiencing a reality check about 2012: President Barack Obama is going to be a lot tougher to defeat than he looked late last year.
"Having gone from despondency in 2008 to euphoria last November, a more sober GOP is wincing in the light of day as they consider just how difficult unseating an incumbent president with a massive warchest is going to be, even with a still-dismal economy.
"'I consider him a favorite, albeit a slight favorite,' said former George W. Bush adviser Karl Rove. 'Republicans underestimate President Obama at their own peril.'
"Much of the GOP realism is rooted in a long-standing truism of American politics — that absent a major crisis of confidence, it's highly difficult to defeat a sitting president.
"But aside from the traditional advantages of incumbency, Republicans are also fretting about the strength of Obama's campaign infrastructure, the potential limitations of their own field and, particularly, the same demographic weaknesses that haunted them in 2008.
"The best indicator of the GOP outlook on 2012 may be the shape of the party's prospective field. Many of the contenders who can afford to sit out a presidential election cycle and wait for an open-seat race — Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush come to mind — seem intent on doing so."
Martin conceded that all hope is not lost, but offered relatively little of it:
"The view among senior Republicans is not that Obama is a sure bet or that the GOP nomination is not worth having. Many are convinced 2012 will be more competitive than 2008 and that the White House can still be won.
"But there is an unmistakable sense among Republicans that the breezy predictions of Obama turning out to be the next Jimmy Carter were premature.
"'The people that are sitting around saying, "He's definitely going to be a one-term president. It's going to be easy to take him out," they're obviously political illiterates — political idiots, let me be blunt,' said former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in an interview."
I'll be blunt too: Obama will be a one-term president, IF Republicans stop treating him as a wonderful fellow with whom they have policy differences and being afraid to expose his lies and radical ties.
Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee: "You just don't go against a billion-dollar mountain of money, a guy who's already won the presidency once — but he gets to fly in on Air Force One and make all his campaign stops with the trappings of the office."
Do America a favor and don't run, Huck!
United States Senator John Thune of South Dakota: "As I observed his response and reaction to the midterm election, that was all part of my assessment of the landscape. Any incumbent is a tough race, and he's no exception. I think he's got plenty of vulnerabilities, but I also observed how adept politically he was."
That should have inspired you TO run, not to pass, Senator Thune!
The key to beating Obama is exposing those vulnerabilities, no passing on running against him.
Martin mentioned "structural advantages that helped lift Obama three years ago" and "nagging difficulties at the polls with minority voters and youths" facing Republicans.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt beat incumbent Herbert Hoover in the 1932 presidential election and Ronald Reagan beat incumbent Jimmy Carter in the 1980 presidential election. Incumbent presidents are NOT unbeatable.
Black voters were all but unanimous for Obama in 2008 and Hispanics voted overwhelmingly. But that was after Obama said that he believe marriage was a union between a man and a woman at the Saddlebrook Forum and Obama just decided that his administration won't defend the Defense of Marriage Act.
Blacks and Hispanics don't want to be conned any less than anyone else.
Exposing Obama and defending the traditional America values shared by Blacks and Hispanics will make Obama a one-term president.
Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.): "The electorate will look much different in 2012 than it did in 2010. It's going to be younger, browner, and more to the left."
Younger and browner, yes, but only more to the left if the truth about the left is not exposed.
the problem is not the age or color of the electorate, but the ignorance of the electorate about Obama.
Conservatives need to recall that the Left did not take the position that Richard Nixon was a nice guy with whom it had policy differences. The Left took the position that Nixon was a bad guy, a crook, but it did not convince the American people until after Nixon was re-elected in 1972.
The truth about Obama could have kept him from being elected in 2008, and it can keep him from being re-elected in 2012.
It's a matter of showing the American people what has been concealed from them.
And Obama's presidency to date has made the American people more receptive to the truth.
Baseball star Satchel Page famously said, "Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you."
Obama wants everyone looking ahead, because his past may be catching up to him.
© Michael Gaynor
March 1, 2011
Obama wants to keep looking ahead, because his past may be catching up to him.
ACORN founder and chief organizer from 1970 to 2008 Wade Rathke candidly titled a recent post "Community Organizing is a Revolutionary Tool" (http://chieforganizer.org/2011/02/27/community-organizing-is-a-revolutionary-tool/) highlights a mistake in Sarah Palin's memorable Republican vice presidential nomination acceptance speech, treating Obama's community organizing as akin to being a small-town mayor without responsibilities.
Palin, a former mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, said: "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a "community organizer," except that you have actual responsibilities.
Rathke is much more familiar with community organizing (and Obama) than Palin was and now he's essentially admitted that community organizers like Barack Obama are revolutionaries, not small-town mayor wannabes.
Rathke: "I retweeted something last week where someone had said, 'Glenn Beck takes the left more seriously than anyone else,' or words to that affect, simply because it was true. For all of his buffoonery and conspiracy theories, Beck is on to something: he knows community organizing is serious business, and he knows that it threatens the status quo. Liberals make the mistake of simply seeing community organizing as nice, harmless civic participation, which is also true, but only part of the story, which is why in the assault on ACORN they often drew the line inaccurately at form, rather than recognizing that the substance of the attack was deeply targeted at substance, and as it turned out the very right of a mass-based, socially responsive, politically active membership organization of low-and-moderate income families to even exist. It wasn't then and isn't now a question of the name, but the very game itself."
The way Rathke played "the game" helped enable Obama to move into the White House.
As I reported in late October 2008 (www.webcommentary.com/php/ShowArticle.php?id=gaynorm&date=081029):
"Zach Polett, former Executive Director of Project Vote and former director of ACORN Political Operations mentioned that Obama had worked for us and that he even supervised him during a ACORN Political staff retreat in November 2007 (based on direct knowledge).
"Obama in the last presidential debate: 'My only involvement I've had with ACORN was I represented them alongside the U.S. Justice Department in making Illinois implement a motor voter law that helped people get registered at DMVs.'
"That's a lie, not a fact.
"Yes, Obama represented ACORN in that lawsuit and the Clinton Justice Department predictably sided with ACORN.
"But that was NOT Obama's only involvement with ACORN.
"And Obama looked into the camera during the last presidential debate and flat out lied to the American people about it (in his calm, seemingly non-threatening manner).
"ACORN is the organization with which Obama has been associated throughout his adult life, as organizer, trainer, lawyer, funder and political beneficiary...and Obama's Achilles heel."
If you doubt, ponderthis quote from Obama that appeared on his presidential campaign web site in 2008: 'I've been fighting alongside ACORN on issues you care about my entire career. Even before I was an elected official, when I ran Project Vote voter registration drive in Illinois, ACORN was smack dab in the middle of it, and we appreciate your work."
Obama definitely should appreciate ACORN!
There is an effort underway to make ACORn favorite Barack Obama the favorite, if not unbeatable, in the 2012 presidential election.
This is an attempt to transform Team Obama wishful thinking into a fait accompli and, ironically, some Republicans are helping for their own reasons.
Jonathan Martin, "GOP reality check: Obama looking tougher to beat in 2012" (www.politico.com/news/stories/0211/50308.html):
"Just four months after posting historic election gains, Republicans are experiencing a reality check about 2012: President Barack Obama is going to be a lot tougher to defeat than he looked late last year.
"Having gone from despondency in 2008 to euphoria last November, a more sober GOP is wincing in the light of day as they consider just how difficult unseating an incumbent president with a massive warchest is going to be, even with a still-dismal economy.
"'I consider him a favorite, albeit a slight favorite,' said former George W. Bush adviser Karl Rove. 'Republicans underestimate President Obama at their own peril.'
"Much of the GOP realism is rooted in a long-standing truism of American politics — that absent a major crisis of confidence, it's highly difficult to defeat a sitting president.
"But aside from the traditional advantages of incumbency, Republicans are also fretting about the strength of Obama's campaign infrastructure, the potential limitations of their own field and, particularly, the same demographic weaknesses that haunted them in 2008.
"The best indicator of the GOP outlook on 2012 may be the shape of the party's prospective field. Many of the contenders who can afford to sit out a presidential election cycle and wait for an open-seat race — Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush come to mind — seem intent on doing so."
Martin conceded that all hope is not lost, but offered relatively little of it:
"The view among senior Republicans is not that Obama is a sure bet or that the GOP nomination is not worth having. Many are convinced 2012 will be more competitive than 2008 and that the White House can still be won.
"But there is an unmistakable sense among Republicans that the breezy predictions of Obama turning out to be the next Jimmy Carter were premature.
"'The people that are sitting around saying, "He's definitely going to be a one-term president. It's going to be easy to take him out," they're obviously political illiterates — political idiots, let me be blunt,' said former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in an interview."
I'll be blunt too: Obama will be a one-term president, IF Republicans stop treating him as a wonderful fellow with whom they have policy differences and being afraid to expose his lies and radical ties.
Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee: "You just don't go against a billion-dollar mountain of money, a guy who's already won the presidency once — but he gets to fly in on Air Force One and make all his campaign stops with the trappings of the office."
Do America a favor and don't run, Huck!
United States Senator John Thune of South Dakota: "As I observed his response and reaction to the midterm election, that was all part of my assessment of the landscape. Any incumbent is a tough race, and he's no exception. I think he's got plenty of vulnerabilities, but I also observed how adept politically he was."
That should have inspired you TO run, not to pass, Senator Thune!
The key to beating Obama is exposing those vulnerabilities, no passing on running against him.
Martin mentioned "structural advantages that helped lift Obama three years ago" and "nagging difficulties at the polls with minority voters and youths" facing Republicans.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt beat incumbent Herbert Hoover in the 1932 presidential election and Ronald Reagan beat incumbent Jimmy Carter in the 1980 presidential election. Incumbent presidents are NOT unbeatable.
Black voters were all but unanimous for Obama in 2008 and Hispanics voted overwhelmingly. But that was after Obama said that he believe marriage was a union between a man and a woman at the Saddlebrook Forum and Obama just decided that his administration won't defend the Defense of Marriage Act.
Blacks and Hispanics don't want to be conned any less than anyone else.
Exposing Obama and defending the traditional America values shared by Blacks and Hispanics will make Obama a one-term president.
Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.): "The electorate will look much different in 2012 than it did in 2010. It's going to be younger, browner, and more to the left."
Younger and browner, yes, but only more to the left if the truth about the left is not exposed.
the problem is not the age or color of the electorate, but the ignorance of the electorate about Obama.
Conservatives need to recall that the Left did not take the position that Richard Nixon was a nice guy with whom it had policy differences. The Left took the position that Nixon was a bad guy, a crook, but it did not convince the American people until after Nixon was re-elected in 1972.
The truth about Obama could have kept him from being elected in 2008, and it can keep him from being re-elected in 2012.
It's a matter of showing the American people what has been concealed from them.
And Obama's presidency to date has made the American people more receptive to the truth.
Baseball star Satchel Page famously said, "Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you."
Obama wants everyone looking ahead, because his past may be catching up to him.
© Michael Gaynor
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
