Barack Obama Will Never Be President

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Sunday, February 1, 2009

" Reviewing Obama's career in the Illinois Senate, a February 2007 article in the Washington Post noted his work with both Democrats and Republicans in drafting bipartisan legislation on ethics and health care reform.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama

Barack Obama

Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii to Barack Obama, Sr. (born in Nyanza Province, Kenya) and Ann Dunham (born in Wichita, Kansas). Barack Hussein Obama (born August 4, 1961) is the junior United States Senator from Illinois and a member of the Democratic Party.

Obama grew up in culturally diverse surroundings. He spent most of his childhood in the majority-minority U.S. state of Hawaii and lived for four years in Indonesia. Obama delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention while still an Illinois state legislator. Since announcing his candidacy in February 2007, Obama has emphasized ending the Iraq War and implementing universal health care as campaign themes.

As a member of the Democratic minority in the 109th Congress, Obama co-sponsored the enactment of conventional weapons control and transparency legislation, and made official trips to Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Obama's parents separated when he was two years old and later divorced. His father went to Harvard University to pursue Ph.D. studies, then returned to Kenya, where he died in an auto accident when the younger Obama was twenty-one years old.

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today's papers
A New Era In Iraq?
By Roger McShane
Posted Sunday, Feb. 1, 2009, at 6:03 AM ET

The New York Times leads with an upbeat report on Saturday's provincial elections in Iraq, where the U.S. is "already drifting offstage." Despite a decreased American presence on the ground, there were no confirmed deaths as Iraqis voted in 14 of the country's 18 provinces. The Los Angeles Times leads with Barack Obama preserving the CIA's authority to carry out renditions. Some intelligence officials think the tactic could play an expanded role in the war on terrorism, as other programs are dismantled. The Washington Post leads with news that Tom Daschle waited nearly a month after his cabinet nomination before telling Barack Obama about his tax problems.

The NYT is excited. The paper says yesterday's provincial elections in Iraq point to a "new era"; "the mood has changed"; "the world is not the same"; "whatever happens next, Iraq will not return to the way it was." But wait! "This is not to suggest that the war is over," adds the Times, suddenly remembering how unpredictable the country can be.

To continue reading, click here.

Roger McShane writes for the Economist online.

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Posted by Zephaniah Holwell at 4:09 AM  

Among his major accomplishments as a state legislator, Obama's U.S. Senate web site lists: "creating programs like the state Earned Income Tax Credit"; "an expansion of early childhood education"; and "legislation requiring the videotaping of interrogations and confessions in all capital cases. " Before the conference, 18 pro-life groups published an open letter stating, in reference to Obama's support for legal abortion: "In the strongest possible terms, we oppose Rick Warren's decision to ignore Senator Obama's clear pro-death stance and invite him to Saddleback Church anyway. " Film critic David Ehrenstein, writing in a March 2007 Los Angeles Times article, compares the cultural sources of candidate Obama's favorable polling among whites to those of "magical negro" roles played by black actors in Hollywood movies. In September 2006, Obama supported a related bill, the Secure Fence Act, authorizing construction of fencing and other security improvements along the United States–Mexico border. Finally, he spoke for national unity: The pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. 55 million for candidates he supports and his own 2010 re-election fund. Questioning the Bush administration's management of the Iraq War, Obama spoke of an enlisted Marine, Corporal Seamus Ahern from East Moline, Illinois, asking, "Are we serving Seamus as well as he is serving us?" He continued: When we send our young men and women into harm's way, we have a solemn obligation not to fudge the numbers or shade the truth about why they're going, to care for their families while they're gone, to tend to the soldiers upon their return, and to never, ever go to war without enough troops to win the war, secure the peace, and earn the respect of the world.

He used alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine during his teenage years, Obama writes, to "push questions of who I was out of my mind. Obama took an active role in the Senate's drive for improved border security and immigration reform.

But I've got news for them too.

S. 2611 passed the Senate in May 2006, but failed to gain majority support in the U.S. House of Representatives.



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