"Obama Avoided Key Votes and Oprah Supported The War"

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Sun Dec-09-07 09:39 PM
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"Obama Avoided Key Votes and Oprah Supported The War"

By Jan McElroy December 9, 07 12:13 PM NH Blogger
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/primaryvoices/2007/12/obama_avoids_key_votes_and_opr.html

"Barack Obama continues to condemn Hillary Clinton and all the other Democratic candidates for their Iraq vote claiming he was against it from the beginning. But he wasn't even in the Senate then. He didn't have to vote. He was at home in Illinois as a soon-to-be-elected newbie Senator and hadn't yet actually set foot in the Senate. At the same time his friend Oprah was hosting surrogates from the Bush/Cheney administration allowing them to beat the drums of war, selling their stories about Saddam Hussein having connections to Al Qaeda and 9/11 and accusing him of having weapons of mass destruction (WMD) to use against America. As shown on PBS's Bill Moyer's Journal in the story "Buying the War," when a women in the audience questioned their information by simply stating "I don't know what to believe." Oprah cut her short by saying, "We're not trying to propagandize, we are just showing you what is." And in a curt sarcastic tone designed to ridicule the questioner for challenging the administration's view, Oparah angrily added, "You have a right to your opinion," which draw a laugh from the audience. It wasn't funny, as she was acting as an enforcer for the attitude sweeping the country that if you didn't buy into their pro-war scenario, you were anti-American and unpatriotic for doing so.

If Obama had had to vote in the U.S. Senate, I would guarantee you, he would have voted with most of the other Democrats in a set-up by Bush that was scheduled right before the November elctions to force Democrats into a vote they could not refuse without being branded as unpatriotic or worse.

Obama wasn't courageous to take his position, he faced no risk. He didn't have to vote as a member of the senate--a fact he cheerfully leaves out of his statements, which leaves the listener assuming he was.

As for his integrity, courage and dedication to his position in the Senate, there were two important votes since he joined the Senate that required these characteristics: One, to condemn MoveOn.org for its ad on General Petrueas and two, the vote on the Iran Resolution. Obama was AWOL on both of these votes. His excuse was: he was campaigning. I have news for you, so were the other Senators running for the White House, and they made it back for the votes. And yet he stoops to criticize them for their positions, while he takes a free pass. He is not courageous; he is a coward, who talks the game, but won't vote the hard vote. And now, he is using Oprah, who was one of the media facilitators to the war in Iraq, to shill for him so he can draw votes from women and blacks, since Hillary is doing better with both groups than he is. He has shown no leadership, only the ability to avoid the real tests and make big noises about it."