Obama played hardball in first Chicago campaign: Used election rules to eliminate Dem competition

[DeepModem Mom]

CNN: Obama played hardball in first Chicago campaign
By Drew Griffin and Kathleen Johnston
CNN's AC 360°

....In his first race for office, seeking a state Senate seat on Chicago's gritty South Side in 1996, Obama effectively used election rules to eliminate his Democratic competition.

As a community organizer, he had helped register thousands of voters. But when it came time to run for office, he employed Chicago rules to invalidate the voting petition signatures of three of his challengers. The move denied each of them, including incumbent Alice Palmer, a longtime Chicago activist, a place on the ballot. It cleared the way for Obama to run unopposed on the Democratic ticket in a heavily Democrat district.

"That was Chicago politics," said John Kass, a veteran Chicago Tribune columnist. "Knock out your opposition, challenge their petitions, destroy your enemy, right? It is how Barack Obama destroyed his enemies back in 1996 that conflicts with his message today. He may have gotten his start registering thousands of voters. But in that first race, he made sure voters had just one choice."...

***

The Obama campaign called this report "a hit job." It insisted that CNN talk to a state representative who supports Obama, because, according to an Obama spokesman, she would be objective. But when we called her, she said she can't recall details of petition challenges, who engineered them for the Obama campaign or why all the candidates were challenged.

But Will Burns does. Now running himself for a seat in the Illinois legislature, Burns was a young Obama volunteer during the presidential candidate's first race. Burns was one of the contingents of volunteers and lawyers who had the tedious task of going over each and every petition submitted by the other candidates, including those of Alice Palmer....Burns said he believed that Obama did not enjoy using the tactic to knock off Palmer. "It was not something he particularly relished," Burns said. "It was not something that I thought he was happy about doing." But Obama did it anyway, clearing the field of any real competition....

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/05/29/obamas.first.campaign/index.html

[ensho]

1. I saw that too - talk about hard ball!

nt

[Waya]

2. So much for......

.this drivvel about Obama not knowing how to play the game. He knows damn well how to play the game - and he can apparently play it within the rules, use the rules and all in all, play it in his own way and better than the other side.

[DCKit]

9. Somehow, I'm not bothered at all.

When federal elections are being stolen, enforcement at the local level is our only remedy. Whose fault is it that Obama bothered to read and learn the rules and cause them to be enforced by whatever means?

We can't punish those responsible for 2000 and 2004 enough for what they've done to U.S. and the world.

We can only hope the lesson, as harsh and as horrible as it is, will marginalize the corporatists and neocons to the point of insignificance for decades to come.

[Lerkfish]

3. delete, my mistake

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=6173589&mesg_id=6173589

[DeepModem Mom]

4. Thanks, Lerkfish --

I think many know I'm a neutral poster of articles, and an Obama supporter. If this CNN article was posted in GDP, my apologies -- I don't hang out there much.

[Lerkfish]

5. nah, my apologies, I wasn't reading all the way through. I had

just seen 4 posts of exactly this same thing by pro-clinton supporters and was getting tired of it.

meh, I can make mistakes too.

[Triana]

6. He followed the RULES?! OMG!!

:sarcasm:

(Hi DMM!) :hi:

[DeepModem Mom]

8. Hi, T!!!

:hi:

[Vincardog]

7. SnewZ flash Obama plays by the rules. What exactly is the problem with this?

12 years of research and this is what they can come up with? Obama knows how to use the rules to his advantage? PLEASE