Barack In The Day - Willamette Week Portland Oregon

[Danieljay]

http://wweek.com/editorial/3418/10516/

Interesting article. I'm not quite sure how to take it. Its a repost from an article originally published in the Houston Press. Was surprised to see it, not a flattering picture.


:snip

Chris Matthews, the MSNBC political pundit, recently grilled Texas state Sen. Kirk Watson for supporting Obama despite knowing nothing about the candidate’s legislative record.

“Can you name any—can you name anything he’s accomplished?” Matthews pressed.

“No,” Watson, whose district includes Austin, finally admitted. “I’m not gonna be able to do that.”

“Well, that’s a problem, isn’t it?” Matthews said.

When asked about his legislative record, Obama rattles off several bills he sponsored as an Illinois lawmaker.

He expanded children’s health insurance, made the state Earned Income Tax Credit refundable for low-income families, required public bodies to tape closed-door meetings to make government more transparent, and required police to videotape interrogations of homicide suspects.

And the list goes on.

He expanded children’s health insurance, made the state Earned Income Tax Credit refundable for low-income families, required public bodies to tape closed-door meetings to make government more transparent, and required police to videotape interrogations of homicide suspects.

And the list goes on.

It’s a lengthy record filled with core liberal issues. But what’s interesting, and almost never discussed, is that he built his entire legislative record in Illinois in a single year.

Republicans controlled the Illinois General Assembly for six years of Obama’s seven-year tenure. Each session, Obama backed legislation that went nowhere; bill after bill died in committee. During those six years, Obama, too, would have had difficulty naming any legislative achievements.

:snip:

[grantcart]

1. this guy is not a serious reporter. He normally 'reports' for a neighborhood

weekly that runs stories on what's happening in the soccer league. He harbors some personal grudge against Obama. This has been cycled around here several times already.

[Danieljay]

2. I was wondering who he was, just a bit surprised to see it run in Willamette Week.

I'm planning on voting for Obama in the general. Though he does lack experience, I think with a strong running mate he'll be a great president.

Hillary frightens me, especially after all the negative campaigning. I'm just not sure I could vote for her after how she's allowed her campaign to stoop to Rovian tactics.

[grantcart]

5. When I googled him all he had were "park ridge opens new park" type stories

I had a very similar view. When I see how efficiently he runs his campaign and the more I listened to him, the more I realised that all of those years in community organizing, dealing with the real problems of real persons, many of them working poor ended up being a better preparation than sitting in Senate committee rooms talking about the working poor.

It ironically parallels the kind of grassroots experience that Lincoln had when he spent years just going around Illinois as a poor district lawyer. (In those days the Judge and the attorneys went around to the different towns on a schedule)

[GarbagemanLB]

3. Wow, they put this on the FRONT page of WW? I'm glad I don't buy that rag often.

[eeyore]

4. Ummm....The WW is a free paper

It may be a rag, but at least it's free. Check ad rates sometime and you'll find out how they can keep it free.