John Hinderaker wonders, "...how does a profane, corrupt moron become governor of one of our largest states?" He's talking about Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, who has just been indicted for putting President-elect Barack Obama's Senate seat up for sale.
Public interest will center, naturally, on the fact that it was Barack Obama's Senate seat that Blagojevich allegedly tried to sell. I don't think for a moment that Obama had anything to do with it, of course, for many reasons. Still, Obama's proximity to the scandal highlights a basic fact about his career: Obama's political career began, and was lived until very recently, in the very dirty pond of Chicago politics. It is quite remarkable that Obama has been able to emerge not only intact but ostensibly pristine from that political swamp. In part, this is because his history and associations have been too little scrutinized.
Today, Obama answered just one question, in his trademark stammer. He managed to get out these words: "I had no contact with the governor or his office and so we were not, I was not aware of what was happening."
But, as Jake Tapper points out, Obama's claim to have kept aloof from the Senate selection process was contradicted two weeks ago by his spokesman David Axelrod, who said:
I know he's talked to the governor and there are a whole range of names many of which have surfaced, and I think he has a fondness for a lot of them.
So already Obama has been caught in a contradiction.
Remember when everybody was talking about that Republican culture of corruption? Democrats have their own, but the media are less willing to talk about it. That fact may offer a clue into the mystery of how morons get elected. What happens when the media watchdogs turn out to be media advocates?
Here's another question: How does a communist illegal immigrant with a virtually blank resume become President of the United States?
Posted by: TX CHL Instructor | December 16, 2008 at 10:58 AM