No paper trail on Obama: Judicial Watch
posted at 4:55 pm on March 26, 2008 by Ed Morrissey
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Imagine the disappointment of having a Freedom of Information Act effort, only to find that no data exists to acquire. Judicial Watch’s Tom Fitton has discovered the anticlimax of his efforts to gain access to the state legislative records of Barack Obama in Illinois. According to Fitton, they no longer exist, and may never have at all:
The president of a prominent watchdog group said Wednesday that he believes Democratic presidential frontrunner Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) “intended to leave no paper trail” during his time in the Illinois Senate. …
In a statement, Fitton noted that his group has sought access to Obama’s records as a state senator and questioned whether the presidential candidate has been forthcoming with regard to what happened to those documents.
However, he said that “nobody knows where they are, if they exist at all” and claimed that “Obama’s story keeps changing.”
This has come up before in the primary, pushed primarily by Hillary Clinton, whose oppo research team has also discovered the same frustrating lack of records about Obama’s work in the Illinois legislature. It could mean that Obama tried to hide his work, hoping to keep political opponents from unearthing ammunition in future elections. It could also mean that he didn’t do that much actual work, which would match his wafer-thin record of accomplishments in three years as US Senator.
It’s a double-edged sword for Obama. The lack of a track record allows him independence from prior positions, giving him the flexibility to argue whatever side of an issue gives him an advantage. It also makes him vulnerable to having opponents define him — or having his associations define him instead. If Obama had a solid legislative and/or executive track record, Tony Rezko and Jeremiah Wright wouldn’t have the impact that they do now.
It’s the cost of running as a cipher, and of running on ambiguous concepts of hope and change. Having what little records that should exist come up missing doesn’t help build confidence in a candidate’s credibility, either.
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Has anyone seen a birth certificate?
peacenprosperity on March 26, 2008 at 4:58 PM
Which is why I wonder others have taken so long to do this. He is a blank page that can be attached any position.
You back him into a corner and make him step out of it. Im sure he will do a slick wilie and wrap himself in social programs and argue “Lose me and you lose them”
The counter argument is to argue “Is that a big loss ?”
William Amos on March 26, 2008 at 5:01 PM
So you’re saying we could just make up things about his past and he couldn’t refute us?
Hmmmm, if only he had an opponent with a tendency to make things up.
pedestrian on March 26, 2008 at 5:03 PM
What could be more logical. An empty page for an empty suit.
MaiDee on March 26, 2008 at 5:07 PM
Heh and har
Ann on March 26, 2008 at 5:08 PM
Wouldn’t you think Obama would be furious that the records had been lost? If there were records, I mean.
Dusty on March 26, 2008 at 5:10 PM
The Manchrians thought of everything.
mymanpotsandpans on March 26, 2008 at 5:12 PM
Or Manchurians. (Did you mean Munchkins?)
mymanpotsandpans on March 26, 2008 at 5:12 PM
Obama has succeeded by being a blank slate for people to write their fond wishes on and see his agreement with them. The situations with Rezko and Wright have played out with progressive retraction of denials as more information leaked, not in anything forthcoming, to limit the damage to the blank slate.
Michelle’s recent absence from providing her “candor” about America are part of the same tactic.
People are now beginning to see the charade, and the lack of a clear track record will be damaging as more information leaks, legitimate questions are asked and Mr. Slick gets pinned down in specifics, or evades. He is good at evasion but not as good as W. Clinton, and is without a record anyone can point to. Either way the missiles are going to lock on and keep hitting him.
fool me once, shame on thee. Fool me twice, shame on me. At least some of those who fell so hard for the fakery are going to snap back hard when and if they awake.
Harry Schell on March 26, 2008 at 5:14 PM
Excellent point.
baldilocks on March 26, 2008 at 5:15 PM
Holy crud, he’s Yuri!
[snicker]
Meryl Yourish on March 26, 2008 at 5:16 PM
But he’s for hope and change? He’s got that great smile. And man, have you heard him read from a telepropter?
cannonball on March 26, 2008 at 5:18 PM
Apparently he did learn something at Harvard Law School….leave no evidence behind.
David in ATL on March 26, 2008 at 5:18 PM
But he’s for hope and change!!! He’s got that great smile. And man, have you heard him read from a telepropter?
cannonball on March 26, 2008 at 5:18 PM
Is that anything like a helicropter?
peacenprosperity on March 26, 2008 at 5:23 PM
Wow. What a perfect politician. Now we know what we had suspected. All style. NO SUBSTANCE.
Dr.Cwac.Cwac on March 26, 2008 at 5:24 PM
How do you hide nothing?
fogw on March 26, 2008 at 5:26 PM
Perhaps the papers are stored in his crazy uncle’s attic.
scatbug on March 26, 2008 at 5:36 PM
No, that’s “teleporter”. How else would he leave no record?
NeighborhoodCatLady on March 26, 2008 at 5:41 PM
Live Birth Abortion, wheaatchu talk’n bout willis. There’s not record of that.
ninjapirate on March 26, 2008 at 5:42 PM
Whitewash!
Chakra Hammer on March 26, 2008 at 5:43 PM
The question is whether Obama will survive to win the nomination. With the Clinton cabal, as well as the vast right wing conspiracy trading body blows on Obama, it is only a matter of time before an upper cut is landed. Will Obama survive the standing eight count. I saw no he won’t. Obama is the emptiest suit I have ever seen. None of his supporters can name any accomplishments, so they talk of hope and change. I am not buying the recent polls from here in NC. I said Hillary by five percent in NC last week, and I am sticking to it. Two thumbs down to the Rev here in Greensboro, regardless of race, or political party. Not sure how many turned out for today’s Obama rally in G’boro. I was not one of them.
chief on March 26, 2008 at 5:56 PM
A paper trail is a racist construct of the White Man!
Master Shake on March 26, 2008 at 5:56 PM
It is all part of the vast right wing conspiracy!!!!
SoCalInfidel on March 26, 2008 at 6:04 PM
And this is a surprise! Hey, the guy voted “PRESENT” on 130 different occasions when proposed legislation was being voted on in Illinois. His accomplishments in the US Senate are on a par with his previous track record. There is also the story going around about his hijacking the legislation of other black lawmakers while in the state legislature in order to pad his resume of “accomplishments”.
Sounds like a real LEADER.
The guy’s an empty suit. All style, no substance.
GarandFan on March 26, 2008 at 6:09 PM
Deciphering Obama isn’t hard to do.
The “change” he wants to make is:
Obama’s US senate record is the most socialist of any senator, including that of self-described democratic socialist Bernard “Bernie” Sanders, the current junior US Senator from Vermont.
Obama’s own speeches reveal his true intent, which is to “inspire” race conflict, class conflict, gender conflict, and revolution. Don’t believe it? Read this.
Also consider this…Obama has already shown that he can’t handle live interviews. He only performs well when he is reading a speech that has been carefully prepared by his handlers. Realize that every single word in his speeches is chosen carefully, for maximum impact. Now, given Obama’s past connections with people who bombed buildings (the weathermen/weather underground), isn’t it interesting that the word “bomber” was very creatively worked into his speech “A More Perfect Union” delivered Tuesday March 18, 2008?
I realize some of you think that’s taking things too far, but it was a conscious decision by Obama’s speech writers to put that word there. The sentence would have worked fine without it. I think that’s a “ciper” or “code word” to those in the know.
The change Obama wants would not be peaceful…he wants a communist revolution, USA.
Hillary isn’t much better. The main difference between Clinton and Obama is that Clinton had to vote on war issues from 2001-2004, while Obama has the luxury of not having had to. He can say he was always against the war, but if he had had to vote on war in the aftermath of 9/11, when public opinion was in favor of war, he probably would have been forced to support it, too.
Unfortunately, McCain isn’t much better, either. Compare McCain’s senate record with the Program of the Communist Party USA:
As things stand right now, we have a choice of three socialists/communists. Isn’t that special?
Wake up, Neo…
Red Pill on March 26, 2008 at 6:14 PM
HAHA.
Theworldisnotenough on March 26, 2008 at 6:15 PM
Not only did Obama vote “present” on 130 occasions in the Illinois Senate, but it’s also been reported that he cast the “wrong” vote (i.e. he voted the opposite of the way he said he intended to vote) on six occasions. Either the voting machines in the Illinois legislature are way too complicated for the average Harvard Law grad to figure out, or this guy is too careless and/or dumb to be President.
AZCoyote on March 26, 2008 at 6:18 PM
He is Ninja.
29Victor on March 26, 2008 at 6:20 PM
Wouldn’t it be great if Obama turned out to be figure of Democratic imaginings and is really not there!
jeanie on March 26, 2008 at 6:24 PM
You know, I’ve thought long and hard about Hillary Clinton’s “vast right-wing conspiracy” comment…
I am about as right-wing as they come. I am part of what the Communist Party USA calls “the Ultra-Right”. If you are a “Reagan Republican”, then they consider you “Ultra-Right”, too. They (the Communist Party USA) have a strategy for “Deating the Ultra-Right”. So far this election cycle, their strategy appears to be working.
Now, if there really was a “vast right-wing conspiracy”, I for one should know about it. So why does Hillary think there is one? Could it be because she is “projecting” on us the very thing that is true about her? The link I have provided above sure seems like evidence of a “vast left-wing conspiracy”, don’t you think?
Red Pill on March 26, 2008 at 6:31 PM
Can’t make a mistake if you do nothin…as my daddy tol me.
right2bright on March 26, 2008 at 6:49 PM
Everything that you point out has credibility, Red Pill, as do the remarks of other commenters here.
The problem is that none of this information is out in the public, where such knowledge might have an impact on voters.
More disturbing information about Obama’s “ethnic problem” and champions in TUCC in today’s (3/26) “Best of the Web” at http://www.opinionjournal.com.
onlineanalyst on March 26, 2008 at 6:49 PM
His record is whatever he damn well says it is. Move on people.
Sugar Land on March 26, 2008 at 7:23 PM
“Never write when you can speak, never speak when you can nod, never nod when you can wink.” —attributed to New York mobster.
MrLynn on March 26, 2008 at 8:06 PM
I don’t think one should accuse him of all sorts of crap in terms of breaking the law or something. However, if there’s no record then there’s no candidate.
freevillage on March 26, 2008 at 8:24 PM
He’s working with the Grays!
- The Cat
MirCat on March 26, 2008 at 9:24 PM
I’m not much for conspiracy talk, but the guys pushing the “Manchurian Candidate” meme get a big bump on this news.
Jaibones on March 26, 2008 at 10:34 PM
Doubt that McCain would make use of this but this does leave him as a punching bag for a campaign..
McCain or one of his cronies can say that BO wants to shut down the economy by [reason A] if BO doesn’t respond,
say that BO wants to do this.. [even if it's embellished or romanticized bit but something close to what BO has said in the past]
keep up the attack until BO starts to defend himself..
McCain can’t let his guard down for a second..
.
Also, I am not sure on his last term when he ran for reelection but when I lived in Arizona, I don’t believe he had too many contested elections for his seat.. once was the former governor of Arizona, Evan Mechum..
DaveC on March 26, 2008 at 11:41 PM
Ed, I don’t agree with this at all.
Jeremiah Wright (and Obama’s wife) reveal what his core beliefs are and what lies in his heart. It would be an issue no matter how much more or less we knew about him. It is not about a few sermons that he may or may not have been present for. It is about a “church” which practices Black Liberation “theology”, which is racist and anti-American to the core, and does things like sell books about the Nation of Islam and Black Panthers in its bookstore.
Barack cannot pretend he did not know this, and indeed he has clearly embraced BLT as a guiding principle for his life (along with views of his Communist poet mentor Frank Davis).
I’m getting a little irritated by some of the Captain’s commentary on Barack and his Marxist preacher and mentor, particularly when we are asked to absorb some responsibility on race relations, “reflect” and so forth.
Now taking that a step further and dismissing this as an issue that only concerns us because there is nothing else to see diminishes how vitally important this issue is.
Buy Danish on March 27, 2008 at 8:27 AM
He got elected, then almost immediately started evaluating a presidential bid. The guy has done nothing, and continues to do nothing, for the state of Illinois, prefering to vote “present” on controversial issues.
bspoogeferd on March 27, 2008 at 10:13 AM
“Hmmmm, if only he had an opponent with a tendency to make things up.”…and had a tendency to embellish or lie thru his teeth.
pedestrian on March 26, 2008 at 5:03 PM
Christine on March 27, 2008 at 12:28 PM
The Palestinians voted Hamas into control of the PA parliament. The voters knew that Hamas would bring them more death, poorer conditions, and potential for war. However, FATAH was so bad that Hamas could pound them in campaigns to make themselves look like the saviors.
Conditions like this are in play in the United States. There is huge animosity towards the Congress, a little less than that towards the White House, great contempt for the two political parties, and therefore market conditions exist for Obama to pledge nothing specific but still carry a great deal of support closing out the party nomination process.
It’s very strange that there is little to no paper trail on Obama. Much of the reporting on his past is based on his own books. Umm, problem anyone? NY Times? WaPo? Are you investigating Obama’s claims?
gabriel sutherland on March 27, 2008 at 2:44 PM