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Answering the Rumors About Obama |
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Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign for president is based on working-family values and important issues like health care, jobs and fair trade. Naturally, the right-wing rumor machine has been hard at work to change the subject, by making outlandish claims aimed at dividing and distracting us. The AFL-CIO is working hard to counter the rumors and lies leveled at Obama and keep the election focused on working people’s lives.
In a new mailer we’re sending to thousands of union households in key states, the AFL-CIO is taking on the rumors directly, giving straight answers to the questions people have about Obama. The mailers are attracting positive media attention, and bloggers are praising them as, as the Jed Report puts it, “the most effective anti-smear message of the campaign.”
In his most recent Out Front column, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney takes a look at five of the most persistent manufactured rumors about Obama.
1) Does Obama wear a flag pin on his lapel?
Yes, but not always. Like many presidential candidates, sometimes he wears a flag pin, sometimes he wears a breast cancer awareness pin, sometimes he wears his U.S. Senate membership pin and other times he wears no pin at all. (Rutenberg, Jim and Zeleny, Jeff. “The Politics of the Lapel, When It Comes to Obama,” The New York Times, 5/15/08)
2) Is Obama a Christian?
Yes. He is a committed Christian. In 1985, he began working as a community organizer with a Christian church-based group seeking to improve the living conditions in poor Chicago neighborhoods. (Pulliam, Sarah and Olsen, Ted. “Q&A: Barack Obama,” Christianity Today, 1/23/08)
3) Was Obama sworn in on a Bible?
Yes. Barack Obama took the oath of office on his personal family Bible. (It was U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison from Minnesota who was sworn in on the Quran.) (Fiore, Faye. “He’s the Hill’s King for a Day, but Senate Has Other Plans,” Los Angeles Times, 1/5/05)
4) Was Obama born in America?
Yes. Barack Obama’s birth certificate shows he was born in Honolulu on Aug. 4, 1961, at 7:24 p.m. (Malcolm, Andrew. “Barack Obama’s Birth Certificate Revealed Here,” LATimes.com, 6/16/08)
5) Does Obama place his hand over his heart when he says the pledge of allegiance?
Yes. Barack Obama always places his hand over his heart during the pledge of allegiance. (Dobbs, Michael. “Obama Nabbed by the Patriot Police,” WashingtonPost.com, 11/2/07)
Now, with those rumors out of the way, let’s get back to what matters. Barack Obama will work for working families. Find out more at www.MeetObama08.org.
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Paid for by the AFL-CIO Committee on Political Education Political Contributions Committee, www.aflcio.org, and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.
5 Comments
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Answering these most trivial questions of the right wing does not, in fact, reveal anything about Obama’s actual positions on the issues. Obama is not, in fact,
supportive of the substantive “change” critically essential for the survival of working people today.
Here are several recent articles that cut through the Obama hype.
Democratic candidate in Berlin
Obama demands Europe send more troops to Afghanistan
By Stefan Steinberg
26 July 2008
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/jul2008/berl-j26.shtml
Barack Obama’s speech before an audience of some 200,000 in Berlin was a
reactionary affirmation of Cold War anti-communism and an attempt to
promote the new framework for US imperialist militarism and aggression,
the so-called “global war on terror.”
And the following article:
Obama promotes wider war in Afghanistan: Another presidential race
between pro-war candidates
By Jerry White
25 July 2008
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/jul2008/obaw-j25.shtml
“…
Once again, a US presidential election will take place in which the
broad antiwar sentiment of the population is ignored and the majority of
American people who oppose wars of aggression are disenfranchised.
Instead, voters will be confronted with two candidates—Barack Obama and
his Republican opponent John McCain—whose discernable foreign policy
differences reflect tactical disputes over US imperialist policy,
centering on where American military violence should be focused.
…”
Ideally the labor movement would dump the Democrats, form it’s own party
and own platform to represent the needs of all working people in this country.
But I heard that he doesn’t put his pants on one leg at a time and that strange sounds can be heard coming from his basement in the middle of the night. What’s he building in there?
Be afraid, be VERY afraid….
This is all well and good. However, it does not change this truth: Obama listened to the hate speech of ‘Rev.’ Wright for twenty years. Obama claimed the ‘good’ reverend as his spiritual mentor. Then when the ‘hate speech’ was made public Obama claimed that Rev. Wright ‘of today’ is not the same man he knew. To that I say: BULL! Any intelligent human being knows full well Wright is the same man he’s always been. He’s exactly the same man Obama listened to week after week in his church.
How sad it is that the American electorate would rely on vicious lies and trivial stupidity to determine if a candidate should be their president! I for one do not agree 100% with Obama, after all he is not perfect. However he has my vote because I believe he will listen to the people and he at least 1,000 times better than McSame!
I would urge that all trade unionists stop trying to find excuses for their bigoted attitudes and give Obama the chance he deserves. No one had a sleazier record than Bush, yet far too many union members voted for the s.o.b. just because he claimed to be “Christian.” No real Christian would have began an illegal, immoral, unjustified war as G.W. did!
There are those who cling to hatred and fear as tightly as they, hypocritically, clasp their Bibles and guns. For some strange reason, it comforts them. Such fear mongers are going on a selling spree promoting bargains on fools’ gold. Tragically, too many will buy what they’re pushing with the only vote they get. What really kills me is; after these poor souls squander their vote away, only later to discover they got ripped off; they will still blame the Democrats. (For not having sufficiently warned them of their folly, of course; Four years from now, the same people will return to the same folly, like a dog to his vomit) It is unfortunate that ALL of Labor can’t seem to support OUR endorsed candidate. But then again; not ALL Union Members support work stoppages when strikes are voted for. I tend to lump ALL these non-supportive folks into the same self-righteous category: parasites.
In light of McCain’s recent decision to go negative on Obama, here are…
10 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT John McCain (but probably don’t…I even sourced these facts for you):
1. John McCain voted against establishing a national holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Now he says his position has “evolved,” yet he’s continued to oppose key civil rights laws.1
2. According to Bloomberg News, McCain is more hawkish than Bush on Iraq, Russia and China. Conservative columnist Pat Buchanan says McCain “will make Cheney look like Gandhi.”2
3. His reputation is built on his opposition to torture, but McCain voted against a bill to ban waterboarding, and then applauded President Bush for vetoing that ban.3
4. McCain opposes a woman’s right to choose. He said, “I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned.”4
5. The Children’s Defense Fund rated McCain as the worst senator in Congress for children. He voted against the children’s health care bill last year, then defended Bush’s veto of the bill.5
6. He’s one of the richest people in a Senate filled with millionaires. The Associated Press reports he and his wife own at least eight homes! Yet McCain says the solution to the housing crisis is for people facing foreclosure to get a “second job” and skip their vacations.6
7. Many of McCain’s fellow Republican senators say he’s too reckless to be commander in chief. One Republican senator said: “The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He’s erratic. He’s hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me.”7
8. McCain talks a lot about taking on special interests, but his campaign manager and top advisers are actually lobbyists. The government watchdog group Public Citizen says McCain has 59 lobbyists raising money for his campaign, more than any of the other presidential candidates.8
9. McCain has sought closer ties to the extreme religious right in recent years. The pastor McCain calls his “spiritual guide,” Rod Parsley, believes America’s founding mission is to destroy Islam, which he calls a “false religion.” McCain sought the political support of right-wing preacher John Hagee, who believes Hurricane Katrina was God’s punishment for gay rights and called the Catholic Church “the Antichrist” and a “false cult.”9
10. He positions himself as pro-environment, but he scored a 0—yes, zero—from the League of Conservation Voters last year.10
John McCain IS NOT WHO THE WASHINGTON PRESS CORPS MAKE HIM OUT TO BE!!!
Sources:
1. “The Complicated History of John McCain and MLK Day,” ABC News, April 3, 2008
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/04/the-complicated.html
“McCain Facts,” ColorOfChange.org, April 4, 2008
http://colorofchange.org/mccain_facts/
2. “McCain More Hawkish Than Bush on Russia, China, Iraq,” Bloomberg News, March 12, 2008
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aF28rSCtk0ZM&refer=us
“Buchanan: John McCain ‘Will Make Cheney Look Like Gandhi,’” ThinkProgress, February 6, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/02/06/buchanan-gandhi-mccain/
3. “McCain Sides With Bush On Torture Again, Supports Veto Of Anti-Waterboarding Bill,” ThinkProgress, February 20, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/02/20/mccain-torture-veto/
4. “McCain says Roe v. Wade should be overturned,” MSNBC, February 18, 2007
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17222147/
5. “2007 Children’s Defense Fund Action Council® Nonpartisan Congressional Scorecard,” February 2008
http://www.childrensdefense.org/site/PageServer?pagename=act_learn_scorecard2007
“McCain: Bush right to veto kids health insurance expansion,” CNN, October 3, 2007
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/10/03/mccain.interview/
6. “Beer Executive Could Be Next First Lady,” Associated Press, April 3, 2008
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h-S1sWHm0tchtdMP5LcLywg5ZtMgD8VQ86M80
“McCain Says Bank Bailout Should End `Systemic Risk,’” Bloomberg News, March 25, 2008
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aHMiDVYaXZFM&refer=home
7. “Will McCain’s Temper Be a Liability?,” Associated Press, February 16, 2008
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=4301022
“Famed McCain temper is tamed,” Boston Globe, January 27, 2008
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/01/27/famed_mccain_temper_is_tamed/
8. “Black Claims McCain’s Campaign Is Above Lobbyist Influence: ‘I Don’t Know What The Criticism Is,’” ThinkProgress, April 2, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/04/02/mccain-black-lobbyist/
“McCain’s Lobbyist Friends Rally ‘Round Their Man,” ABC News, January 29, 2008
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4210251
9. “McCain’s Spiritual Guide: Destroy Islam,” Mother Jones Magazine, March 12, 2008
http://www.motherjones.com/washington_dispatch/2008/03/john-mccain-rod-parsley-spiritual-guide.html
“Will McCain Specifically ‘Repudiate’ Hagee’s Anti-Gay Comments?,” ThinkProgress, March 12, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/03/12/mccain-hagee-anti-gay/
“McCain ‘Very Honored’ By Support Of Pastor Preaching ‘End-Time Confrontation With Iran,’” ThinkProgress, February 28, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/02/28/hagee-mccain-endorsement/
10. “John McCain Gets a Zero Rating for His Environmental Record,” Sierra Club, February 28, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/environment/77913/