Barack Obama is a man running for President on the rationale that he has good judgment. Not good judgment in an average cool headed sort of way, but supremely good judgment. In fact better judgment than anyone else running for President.
Barack Obama also seems to have a fine and quite picturesque family. Good for him. You don’t really choose your family though, but you do choose your friends. Choosing friends is an excellent way of displaying, among other things, your judgment. Not for nothing is it said that you know a man by his friends.
Let’s talk about some of Barack Obama’s friends.
Let’s talk for instance of Mayor Richard M. Daley. The good mayor is the head of the vaunted Chicago machine. A political machine second to none in the country in terms of kickbacks, corruption and the raw strength it wields against its enemies. Obama and hizzoner Daley have a mutually beneficial understanding based on what both men desire the most – power.
(No, not loose cannon Samantha "Monster" Power – Obama, understandably, threw her under the bus when she became too much of a liability to his campaign. No, Obama and hizzoner Daley want real power.)
Barack Obama more than anything wants to be elected President. He wants to take on the Republicans in the fall elections. Good for him. But then of course the question of Obama’s judgment might just pop up. So let’s talk about another friend of Barack Obama. Let’s talk for instance of terrorist William Ayers. During the early 70’s Ayers and his fellow terrorists used false identities to avoid the FBI, all the while bombing various government buildings, for instance the Pentagon, the Harry S Truman Building and the United States Capitol.
(You know the Capitol. It is the building where Barack Obama occasionally shows up but nevertheless fails to do his job and vote.)
So, what do the Republicans have to say about Obama and his friend William Ayers? A lot apparently, all of it bad. You might even think the Republicans actually don’t agree with the idea that Obama wields superior judgment. Perhaps to the point where they will be inclined to point that out, loudly, in the fall?
So maybe Obama’s judgment will be an issue after all, if he is the Democratic nominee for President that is. Only not quite the issue he had imagined. Let’s talk about another of Barack Obama’s friends. Let’s talk about Tony Rezko. And there is a lot to talk about when it comes to Tony Rezko, a lot!
(I really mean a lot!!! As in really plenty of stuff.)
So, when Obama asked his friend, slumlord and trusted fundraiser Tony Rezko to help him buy a stately mansion of course Rezko, though under investigation by the FBI, helped his good friend Barack Obama out. The judgment exercised in this deal has been called a "boneheaded mistake" by none other than Barack Obama himself.
(Barack Obama that is – the man with the Obama judgment. The Obama judgment that effectively shouts: "Let us cede this election to John McCain".)
It seems however that the money Rezko used to get Obama a real estate bargain was not Rezko’s usual slumlord money that he got from his struggling tenants and the U.S. taxpayers. As Rezko was under the investigation of FBI he was also broke, or nearly broke as it was. It is now in fact indicated that the money Rezko used to buy Barack Obama a free yard to his mansion came all the way from Iraq!
This ugly cloud of bad judgment and questionable ethics does however come with a silver lining. You can exercise your own judgment. It is also probably a much better judgment than Obama’s. (Admittedly a level of judgment not that hard to achieve.) You can make a difference and support the Democratic candidate for President.
(PS: No tip jar for the Obama supporters to abuse. If you feel the urge to tip, tip the Democratic candidate with a good judgment DS.)