Fantasy Questions for Obama
By: Paul Sperry
FrontPageMagazine.com | Wednesday, October 15, 2008
With just a few weeks remaining in the campaign,
Barack Obama remains an enigma. The media have left him largely unvetted.
Tonight's debate offers one final chance to get to know him.
Will CBS News host Bob Schieffer finally ask the tough questions that have eluded
previous moderators? Don't hold your breath.
While Schieffer may be more cantankerous than his colleagues, he's still a liberal
who like the rest of the media elite probably see nothing wrong with Obama's
radical ties. So why bother asking him about them? What's the news value in
that? Don't we all agree with Tom Brokaw that Bill Ayers is merely a
"school reformer"?
For what it's worth, here is my fantasy list of questions for Obama you won't
hear in the debate:
1. You say unrepentant Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers is just a guy
from your old Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. Have you or Michelle ever
entertained either Bill Ayers or his (cop-assaulting) wife at your old condo
there, or at your new home?
2. You say you were just 8 years old when Ayers bombed the U.S. Capitol. How old
were you when you first learned he was the guy who did what he did when you
were 8?
3. Did you have any help writing your "Dreams" memoir outside of your
editor's input? Are all the words in that book your words?
4. Have you ever traveled abroad with Jeremiah Wright, and if so where? What about
with Louis Farrakhan?
5. Did you or Michelle attend "Trumpet" magazine's gala tribute to
Farrakhan at the Chicago Hyatt last year? Did you know at the time that he was
being so honored?
6. Where were you on 9/11, and what was your immediate, visceral reaction to those
attacks? You said in the 2004 preface to your reprinted "Dreams" memoir
that "history returned that day with a vengeance," and that "the
past is never dead and buried." What did you mean by those remarks?
7. Do you believe the Bush administration had specific, advance knowledge of the
attacks? Do you believe it was involved in the attacks in any way?
8. Your resume lists you as "executive director" of Project Vote in
1992. Project Vote's parent company is located at the same New Orleans address
as the radical group ACORN. Were your checks cut from there? Have you ever visited
ACORN's New Orleans headquarters?
9. Your campaign says you were never "hired" to train ACORN leaders
in agitation tactics. Did you ever train them on a voluntary basis?
10. What are some of your favorite films? Did you ever see Spike Lee's
"X"? What are your favorite books? Have you ever read any of James H.
Cone's works?
11. When you worked briefly right out of college for Business International Corp.
in New York, you said you were "spying behind enemy lines." Are you saying
corporate America is the enemy?
12. You cite in your 2006 autobiography as one example of racism that you've personally
experienced, an incident at a restaurant in which a white couple "tossed"
their keys at you thinking you were the valet. Can you recall the name of the
restaurant where that occurred, and who you were with at the time? You also
suggest this happened to you on more than one occasion. If so, where else?
13. As another example of racism, you say that police have pulled you over for
no reason. Where and when did this occur? If no tickets were issued, did you
file a harassment complaint?
14. Tell us about your relationship with Tony Rezko. Did you and Michelle ever
socialize with him and his wife Rita?
15. When you visited Raila Odinga on a junket to Kenya in 2006, you called it a
"fact-finding" mission. What did you glean for constituents in Illinois?
And who paid for that portion of the trip?
16. Do you believe Hamas is a terrorist group?
17. In 1995, you said, "Reagan and his minions did dirty deeds." What
were those "dirty deeds" you speak of, and what is your opinion of
the late president today?
18. Your ex-pastor Wright believes "racism is how America is still
run." Do you believe that's true today?
19. Bill Cosby says much of the problems in the black community are self-inflicted,
that it's a cultural thing more than an economic one. Where do you agree with
Cosby, if anywhere, and where do you part company?
20. When you were sitting at Frank Marshall Davis' knee, sharing his whiskey,
did you have any knowledge of his communist sympathies? How did your
grandfather describe him? And why did you fail to identify Davis by name in
your book, when he'd already been dead for several years?
21. You were trained in the agitation tactics of Saul Alinsky at his Industrial
Areas Foundation in Los Angeles, and taught those tactics -- specifically with
respect to power analysis -- to your students in Chicago. And you received a
letter of recommendation to Harvard from one of his top disciples, John
McKnight. More recently, you hired veteran Alinsky trainers to teach your
campaign volunteers at Camp Obama. Why then did you never mention Alinsky in
your memoir detailing your experiences as a community agitator? And why don't
you ever talk about Alinsky on the campaign trail?
22. Have you ever hired members of the Nation of Islam to work on your campaign
or government staff in Illinois or Washington? Are any NOI member working for
you now?
23. What was your transferring GPA at Oxy and your cummulative GPA at Columbia?
Why won't you release your transcripts as have past presidential candidates,
including John Kerry?
24. Your faith, Black Liberation Theology, holds that Jesus was African? Do you
share this belief? Do you believe Africa is the Promised Land, or that blacks
are the chosen people?
25. Did you or Michelle ever teach Bible class at Trinity United? Did you ever
participate in the African Studies Program there? Have you ever taken a Bible
class taught by Dwight Hopkins?
26. Have you ever met Hopkins or his mentor James Cone?
27. The church typically issues a packet to new members detailing its so-called
Black Value System, and requires members to attend classes on it and pledge to
uphold its tenets. Tell us about this program, and what you learned from it. Do
you still believe in its tenets as you said you did in your first memoir? What
about Michelle and your daughters? Do they subscribe
to this system?
28. Did you and Michelle socialize with Jeremiah and Ramah Wright? What was your
relationship with them outside the church?
29. Tell us about your relationship with Louis Farrakhan. Have you ever met with
him one-on-one?
30. Were you aware Farrakhan's sermons were offered for sale at Trinity?
31. Did you receive the Trinity magazine "Trumpet" or the church
bulletin at your home or office?
32. When you weren't able to attend church service, did you listen to recordings
of the sermons?
33. You say you've used hard drugs such as cocaine. Have you ever bought cocaine
directly from a dealer? Have you ever smoked crack cocaine?
34. Have you ever been arrested?
Sigh, so many questions, so little time.
During the 1992 election, the mainstream media failed to properly vet William
J. Clinton, another charming young liberal "change" candidate. History
is repeating itself now with Barack H. Obama, though the consequences could be
more severe.
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