Obama's Sleight of Hand

Like a magician waving his wand, Barack Obama hopes his sleight of hand maneuver in resigning from his church will result in a bad case of amnesia on the part of the electorate.

The presumptive Democratic nominee for President resigned from his church in Chicago on Saturday after an embarrassing display by guest preacher Michael 'Snuffy' Pfleger, the Catholic priest in Illinois who stated that gun shop owners should be 'snuffed out.'

Obama hopes that his resignation will cause people to forget his lifelong personal associations with characters of ill repute, such as Pfleger, who orchestrated multi-thousands of dollars going into Obama's campaign coffers, to which Obama responded by orchestrating a $200,000 grant for Pfleger's church, compliments of the Illinois taxpayers.

The issue is not Obama's membership in the church but the people with whom he did business as a politician--people who were connected with the church in some way.

It wasn't that Louis Farrakhan spoke at Obama's church, but that Obama publicly supported Farrakhan. It wasn't that Pfleger preached a fiery sermon at Obama's church during which he mocked Hillary Clinton, but that Obama has had a long-term cozy relationship with the priest which resulted in monetary gain on the part of both.

And let's not forget that Obama has repeatedly referred to the church's Pastor Emeritus, Jeremiah Wright, as his 'mentor and spiritual guide.' This relationship goes back 20 years at least, and all the while the Reverend Wright was engaging in questionable, extremist behavior and public pronouncements which Obama heartily endorsed.

Obama cannot, with one swoop of the magician's wand, cause all of this to go away by merely resigning from his church.

Whether he is a member of that church or not, he has much explaining to do concerning his financial dealings with Pfleger, as well as all of the other examples of corruption that characterize his personal associations through the years.

New Questions Surface on Obama

New questions have surfaced concerning Barack Obama's long-term relationships with persons of dubious character. The latest controversy surrounds Rev. Michael Pfleger, the Catholic priest/social activist who stated that gun store owners should be 'snuffed out.'

Pfleger recently preached a sermon at Barack Obama's church in Chicago, the church once led by the infamous Reverend Jeremiah Wright, who stated from the pulpit, 'God damn America.'

During the sermon Pfleger mocked Hillary Clinton and turned up the heat on the racial divide within the Democratic Party.

So controversial and extremist is Pfleger that Catholics across the country have started a movment called 'Catholics Against Pfleger.'

Although Obama immediately distanced himself from Pfleger's remarks, new information has surfaced concerning a long-term relationship between Obama and Pfleger.

It turns out that Pfleger has orchestrated significant financial support for Obama's campaigns, particularly when Obama was a legislator in the state of Illinois. In return, Obama orchestrated large grants to various programs headed by Pfleger.

The significance of these new questions concerning Obama's associations cannot be overstated. The candidate has a penchant for forming lasting, long-term relationships with persons of dubious character but then throwing them under the bus when it is revealed to the public just how extremist--and dangerous--some of these people are.

But the latest information to surface involves large sums of money and political influence-peddling.

For the complete story on this latest development, click here:
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080530/D910947G1.html