Posted by
Mike Bates on Thursday, June 26, 2008 11:25:58 AM
Yesterday, the Chicago Sun-Times's Web site carried the story "Obama says he avoided city, state corruption." The piece begins:
Clout and corruption scandals that have plagued Chicago
and Illinois politics in recent years have not laid a glove on Barack
Obama, he told reporters here Wednesday.
"You will recall that for my entire political career here, I was not
the the endorsed candidate of any political organization here," the
Democratic presidential hopeful said at the Westin Hotel downtown.
That isn't accurate and wasn't from the time of his very first
political race. When Obama sought state office in 1996, he completed a questionnaire
from the Independent Voters of Illinois-Independent Precinct
Organization (IVI-IPO). Asked what endorsements he'd received so far,
Obama listed the 4th, 5th, and 6th Democratic Organizations, Aldermen
Preckwinkle and Steele, and the New Party.
The Sun-Times article also reports:
Obama friend Tony Rezko was convicted of corrupting
state government, but Obama was never implicated and has returned
contributions Rezko made to his Senate campaign.
That is also inaccurate. The Sun-Times itself disclosed on January 30
of this year that Obama didn't return the Rezko-related $157,835 in
contributions, but rather donated it to charity. Gee, I wonder if the
Obama campaign takes a tax deduction for such charitable donations.
The swooning of the mainstream media for Barack Obama continues.
Still, it would be a service to voters if basic fact checking were done
on Mr. Clean's claims before passing them off to readers as Gospel.