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Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Obamarama

To start I want to mention Tom Mannis at The Bench who talks about why the people in West Virgina and Kentucky chose to vote for Hillary Clinton instead of Barack Obama. While I've heard that Sen. Clinton sought to racialize her campaign in a desperate ruse to secure the Democratic nomination for President and to cut into the margin of the young upstart Sen. Obama. At the same time one could question whether or not the press is attempting to talk down voters in those two primaries because they didn't vote for Obama their chosen candidate.

I should also add and I don't have the story available. It was said that West Virgina has the lowest number of college graduates in the nation. Does that mean one must be educated to support Obama and uneducated to vote for Hillary?

The next item I found via Instapundit who remarked, "WAIT, I THOUGHT it was supposed to be John McCain with the temper problem." Here's the story from that link provided:

Obama, to be sure, had allies in the black caucus, but he had his share of critics as well. His chief antagonists were Rickey Hendon, who represented a district on the city’s West Side, and Donne Trotter, ho would run against Obama for Congress.

Hendon and other African-American lawmakers from the West Side often found themselves at odds with their South Side brethren, but the rift between Hendon and Obama was particularly acute. Hendon and Trotter would “just give Barack hell,” said Senator Kimberly Lightford, an Obama ally in the black caucus. Hendon, nicknamed “Hollywood,” because he once aspired to produce films, was a flamboyant personality in Springfield, known for his smart-aleck humor and occasionally inappropriate public manner. In one legislative session, the two nemses nearly came to physical blows when Obama, apparently inadvertently, voted against a bill that included funding for a project that assisted Hendon’s district.

Years later, details of the incident remain in the eye of the beholder. Obama supporters say that Obama had stepped away from his seat and asked someone else to vote for him, not an uncommon practice considering the thousands of votes each session. His proxy, however, accidentally voted against his wishes. When Obama asked that the record reflect that he voted the wrong way, Hendon publicly accused Obama of duplicity. Hendon has never been shy about holding back his feelings, and he had a special way of penetrating Obama’s usually smooth exterior. Soon, the two men were shouting at each other on the senate floor. They took their disagreement into a nearby room, and a witness said that Obama had to be physically restrained. Neither man cares to discuss the incident today, but Hendon remains unconvinced of Obama’s explanation that his vote was accidental. Individuals close to the situation say Hendon still believes Obama voted against his project to pacify North Side fiscal conservatives who were leery of some West Side projects. For his part, the rarely reticent Hendon won’t discuss the altercation, except to confirm that it occurred. “I have been advised to leave Barack alone and that is what I am going to do,” Hendon said. “I am going to let things stay in the past. It happened. That’s all I can say. It happened.”

I had no idea the Senator had it in him. I'd be disappointed if I knew this about our public officials. It's OK to have passion but wow I would be shocked if civility turned into fisticuffs.

On the other hand I could understand if we were talking about Alan Keyes. Keyes ran against him for the senate seat and I do recall an instance where these two intersected at a local parade and Obama was already starting to poke into Mr. Keyes. I don't think the voters in Illinois would have faulted him for that.

Oh and I should have blogged about this earlier from that same link provided by Instapundit. Obama apparently has difficulty hiring good help!

1 comment:

CNB said...

Thanks for the mention, Levois. Man, what an interesting year this is. Did you ever think, back in 2000, that Florida Democrats would be suing the DNC, charging them with disenfranchising them? See http://rogersparkbench.blogspot.com/2008/05/flash-florida-delegates-suing-over.html

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