The Obama you don’t know

Morning Examiner: The Obama you don’t know
September 20, 2012 | 8:08 am


Conn Carroll
Senior Editorial WriterThe Washington Examiner
@conncarrollConn on FB


In the introduction to his biography of President Obama, David Maraniss writes of Obama’s self-described “autobiography” Dreams of My Father, “It is important to say that it falls into the realm of literature and memoir, not history and autobiography, and should not be read as a rigorously factual account.” In other words, most of what we supposedly “know” about Obama is actually pure fiction. The American people deserve better.

To that end, The Washington Examiner’s investigative reporting team conducted a four month investigation into Obama’s past, interviewing dozens of people across the country, and studying countless court transcripts, government reports and other official documents. Lead investigator Mark Tapscott summarizes the picture of Obama that emerges, “Beyond the spin and the polls, a starkly different picture emerges. It is a portrait of a man quite unlike his image, not a visionary reformer but rather a classic Chicago machine pol who thrives on rewarding himself and his friends with the spoils of public office, and who uses his position to punish his enemies.”

You can access the whole report from the links below:
Introduction: The Obama you don’t know
Chapter I: A childhood of privilege, not hardship
Chapter II: The myth of the ‘rock-star professor’
Chapter III: The 1997 speech that launched Obama
Chapter IV: Defense attorney for Chicago slumlord
Chapter V: Obama’s sells out to the Daley machine
Chapter VI: The poor people Obama left behind
Chapter VII: Myth of Obama as state reformer
Chapter VIII: Using state pensions to help friends
Chapter IX: Obama’s Arab-American network
Chapter X: Obama brings Chicago politics to Washington

From The Washington Examiner
Phil Klein: CRS finds number of able-bodied adults on food stamps doubled after Obama suspended work requirement
Tim Carney: The real government dependents are big companies and their lobbyists
Susan Ferrechio: Presidential race devolves into class warfare
Brian Hughes: Wisconsin may no longer be sure bet for Obama

Campaign 2012
Polls: A new Fox News poll of three swing states shows Obama up 49-42 percent in Ohio, 50-43 percent in Virginia, and 49-44 percent in Florida.
Gallup finds that voter enthusiasm is rising, especially among Democrats, 73 percent of whom say they are “enthusiastic” about voting, compared to 64 percent of Republicans.

Romney: Yesterday in the USA Today, Romney promises to deliver recovery, not dependency. And at a Univision forum yesterday, Romney promised to fix the immigration system.

In Other News
Associated Press, Tax penalty to hit nearly 6M uninsured people:Nearly 6 million Americans — significantly more than first estimated— will face a tax penalty under President Barack Obama’s health overhaul for not getting insurance, congressional analysts said Wednesday. Most would be in the middle class.

Fox News, Al Qaeda involved in consulate attack: Intelligence sources tell Fox News they are convinced the deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, was directly tied to Al Qaeda — with a former Guantanamo detainee involved.

The Cable, Obama official admits Benghazi was a terrorist attack: The Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi was in fact “a terrorist attack” and the U.S. government has indications that members of al Qaeda were directly involved, a top Obama administration official said Wednesday at a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security Committee

The Wall Street Journal, Bank of America Ramps Up Job Cuts: Bank of America Corp. BAC +0.65% is accelerating a broad cost-cutting plan and has set a target of shedding 16,000 jobs by year’s end—cuts that would see the company relinquish its title as U.S. banking’s largest employer.

The Washington Post, Inspector general’s report on ‘Fast and Furious’ criticizes Justice Dept.: Federal agents and prosecutors in Phoenix ignored risks to the public and were primarily responsible for the botched effort to infiltrate weapons-smuggling rings in the operation dubbed “Fast and Furious,” according to a report released Wednesday by the Justice Department’s inspector general.


Righty Playbook
The Weekly Standard‘s Jay Cost outlines how Romney’s path to victory.
Twitchy catches Obama in brazen lie about never calling his opponents ‘unpatriotic.’
At The Corner, Ramesh Ponnuru has some brief thoughts on Romney’s 47 percent.

Lefty Playbook
In Bloomberg, Ezra Klein, who has zero children, tells Mitt Romney, who has five, what he doesn’t get about responsibility.
Talking Points Memo‘s Evan McMorris-Santoro attacks Romney for using the term “illegal alien” at the Univision forum yesterday.
The Washington Post‘s Greg Sargent reports that Romney’s attacks on Obama on welfare can be effective.