Tag: Watchdog Obama

President Barack Obama

Introduction: The Obama you don’t know

Washington Examiner · September 19, 2012 4:00 am

Obama and his bride Michelle Robinson, a fellow Harvard Law School graduate, on their wedding day, Oct. 3, 1992, in Chicago. (Associated Press)

Chapter I: A childhood of privilege, not hardship

Richard Pollock · September 19, 2012 4:00 am

Obama with his grandparents, Stanley and Madelyn Dunham, on a park bench in New York City, when Obama was a student at Columbia University. (Associated Press)

Chapter II: The myth of the ‘rock-star professor’

Washington Examiner · September 19, 2012 4:00 am

Like so many in the liberal powerbase that served as a springboard for Obama, Marilyn Katzâs activist roots stretch back to her days as a Students for a Democratic Society operative. Today, Katz is an influential political operative in Chicago who has visited the White House 26 times since 2009.

Chapter III: The 1997 speech that launched Obama

Washington Examiner · September 19, 2012 4:00 am

via Getty Images and ap
A security company owned by now-jailed political fundraiser Tony Rezko sought help from Obama and then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich in an effort to gain a lucrative contract in Iraq, according to a report published
in 2007.

Chapter IV: For the slumlord’s defense, Barack Obama, Esq.

Washington Examiner · September 19, 2012 4:00 am

Obamaâs toughest critic on the Left, the late Robert Fitch, charged that Obamaâs most trusted aide, Valerie Jarrett, made a fortune as a real estate developer. Fitch, a radical leftist and freelance journalist who specialized in urban politics and economics, said Obama surrounded himself with people who got rich on Chicagoâs $1.6 billion neighborhood demolition program known officially as the Plan for Transformation.

Chapter V: Obama’s toughest critics on the Left

Washington Examiner · September 19, 2012 4:00 am

A man moves furniture at the Altgeld Gardens housing project Thursday, Feb. 14, 2008, on Chicago's South Side. where Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., used to work as a community organizer. (AP Photo)

Chapter VI: The poor people Obama left behind

Richard Pollock · September 19, 2012 4:00 am

Former Illinois state Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, a maverick Republican and reformer, said Obama never fought corruption, by Republicans or by Democrats: "He never wanted to upset the apple cart with the Chicago machine."

Chapter VII: The myth of Obama as state Senate reformer

Richard Pollock · September 19, 2012 4:00 am

William Atwood, executive director of the giant Illinois State Board of Investment, told The Washington Examiner that Obama was relentless in applying pressure. "Anytime I saw him, he brought the issue up. I would see him in Springfield or I would see him at a function and invariably he raised the issue."

Chapter VIII: Obama’s state pension scheme

Richard Pollock · September 19, 2012 4:00 am

Ray Hanania, a Chicago-based Arab-American journalist and activist, described the network in a 2007 interview with Chicago magazine as "a small cluster of activists." Chief among them was Obama mentor Tony Rezko, above. Stuart Levine, right, Rezko's former partner and the government's star witness in the Rezko trial.

Chapter IX: The Arab-American network behind Obama

Richard Pollock · September 19, 2012 4:00 am

Obama's $787 billion economic stimulus program included $499 billion in federal spending, most of which was channeled through state and local governments. Eight of the 10 states getting the most contracts were heavily Democratic, with highly unionized state and local government workforces, according to stimulus award data at recovery.gov.

Chapter X: Obama brings Chicago politics to Washington

Richard Pollock · September 19, 2012 4:00 am