You got that right. He is nothing more than a motivational speaker who inspires and makes people feel good with his speeches. People are blindly voting for him based out of emotion because his charisma wins them over. They know nothing about him and they don't care that they can't even name one single accomplishment that he has done.
I can think of a milion ways how he has contributed to the corruption and the status quo right here in his home state of Illinois...yet he has the country so snowed and so high off of his speeches that noone bothers checking into it.
lets hear it then... i want to know how he has corrupted your state.
With how detailed and intricate it all is, it's going to take a while and you kinda have be a Chicago/Illinois guy to truly understand the system and how things work around here.
A few reasons:
* Obama was against the Big Box plan which would have held down property taxes, create jobs and boost employment by bringing big retail store giants like Walmart, Lowes, Home Depot, etc.. into struggling poor southside neighborhoods and help rejuventate the areas. Why was he against it? Because he as well as others said that as a condition of allowing these businesses to come into the areas, the corporations would have to raise wages and benefits to levels that are higher than the norm. Higher than what the retail unions and the corporations themselves have negotiated and agreed upon in their contracts for all of the other city/suburban stores. WTF Obama?? You are going to hold a gun to big business's head here, and make them change union rules regarding wages and benefits that are already in place county and statewide or else you will push for a veto? And exactly how does this help the people you are supposed to be helping?
As a result of this, Big Box plan crashed and burned. Southside wards are still a barren wasteland, no jobs were created, noone has gotten off of welfare, people still don't have what could have been union sponsored health benefits and property taxes have risen.
* In his short term as Senator Obama has voted "present", not Yes or No in over 200 bills and referendums in the Illinois house. 200!!!Does this sound like leadership capabilities to you? Make a fucking decision, dammit! Stick your neck out and take a side.
Sounds to me like a typical Illinois politician contributing to the status quo. Don't want to piss anyone off, wants to fit into the system and doesn't want to make waves or create enemies. Is this the kind of guy we want running the country?
* As sleazy Hillary has mentioned before, he has also pulled this nondecisiveness in Washington. Over 133 times.
* We all know about his ties to corrupt Illinois businessman and sleazeball Tony Rezko. No need to get into all that. But let me mention that he
finally got around to breaking all ties with Rezko ---about two weeks ago. Even though the Rezko was under FBI investigation since 2001 and indicted in I think, 2005.
* Strongly supported Former Cook County board President John Stroger, who had a stranglehold on his position. This guy was the Emperor from the Star Wars movies to a tee. Built up a political machine of corruption, patronage, bloated payrolls, financial scandals and major taxpayer waste over years in Cook county. He played the system, made friends, allies, worked the race game, the demographics and worked loopholes perfectly so that he could get elected term after term. By the time Stroger was running again in the 2006 primaries, he had raised taxes 18 times in 13 years, bankrupted the county and made Cook county one of the highest taxed areas in the country.
You'd think if Obama was a true agent of change as he says he is, he would have supported challenger Forrest Claypool in the primaries instead. Claypool was Stroger's biggest political nemesis for years, the biggest whistleblower on Stroger party and Cook County corruption, and a true reformer that would have cleaned up Cook county.
Stroger gets ill after he wins the primary, and what does Obama do? Goes against change again. He now backs Stroger's alderman son Todd who was handpicked by his sick dad(and all his politically connected friends who wanted to keep their jobs) to take over the Democratic nomination for Cook County Board President in the general election. Typical Illinois politics right there...No experience, no knowledge and no clue how to fix the fucked up system? No problem. "Since you know someone, will fit into the system and since you can keep us employed we will get you in." again seems to be the usual mantra.
Agent Of Change Obama knew T Stroger's old man was the head of a corrupt machine, and that if Todd Stroger became County Board president the corruption would continue to exist in Cook County. Yet he backed Todd Stroger anyways in the general election and campaigned for him.
And for the last year and a half since Todd Stroger has been president of the Cook County board it has been nothing but business as usual. The apple sure did not fall far the tree. Taxes continue to go up to fix a 2 billion dollar county shortfall, Cook County sheriffs, doctors, nurses, police and public defenders all lose their jobs. Hospitals,clinics and benefit's offices in poor neighborhoods close down. Todd Stroger says that this is what needs to be done in order to fix this fucked up system that his dad created and that Obama endorsed.
Yet the machine is still here.... Todd Stroger still has the overpaid dead wood left over from his father's regime working for him, has 6 more family members working for him with outrageous salaries, two scandals have occured in his office on his watch, millions of dollars of waste have been uncovered by watchdog groups headed by Claypool.
This is why it cracks me up when I see Obama standing there at the podium all charming and talking a good game with all those big CHANGE signs and banners around him. If he can't make changes or lead in his own homestate and county, how is he going to do it for the entire country?