Conventional wisdom has long held that a politician can be corrupt or incompetent but he can't be both. The Chicago Machine might be Exhibit A of corrupt but competent. Whatever else we might say about those thugs, they can plow snow and pick up trash. No problem there.
Exhibit A of the honest but incompetent might be Joe Biden. He might come across as the fun-loving drunk who stopped being fun two hours ago, but Joe has never been linked to a serious scandal. Yes, there was the plagiarism thing, but his hands have stayed out of the cookie jar. Biden is guilty of outbursts of honesty...like when he tells the world that the middle class has been buried for the past four years. Say what you may about this guy, he does not have a dark cloud of scandal following him around.
Clinton survived his scandal because he kept the wheels of production rolling. Nixon on the other hand, looked dirtier with every oil shortage, every price increase, and every foreign policy boondoggle. Clinton was competent but dishonest. Nixon was incompetent and dishonest.
The fact that Obama is still in the game at this stage of a disastrous four years tells us that we have undergone a shift. Can anyone defend Obama's record? Anyone? Binders and bayonets and Big Bird and a quarter billion dollar character assassination have served as successful distractions from a dismal job performance. I believe Richard Nixon was the worst president in US history. Give Obame a second term and he will knock Tricky Dick off his pedestal.
We do need to distinguish between Obama's duplicity and his corruption bona fides. Both are testaments to his dishonesty but duplicity is not necessarily indictable. For brevity, let's focus on the overt corruption.
Before his presidential campaign we had a shady Rezko real estate deal and Michelle receiving $300, 000 for a no-show job. Let's skip over his anti-transparent background and the undisclosed benefactor who footed the bill for Obama's education. Yes, it is pertinent that a man of humble means spent a six-figure sum to complete his education but did not reveal college loans in any of his financial filings (even though his wife said they had paid off student loans.)
The 2008 Democratic Primary was marred by blatant cheating right from the onset. Chicago thugs moved to Iowa and tiltted the caucus is Obama's favor. Caucusgate had begun. See the previous posts to Caucusgate at thisd site.
With Hillary crushed, the Obama Campaign used shady (read illegal) financing to crush John McCain. They would have won without stuffing the ballot boxes but Wikileaks revealed that the Obama campaign padded their numbers in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Got to keep the skills sharp.
The Obama Presidency was marred by scandal from the starting gun. The GM bancruptcy that deviated from law to benefit the UAW at the expense of the non-union Saturn workers. The Chrysler reorganization also seemed to benefit the politically-connected dealers over the unsanctioned dealerships.
There was Solyndra and other green energy fiascos. There was the ongoing funneling of money to General Electric in the form of government contracts (perfectly legal by the way) in exchange for promoting a 24 hour cable attack network that would spew truth, half-truth and lies to destroy political enemies. The stimulus dollars seemed to gravitate to Obama supporters.
Then there was Fast and Furious, the MF Global cover-up, the IRS harrassment of opposition groups, the DOJ harrassment of Romney donors, the DOJ intimidation of Gallup Polling and of course, there was the bump in the road in Benghazi.
The above is a brief summary of Obama scandal. If we factor in things like deleting California from unemployment statistics, we would have to write a large book to cover all of the chicanery. This is a corrupt administration fronted by a corrupt man.
Obama might still pull off this election. Does anyone doubt that he will flood battleground states non-citizens or citizens of other states? The Chicago Mob has a lot of other tricks at their disposal. Early voters in Nevada are already reporting fraud. Key battleground states might be tilted by the thumb on the scale.
Regardless of outcome, a political maxim will be put to rest. Obama has proved that one can be both corrupt and incompetent and still be a viable political player. Yes Barry, you can have it all.
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