Misery Index

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The Obama Campaign claimed that Barack was never an ACORN trainer and that he was not associated with ACORN in 1992:

• Fact:  Barack was never an ACORN community organizer.
• Fact:  Barack was never an ACORN trainer and never worked for ACORN in any other capacity.
• Fact:  ACORN was not part of Project Vote, the successful voter registration drive Barack ran in 1992.

BUT, after the "Cleveland Leader" discovered archived documents that proved that Obama did indeed work as a trainer for ACORN and did work with ACORN in 1992, the Obama Camp scrubbed the webpage with new "facts":

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The Obama Campaign now claims that Barack trained for ACORN trainer but was never hired by ACORN.  They still have the misleading statement that ACORN was not part of Obama's voter registration efforts in 1992:

• Fact:  Obama was never an ACORN community organizer.
• Fact:  ACORN never hired Obama as a trainer, organizer, or any type of employee.
• Fact:  ACORN was not part of Project Vote, the successful voter registration drive Barack ran in 1992.

ACORN spokesman Lewis Goldberg told the New York Times that Obama conducted two unpaid leadership training sessions for ACORN's Chicago affiliate in the late 1990s.  Goldberg additionally told the Times that Obama's work for ACORN was unpaid.

Here, ACORN members meet with Illinois Senate candidate Barack Obama in 2004.  Left is the photo  as printed in 2004 Social Policy article featuring not only a 2004 photograph of Obama and ACORN members but an essay called "Case Study:  Chicago-The Barack Obama Campaign" written by Toni Foulkes, a Chicago ACORN Leader.

"Obama started building the base years before," Foulkes wrote in her 2004 essay.  "For instance, ACORN noticed him when he was organizing on the far south side of the city with the Developing Communities Project.  He was a very good organizer.  When he returned from law school, we asked him to help us with a lawsuit to challenge the state of Illionis' refusal to abide by the National Voting Rights Act, also known as motor voter.  Allied only with the state of Mississippi, Illinois had been refusing to allow mass-based voter registration according to the new law.  Obama took the case, known as ACORN vs. Edgar (the name of the Republican governor at the time) and we won.  Obama then went on to run a voter registration project with Project VOTE in 1992 that made it possible for Carol Moseley Braun to win the Senate that year.  Project VOTE delivered 50,000 newly registered voters in that campaign (ACORN delivered about 5000 of them)."

Foulkes messed up the chronology in that account, making it sound earlier than it had occurred.  The Motor Voter Law was passed in 1993, the lawsuit was brought in 1995.  Additionally, press accounts from the time of the Illinois Project Voter registration drive put the number of new voters registered at 150,000, not 50,000.

Foulkes went on to note that "since then," ACORN had "invited Obama to our leadership training sessions to run teh session on power every year, and, as a result, many of our nely developing leaders got to know him before he ever ran for office.  Thus it was natural for many of us to be active volunteers in his first campaign for State Senate and then his failed bid for U.S. Congress in 1996.  By the time he ran for U.S. Senate, we were old friends."

Obama's losing congressional campaign was in 2000, not 1996.

ACORN claims it is a nonpartisian group, however, they have endorsed Obama for President.

ACORN's Political Action Committee Endorsed Obama.

"[A]CORN's political action committee endorsed Barack Obama for President. ... The endorsement reflects a belief that Obama - who worked as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago - understands that change must come from the ground-up, as part of a working coalition, rather than from positional papers."  (Katrina Vanden Heuvel, Op-Ed, "ACORN:  Obama Gets It," The Nation, 2/23/08

ACORN has also "Paid More Than $800,000" to ACORN for Get-Out-The Vote Efforts; The Campaign Originally "Misrepresented" The Group's Work To The FEC.

"U.S. Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign paid more than $800,000 to an offshoot of the liberal Association of Community Organizatiosn for Reform Now for services the Democrat's campaign says it mistakenly misrepresented in federal reports.  An Obama spokesman said Federal Election Commission reports would be amended to show Citizens Services Inc. -- a subsidiary of ACORN -- worked in 'get-out-the-vote' projects, instead of activities such as polling, advance work and staging major events as stated in FEC finance reports filed during the primary."  (David M. Brown, "Obama To Amend Report On $800,000 In Spending,"  Pittsburgh Tribune Review, 8/22/08

And how about a few more:

• "Acorn's Political Arm Has Endorsed Mr. Obama While Its 'Voter Education' Arm Has Pledged To Spend $35 Million To Register People This Fall..." (John Fund, Op-Ed, "Obama's LIberal Shock Troops,"  The Wall Street Journal, 07/12/08
• "Sen. Obama Is Especially Reliant On Registration Drives, Such As Acorn's With Project Vote, To Help Him Win The White House."  (Elizabeth Williamson and Brody Mullins, "Democractic Ally Mobilizes In Housing Crunch,"  The Wall Street Journal, 07/31/08
• The Chicago ACORN Received Grants of $45,000 (2000), $30,000 (2001), $45,000 (2001), $30,000 (2002), and $40,000 (2002) From The Woods Fund.  (Donors Forum Website http://ifs.donorsforum.org/)
• From 1993 to 2002, Barack Obama Served On The Board of Directors From the Woods Fund.   (Tim Novak and Fran Spielman, "Obama Helped Ex-Boss Get $1 Mil.  From Charity,"  Chicago Sun-Times, 11/29/07)
• Obama States:  "I've been fighting alongside Acorn on issues you care about my entire career...",  (Steve Malanga, "Organizer In Chief,"  [New York] City Journal, Summer 2008)

NOT HEARD OF ACORN?

Among other things shady, the Michigan Secretary of State told the press in September that ACORN had submitted "a sizeable number of duplicate and fraudulent applications."  Earlier this month, Nevada's Democratic Secretary of State Ross Miler requested a raid on ACORN's offices, following complaints of false names and fictional addresses (including the starting lineup of the Dallas Cowboys).  Nevada's Clark County Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax said he saw rampant fraud in 2,000 to 3,000 applications ACORN submitted weekly.

Officials in Ohio are investigating voter fraud connection with ACORN, and Florida's Seminole County is withholding ACORN registrations that appear fraudulent.  New Mexico, North Carolina and Missouri are looking into hundreds of dubious ACORN registrations.  Wisconsin is investigating ACORN employees for, according to an election official, "making people up or registering people that are still in prison."

Then there's Lake County, Indiana, which has already found more than 2,100 bogus applications among the 5,000 ACORN dumped right before the deadline.  "All the signatures looked exactly the same," said Ruthann Hoagland, of the county election board.  Bridgeport, Connecticut estimates about 20% of ACORN's registrations were faulty.  As of July, the city of Houston had rejected or put on hold about 40% of the 27,000 registration cards submitted by ACORN.  And that's only just this year, among other issues.

So no, Obama has not been on ACORNs payroll however, he has been heavily involved in ACORN and has accepted major funds from ACORN for this election from a group, that states they are nonpartisian however, they have officially endorsed Obama for President.  And ACORN is a group that seems to have ties to illegally registering people to vote.  And Obama's camp seems to want to misguide with selected truths about the topic.  Thoughts to ponder.....................

NOTE:  This posting does not intend to reflect in any way my political choice for president.  All it states is that there seems to be some shady things going on, and truths are not being told in Obama camp.  Oh wait.. this is politics, what am I thinking that truth is ever part of a politicians life, words or campaign.  Silly me.