Obama Campaign Lie About Alice Palmer

Fascinating, such that the memory can fail.  For Barack Obama.

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Jerome Corsi’s recently released anti-Obama book, Obama Nation, has raised the ire of the Obama campaign.   One of the points they claim is a “LIE,” is that Obama fought Alice Palmer for the nomination of state senator.   Palmer lost the Congressional primary, and then decided she wanted to retain her seat and run again for state senator.  Obama had been tapped to run to replace her, however, he declined to defer to then-state senator Palmer, and to challenge her for the nomination instead.  The basis of the challenge turned out be the legitimacy of signatures garnered for the petition to get Alice Palmer back on the ballot.  Turns out, he used contentious and aggressive legal tactics to disqualify the signatures on the petitions.   Palmer regretfully withdrew.  And thus Barack Obama was ultimately able to run unopposed for state senate.

David Jackson and Ray Long of the Chicago Tribune on April 3, 2007, aptly said,

But in that initial bid for political office, Obama quickly mastered the bare-knuckle arts of Chicago electoral politics. His overwhelming legal onslaught signaled his impatience to gain office, even if that meant elbowing aside an elder stateswoman like Palmer.

A close examination of Obama’s first campaign clouds the image he has cultivated throughout his political career: The man now running for president on a message of giving a voice to the voiceless first entered public office not by leveling the playing field, but by clearing it.

Summary of the situation per 1950Democrat,

But instead of letting the voters decide, Obama got Palmer (as well as the rest of his opponents) knocked off the ballot for her own seat. As soon as the city completed a massive purge of the list of registered voters, Obama challenged all his opponents’ signatures against the purged list. Some voters had moved or died, so not enough matches could be found. (Obama’s own signatures were never put to the same test.)

Jake Tapper of ABC News, likewise has pointed out that Obama indeed did fight Palmer for the state senator nomination.

This is not a lie, this is true.

So much for the pupil deferring to the master.  Part ways for Barack Obama, for Here Cometh The One Who Deserveth.   Respect for the beloved elder stateswoman aside.

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For great information, see

• Obama knows his way around the ballot, from the Chicago Tribune. (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/obama/chi-070403obama-ballot-archive,0,5693903.story)
• The Obama Overreach: Refuting A Few of Corsi’s Smears By Re-Writing History, from ABC News.  August 15, 2008. (http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/08/the-obama-overr.html)
• Black Activist Alice Palmer Trusted Barack Obama, from Hillary’s Bloggers.  May 2, 2008.  (http://hillarysbloggers.soapblox.net/showDiary.do?diaryId=151).
• http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/obama/chi-070403obama-ballot-archive,0,5297304,full.story.  April 3, 2007.  Chicago Tribune.