Honest Vetting of Obama's Background Urgently Needed

Absent responsible scrutiny of Senator Obama by a fawning media blinded by his rhetorical flourishes and pop-star glitter, some of the Senator's more alarming associations and endorsements--all of which are readily verifiable--bear as much repeating as do his radical voting record and policy positions.

A product of the notoriously corrupt Chicago/Illinois political machine, among the Senator's growing list of very troubling associations are his now notorious and intimate 20-year friendship with his spiritual advisor and mentor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, purveyor of a divisive race-centric culture of victimhood and adherent to an exlusionary Black Liberation Theology-- whom the Senator only recently disavowed when that association became a serious political liability; the Senator's friendly association with unrepentant domestic terrorists William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn; his 5-year relationship in Hawaii with Frank Marshall Davis, a member of the Communist Party USA, who, after Barack Obama's grandfather abandoned the family, became Barack's father-figure and role model from 1975 - 1979; his association with the Chicago branch of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), an affiliate of the Socialist International (SI), which enjoys "consultative status" with the U.N.; and his links with Rashid Khalidi, a PLO agent from 1976 - 1982 and founder of the Arab American Action Network (AAAN), a pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli group which received $75,000 in grants from the Woods Foundation in Chicago (of which Obama and Ayers were board directors)and whose AAAN vice-president, Ali Abunimah, recalls Senator Obama's having spoken against "Israeli occupation" during an AAAN charity event in 1999.

Add to this his actively campaigning for Sen. Sanders of Vermont, the only openly socialist in Congress, verified reports of some of his campaign workers displaying a flag featuring Marxist Che Guevara in their campaign headquarters, and the Senator's tortured excuse for not wearing an American flag lapel pin, only to have later opted to sport the pin when it became politically expedient, and we have a presidential candidate whose profile is, to say the very least,extremely unique in the annals of presidential history.

Spoken during what he thought was a private San Francisco fundraiser, the Senator's comtemptuous assault on small town Americans whom he described as bitter, clinging to their religion and guns, and with antipathy toward immigrants and those who may look different from themselves was breathtaking in its unconcealed disdain for heartland America. Worse, that haughty viewpoint neatly mirrors the prevailing elitist thinking on the radical left.

His wife's description of America as "downright mean" and that only after decades as an American citizen is she now proud of her country clearly suggests a visceral bitterness and hateful view of America very much in keeping with sentiments on the far left.

Finally, what is acutely distressing are the endorsements, albeit unsolicited, the Senator has received from the Communist Party USA, Move-On.org, the Democratic Socialists of America, and, yes, HAMAS, a terrorist organization.

Even among his most ardent followers, and despite the Senator's recent manipulative tacking to the center, this litany of alarming endorsements and disturbing associations--which cannot be easily taken out of context--should raise very serious questions about his character, judgement and core beliefs.

Indeed, given this checkered biography it is doubtful that the Senator would pass the required security background investigation were he to apply for federal employment.And we should take leave of our commonsense and blindly entrust the Presidency to him?

I hope that I'm not alone when I assert that it would be a stretch beyond credulity to believe that the Senator has remained unaffected by these radical influences in his life and that his political views, his character and his cultural attitudes haven't been in some substantial ways shaped by them.

I genuinely believe that if we choose to rationalize, willfully ignore, artfully dodge or white-wash these alarming associations and endorsements, we do so at our own peril.

In the final analysis, Obama's version of the "American Dream" may very well turn out to be something completely foreign to us--perhaps even a "Nightmare". So, be vigilant, folks. Take the time to carefully listen and to carefully weigh and dissect the commentary and spin we'll all be subjected to over the next several months. And be fearlessly objective and honest in your appraisal of the candidates now before us. Difficult and time-consuming though that process may be, as Americans and defenders of future generations, that is our duty.