Sounds like “Buffy” has some good experience. Hope she doesn’t listen too much to McCaskill. McCaskill is a scaredocrat too afraid of upsetting some wingnuts to openly oppose torture and she favors retroactive immunity for telecoms who illegally spied on us all because she’s afraid of them. That kind of mentality won’t win MO for Obama.

The following is a little backgound on Barach H. Oboma.

July 27, 2004

Boston (CNSNews.com) - Without a formidable Republican opponent in his U.S. Senate race, Barack Obama has little reason not to take money from billionaire liberal financier George Soros, a man other Democrats keep at a distance.

When Obama takes the stage Tuesday night for a prime-time address at the Democratic National Convention, the candidate for Senate in Illinois will be introduced to a wider audience for the first time, bringing heightened scrutiny to the relative political newcomer’s campaign.

Democrats expect him to pass any test he faces. They view Obama as a rising star within their party, touting his good looks and ability to connect with voters. If elected Nov. 2, he would become the first black to hold a Senate seat since Carol Moseley Braun, also from Illinois.

Obama, however, is different from most Democrats because of his willingness to embrace the controversial Soros. Shortly after Soros equated the abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Obama joined him for a New York fund-raiser June 7.

The event, held at Soros’ home, boosted Obama’s campaign at a time he was still facing a challenge from Republican Jack Ryan. After news broke about information in Ryan’s divorce records, the candidate was forced to drop out. The Illinois GOP has yet to find a replacement.

Obama, meanwhile, has emerged as the party’s young face. He was selected over longtime party stalwarts to speak Tuesday night, and Obama has seized the opportunity.

Little has been made of his connection to Soros, although it is quite unique. Not only did George Soros donate to Obama’s campaign, but four other family members - Jennifer, sons Jonathan and Robert and wife Susan - did as well.

Because of a special provision campaign finance laws, the Soroses were able to give a collective $60,000 to Obama during his primary challenge. Obama faced millionaire Blair Hull, which allowed donors to give more than typically allowed.

Obama is one of only a handful of candidates to get a personal contribution from George Soros. The others include Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), Bob Graham (D-Fla.), John Kerry (D-Mass.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), U.S. Rep. Tom Lantos, and former Vermont governor Howard Dean

“Why did George support Obama?” his spokesman, Michael Vachon, asked rhetorically. “Because when they met in Chicago a couple of months ago, it was apparent that Barack Obama was an emerging national leader, and he would be an important addition to the Senate.”

Vachon said Obama is the only candidate this election cycle Soros has met personally, with the first powwow in March. Asked why Soros hasn’t sought out a meeting with Kerry, the man he is pulling for to defeat President Bush on Nov. 2, Vachon said it was just a matter of Soros keeping his distance.

“George is a major funder of an independent 527 group, and it probably makes more sense for him and Kerry to keep each other at arm’s length,” Vachon said.

Those meetings with Obama have caught the attention of the Illinois Republican Party, said spokesman Jason Gerwig.

“Barack Obama and his liberal voting record have gotten a free ride,” Gerwig said. “His aspirations seemed to be focused more nationally now than they do on Illinois, especially if you look at some of the money he’s taken from Soros and from left-coast liberals.”

On issues like health care, education, energy and the economy, Obama has articulated defined positions on his campaign website. But on other matters, the candidate hasn’t been challenged to say where he stands. Obama’s campaign didn’t return CNSNews.com’s calls.

“He’s more of a socialist than he is even a Democrat,” said a critic, Cathy Santos, co-founder of the Chicago-based Republican Young Professionals. “A lot of his policies have the government taking care of people. Instead of giving people a leg up, he would rather give them a leg.”

Soros initially was attracted to Obama because of his vision on education and health care, Vachon said. But Santos said if Obama got his way, the U.S. health care system would be worse than what Clinton proposed after her husband was elected president. She also said voters should be wary of Obama’s “any time, anywhere” stance on abortion.

Illinois Republicans have also grown frustrated with the glowing media coverage Obama has received. Three publications, The New York Times, New Republic and The New Yorker, have all written at length about Obama, who is still only a state senator from the Midwest.

“He’s turned into being this darling, but he still hasn’t had to talk about the issues,” Santos said. “No one really knows where he stands on a lot of these issues. Until we have a Senate candidate, if we have one, no one’s going to know how liberal he is until he starts casting votes.”

YAY! John A has learned how to cut and paste from fake news sites. You spelled his name wrong, too.

What is it with wingnuts and George Soros?

You would think their penchant for the deification of wealth would make him their hero, but instead they revile him. Why? Could it be he actually cares about other people and unlike the parasitic wealthy they Republicans venerate, Soros uses his wealth to enrich mankind and expand democratic institutions around the world. It really speaks volumes about the fascistic personalities now populating the Republican realm of politics. Soros came here as a refugee, lived the American dream and now they hate him because he wants to do all he can to make sure others might have an opportunity for the same experience in a free and democratic world. What a rotten guy eh?

> Soros uses his wealth to enrich mankind and expand
> democratic institutions around the world.

You’re joking, right? Soros is the poster child for how wealthy people can buy elections. That is plutocracy, not democracy. If Mr. Soros was buying elections for fundamentalist Christian Republicans, you’d call him Satan.

The Kool Aid they give you must be pretty good huh, Mr. Kasoff?

I am sure Buffy will settle in Ladue and live next to Muffy, CeCe, Mimi, DeDe and the other pink and green ladies. I wonder how good she is at turning out dead voters? Oh, and Muffy, I mean Buffy, you might want to get one of those no fee ATM’s as you are going to need a lot of C-A-S-H for the city ward healers. I’d hate to have to count the provisional ballots this fall. The GOP challengers are going to have a field day.

Do you all remember this about Filner? http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1883982/posts
Anyway, one thing I have noticed about the Obama campaign is that none of his aides or mouthpieces on cable TV from his campaign are African Americans. Not that I personally care, it is just an observation. I seem to recall many of the past white candidates going out of their way to have blacks on their campaign staffs. Is this the same thing in reverse? What has Obama got against employing African Americans? Or is there some underlying message that Obama wants to reassure whites that his admintration won’t be completely African-American?

Like I said, this is an observation folks, not an attack on Obama, so don’t get your girdles in a knot.

flyover - you are hysterical. Do you have a blog?
glic- CNS is not only NOT a fake news source, but actually a great news source as is http://www.freerepublic.com. John A’s piece is right-on. I rememeber all of this from that campaign. Soros was Obama’s primary Senate campaign funder.
As a ‘TRUEDEM” I would think you would be upset at megamoguls like Soros who only care about getting Democrats elected so that they can take everyone else’s money and spend it the way he sees fit. Why doesn’t he just fund healthcare, education, and homelessness on his own instead. He makes $200 million a month for gosh sakes.

Oh wait, did you say Howard Dean’s presidential campaign organizer?
Thanks for the laugh, Jo.