Weyuker on Obama

Not long ago I picked up the June 2008 Edition "A" of The Valley Breeze. No, I don't have a pet bird, nor am I training a puppy. Thanks for asking.

In there I read former DHS Mayor Matt Weyuker's column "And Rightly So..." In this particular column he criticized Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. We don't much care what he has to say about Mrs. Clinton, but I believe he is sadly misshapen on several of his points about Mr. Obama. I'm bothered by what I think is the unusually large amount of misinformation about Barack Obama that's being shoveled by a lot of people this year, so I've gone through the column and tried to research Weyuker's assertions.

BTW, if you need to know before we start, I am, for the first time in a presidential election year, genuinely undecided. Bob Barr "the Libertarian" hasn't communicated anything to me except a request for money, McCain is a Republican, Obama is a Democrat, so you see how they've all got their problems.

1. Weyuker writes "what does he mean by 'change?'"

That Weyuker asks this question is a reflection on Weyuker's knowledge (and lack thereof), not Obama's positions. One can easily learn Obama's positions on issues by simply going to Obama's website. You can say you're for or against them, you may say some are empty promises or unlikely to be achieved, or you may say he's got the greatest ideas since FDR, but to say you don't know what they are is not a valid criticism of Obama.

On his website you can download the very convenient Blueprint For Change [PDF]. It's long, but I'll just hit a few highlights that jumped out at me as I scanned it: universal health care; cutting income taxes; increasing the minimum wage; supporting the Employee Free Choice Act; putting a cap on credit card interest rates at 36% (!); eliminating income taxes for seniors making less than $50,000; reforming No Child Left Behind; opposing any constitutional amendment to overturn Roe vs. Wade; expanding the EITC; assuring every worker is eligible for seven paid sick days per year; expanding broadband internet access in rural areas; expanding Americorps and Peace Corps; eliminating the sentencing disparity between crack and cocaine; beginning to remove troops from Iraq; increasing the size of the military by 65,000 Army soldiers and 27,000 Marines.

2. Weyuker writes that "he missed the Iran Resolution vote in the US Senate."

The "Iran Resolution?" I suspect there have been quite a few "Iran Resolutions." I did find this article about a resolution passed by the Senate 76-22 in September 2007 urging Bush to designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization. This seems to have been a Republican-sponsored resolution. Hillary Clinton voted for it, Barack Obama missed the vote. I don't know if Obama would be better presidential material if the vote had gone 77-22 or 76-23.

3. Weyuker says that Ali Abunimah supports the destruction of Israel and he is a friend and financial supporter of Obama.

Ali Abunimah is a Chicago reporter, and here's an editorial he published in March 2007 in which he criticizes Obama's favorable stance on Israel. He never suggests that the two of them have ever been friends. He says the last time he spoke to Obama was in 2004. Here's an article in which Ali Abunimah says "I knew Barack Obama for many years as my state senator." It doesn't sound like they're friends. I can't find any information saying that Ali Abunimah did or did not provide financial support to Obama. Everything I do find confirms Ali Abunimah's growing disgust with Obama's pro-Israel position, so I'd be pretty surprised if he was providing financial suppoprt to him.

4. Weyuker says Obama's name is Arabic, not Swahili.

My initial response is "Who cares?" I've got Scottish and French names, but that doesn't mean I'm going to actively try to overthrow the British monarchy.

Here's a response I found on Snopes.com: The author seems to be unaware that many Swahili words and names are of Arabic origin (just as many English words originated with other languages). "Barack" is a Swahili name that entered the language via historical trade and cultural ties with Arabia.

5. Weyuker says Obama claims he never practiced Islam, but that in fact Obama practiced Islam in school and remained a Muslim for 31 years. His wife talked him into converting to Christianity.

My response before doing any research would be, again, "Who cares?" Is there some reason a Muslim or former Muslim can't be president? But it turns out Weyuker has his facts incorrect. From Snopes: He never practiced Islam and never was a Muslim. His mother, an atheist, exposed him to many religions and their practices. He has been active in the United Church of Christ since the mid 1980s. He met his wife in 1988.

6. Weyuker says Obama cannot speak Indonesian.

Is this the test for presidency now, speaking Indonesian? Can Bush or McCain speak Indonesian? I would think that speaking French, Spanish, Japanese, Russian or even Arabic would be ever-so-much more helpful. But, hey, whadda ya know, Barack Obama DOES speak Indonesian. According to Snopes: When prominent Indonesians visit the U.S., the first person they want to meet is Obama, says Parnohadiningrat Sudjadnan, the Indonesian ambassador to the U.S. "Back home people think of him as one of us, or at least one who understands us," he says, adding that they are delighted to find that Obama speaks passable Bahasa, the language spoken in Indonesia and Malaysia.

7. Other than Indonesia, Africa and the Middle East, Obama has never been outside the U.S.

I would think visiting Indonesia, Africa and the Middle East would be pretty good foreign experience for a president. Compare Bush's foreign travels before he became president. He went to Mexico, right? Here's what I found at Snopes: "Living abroad does give you a wider view of the world," says Zbigniew Brzezinski, former National Security Adviser under Jimmy Carter, and a Polish-American who spent four years as a child living in Germany with his diplomat father. Obama is "a person with genuine sensitivity of world affairs," says Brzenzinski, who is supporting Obama. "It's not the conventional mouthing of culture sensitivities." Brzezinski points to Obama's greater willingness to meet leaders of hostile nations and his early resistance to the war in Iraq as examples of his superior intuition on foreign policy.

But it turns out that Weyuker has his facts wrong again. As a U.S. Senator Obama has visited Russia, Ukraine, and Azerbaijan.

8. He voted "Present" 130 times in the Illinois Senate.

My initial response would be "So what?" Would it make him better presidential material to have voted "no" or "yes" on those issues? Even the least qualified state senator can press a "yes" or "no" button 100% of the time. You would need to look at every issue where he voted "present" to form any kind of a valid opinion on them.

Here's a N.Y Times article explaining the significance of the "present" vote in the Illinois Senate. Senators can use it to protest a poorly written bill. The article does not say that any of the bills passed or failed by a thin margin where Obama's vote might have made a difference. Here is an opinion piece by Abner Mikva, who has served in the Illinois legislature. He clarifies that the Illinois constitution requires an absolute majority to pass a bill. IOW, the Senate has 59 members, so 30 Senators have to vote "yes" to pass a bill, regardless of how many are actually in the chamber. A "present" vote, then, is functionally equivalent to a "no" vote.

Here the persnickety people at NPR clarify that it was 129 "present" votes, not 130.

9. He doesn't put his hand over his heart because doesn't want "to offend Muslims and others who don't like America."

That's just a plain, made up story. Sometimes he puts his hand over his heart during the singing of the national anthem, sometimes not. He says he is not making any statement. The linked page shows him doing both. Weyuker may be using this obviously satirical article as the basis for his misinformation.