Sunday, March 16, 2008

Obama Talks To The Chicago Tribune About Rezko

Obama spoke with a room full of Chicago Trib reporters for 92 minutes about his dealings with Rezko. For those that have been following the Rezko story, The Chicago Tribune broke the story about Rezko's dealings, not only with Obama, but other dealings that have now put him on trial - this is the paper "of record" on Rezko.
After the talk with Obama, The Trib has come away satified that Obama has answered all their questions; The Trib has cleared Obama of any wrong doing with regard to Rezko.
Some highlihts:
Obama fleshed out his relationship with Rezko -- including the disclosure that Rezko raised as much as $250,000 for the first three offices Obama sought. But Obama's explanation was less a font of new data or an act of contrition than the addition of nuance and motive to a long-mysterious relationship.

We fully expect the Clinton campaign, given its current desperation, to do whatever it must in order to keep the Rezko tin can tied to Obama's bumper.
...
We said in that same editorial that Obama had been too self-exculpatory in explaining away his ties to Tony Rezko. And we've been saying since Nov. 3, 2006 -- shortly after the Tribune broke the story of Obama's house purchase -- that Obama needed to fully explain his Rezko connection. He also needed to realize how susceptible he had been to someone who wanted a piece of him -- and how his skill at recognizing that covetousness needed to rise to the same stature as his popular appeal.

Friday's session evidently fulfills both obligations. Might we all be surprised by some future disclosure? Obama's critics have waited 16 months for some new and cataclysmic Rezko moment to implicate and doom Obama. It hasn't happened.
...
Obama should have had Friday's discussion 16 months ago. Asked why he didn't, he spoke of learning, uncomfortably, what it's like to live in a fishbowl. That made him perhaps too eager to protect personal information -- too eager to "control the narrative."

Less protection, less control, would have meant less hassle for his campaign. That said, Barack Obama now has spoken about his ties to Tony Rezko in uncommon detail. That's a standard for candor by which other presidential candidates facing serious inquiries now can be judged.

via Chicago Tribune

And as a shout-out to Clinton, I want to highlight that last sentence: That's a standard for candor by which other presidential candidates facing serious inquiries now can be judged

Saying you are fully vetted and actually being fully vetted are two differenct things, Senator Clinton.

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