Yes We Can

UPDATE: Wasn't going to blog this weekend, but Obama busting up big time. Obama caught out on Wright. See below. More on the propaganda artist, via Michelle. And see video below.
***
He wanted that house. He and Michelle, who didn't move to Washington with him. He said to himself--yes we can...

with a little help from Tony Rezko.

No words needed, just a house tour, a glance at the lot next door.

Fix it, Tony

Fix it.

Barack took a risk, he knew it then, and if he didn't he should have.

Didn't know about the growing defaults on the Rezko "affordable" housing properties his law firm was handling, not even those in his own district.

Didn't think about the conflict of interest in doing business (in the deal for the strip of land) with a contributor, not to mention one who was under investigation.

Didn't worry about when the favor might be asked in return, about his repeated dependence on the same major money man, campaign after campaign in quick succession, trading up each time.

Didn't think twice about asking Rezko (the money man)'s advice on buying the house, giving him that house tour.

Didn't know about the Rezko straw donor and the straw donor's son who became his intern.

Didn't know the people he met at the Four Seasons, the people Tony asked him to meet, didn't remember their names.

One thing Barack Obama did know--he knew what he wanted. Yes we can. Yes we can do what we want, have what we want when we want it. Yes we can trust Tony. Yes we can.

UPDATE: I listened to the entire Sun Times interview, and they asked the key question at the end about whether he and Rezko had discussed keeping the land undeveloped. He said no. I didn't read the transcript of it, but apparently I should have!!! Dan Curry, Reverse Spin picks this up:

UPDATE: In the audio of the Sun-Times visit, as the meeting was breaking up, a reporter asked Obama point-blank whether he and Tony discussed keeping the land vacant. Barack said “no.” This interchange is not captured on the Sun-Times transcript.

This is mind-boggling.

Curry also does not find Obama's explanation credible. Nor does John Kass at the Tribune. Curry also brings up Hugh Hewitt's post from earlier this week on the Senate rules on gifts.

UDPATE: Not credible. Not credible on Wright either. Via Scott at Powerline, Rich Lowry finds at least one passage from Obama's book which alludes to the theme of one of the Rev.'s offensive sermons--the first sermon he heard from Wright. More insight on Obama's thinking from Powerline, John and Paul.

UPDATE: In case you haven't seen this video--more apropos every day:

UPDATE: Mark Steyn:

Those of us who made the mistake of buying the senator’s last book, The Audacity of Hope, and assumed the title was an ingeniously parodic distillation of the great sonorous banality of an entire genre of blandly uplifting political writing discovered circa page 127 that in fact the phrase comes from one of the Reverend Wright’s sermons. Jeremiah Wright has been Barack Obama’s pastor for 20 years — in other words, pretty much the senator’s entire adult life. Did Obama consider God Damn America as a title for his book but it didn’t focus-group so well?

UPDATE: Illinois Review with screen shots of the church's website page on their black value system in Dec. 2006 and now.

UPDATE: Thanks Tom! Who knew? Certainly not me. Barack Haiku Obama

P.S. The mendacity of hope.

UPDATE: Via HotAir, Huffpo blogger Gerald Posner questions Barack's Wright explanation. Jake Tapper, ABC, what did Obama know and when did he know it? Liberal columnist supporter of Obama defense--he probably wasn't listening in church.

:) Outnumbered, Hillary supporters on Kos declare "writers strike", walk out on Kos over "unfair writing conditions". Maybe they can form a "union":) Should be a fun convention.

UPDATE: The AP style guide on defending Barack Obama. Newsbusters.

Nixonian Obama.

The Politico: Obama releases names of Rezko-linked donors

Previous posts: Race and the Democrats, Obama Reveals More on Rezko, Propagandists for Obama, Multiculti Myopia, Obama's Convenient Conversion, God Damn America, The Obama Master Plan