Words and Deeds

I am sure that we've all heard the words of Barack Obama. Many say he is eloquent. Others, like me, say his words are hollow. Now, you might have to question the truth of this man and whether or not his deed will, and have, actually match his words.

In the last month, we have actually learned a lot about Barack Obama and his words. Last week, Barack Obama had to declare that he had received more campaign funding from Tony Rezko than Obama had originally disclosed. In the heat of his campaign in Ohio, we hear from Mr. Obama that he, when he takes office, would abandon NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement). Then, days later, we hear that one of his surrogates, Austan Goolsbee, had told the Canadian government not worry about NAFTA and that any talk of abandoning it was just politics. Right after that, a foreign policy adviser, Samantha Power, tells a foreign press that Obama would not immediately begin pulling troops from Iraq and that he would take into account what was happening on the ground. Of course, this was in complete contradiction to Obama stance that he would immediately pull troops from Iraq after he took office. Finally, yesterday, Senator Obama admitted that he had been in Church and heard his pastor make divisive and politically controversial statements. This, again, contradicted a statement that he had made only five days earlier in an interview with Major Garrett at Fox News. In that interview, he said he had never been in "the pews" when Pastor Wright made any of those comments.

I know that the "believers" in Obama will try and explain all this away or, sadly, just ignore it. However, there is a pattern developing around Obama. You got to wonder how many other "words" of Obama haven't or won't match the "deeds" that he has said and, or, promise. Surely, his voting record in the United States Senate with regard to Iraq hasn't always been consistent with his claim that he was against the war from the start. Finally, you get an inconsistent statement like this when Obama was asked about Iraq: "There's not much of a difference between my position and George Bush's position at this stage.” - Chicago Tribune, 07/27/04