An irregular campaign

Today’s New York Post carries “Stealing the election” by Professor Glenn Reynolds. In addition to teaching law at the University of Tennessee Law School, Professor Reynolds holds down the fort at Instapundit. In his Post column, he summarizes the nationwide voter registration fraud perpetrated by Obama’s allies, the campaign finance fraud that permeates the Obama campaign and the thuggish tactics employed by the Obama campaign to stifle criticism. As for the press, Glenn comments:

Although there has been some coverage here and there, the response of the national press corps to these rather shocking developments has been a collective yawn. Even some Democrats are noticing. On Obama’s broken promise on public financing, former Sen. Bob Kerrey observed, “There’s a liberal bias. There’s a preference for Obama and it’s getting underreported as a result.”

Likewise, the voter-fraud stories are being downplayed or even spun as unimportant: A recent article in Slate was headlined “Stolen Elections: As American as Apple Pie.” (I don’t recall them taking that attitude in 2000.) And if it were the NRA, instead of ACORN, registering Mickey Mouse to vote, I suspect the reaction would be different. This election has really served to demonstrate the importance of a free, independent and honest press and how unfortunate it is that we don’t have one.

Of course, if the press weren’t in the tank for Obama, it might still face intimidation. The Obama campaign threatened the licenses of TV stations that ran an NRA ad that truthfully stated Obama’s record of supporting gun control. Obama-supporting prosecutors and sheriffs in Missouri formed a “truth squad” and – until challenged – threatened punishment against those telling “lies” about Obama. Reporters from
newspapers endorsing McCain – including this one – were even booted from Obama’s campaign plane.

And Joe Wurzelbacher, better known as “Joe the Plumber,” experienced a different form of thuggishness, as his rise to prominence led to illegal background checks on state computer systems in Ohio. Helen Jones-Kelley, director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, authorized checks into his background that may have violated state law. (According to OpenSecrets.org and press reports, Jones-Kelley is an Obama donor.)

Information on Wurzelbacher was also accessed from the office of the Ohio attorney general and the Toledo Police Department.

Glenn likens the irregularities plaguing the campaign and the election to the current financial crisis:

Weaknesses in the financial system that weren’t addressed because they benefited insiders led to the current economic crisis. It’s now clear that our political system suffers from similar weaknesses. Just as no-doc loans and dubious financial controls led to the subprime crisis – but weren’t addressed because they were making participants rich – so, too, may no-doc voting and dubious financial controls lead to a political crisis that, quite possibly, will make the financial crisis look mild. But will the political players have the backbone to address the problems before a crisis appears?

Professor Reynolds answers: “So far, it looks doubtful.” One might also note the entrenched opposition of Democrats around the country to any legislation intended to curb fraudulent voter registration and illegal voting. Democrats protect illegal voters as though they are a core constitutency of the party.

Professor Reynolds’s column includes comments on the Obama campaign’s online fundraising operation. It is an operation that deliberately facilitates credit card fraud and illegal contributions. Our man “John Galt” — he of 1957 Ayn Rand Lane — originally brought the Obama campaign’s online fundraising modus operandi to our attention. After contributing under the name John Galt, he returned to contribute under the names Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden and Bill Ayers.

The Obama campaign has gratefully acknowledged the contributions of Messrs. Galt, Hussein, bin Laden and Ayers to the campaign. At Obama Shrugged, “Mr. Galt” now takes a step back to explain “Everything you wanted to know about the Obama fundraising scandal in less than 5 minutes!” It’s a useful companion to Glenn Reynolds’s excellent column.

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