LETTER: Obama has plenty of skeletons in his closet

Barack Obama’s campaign unleashed a team of attorneys into Alaska to dig up dirt on Gov. Palin, and yet I am amazed at how the media has avoided scrutinizing Obama’s very questionable and disturbing ties and dealing with Chicago’s machine politics group. This should be a major topic of concern for Americans.

From the start of his political career, which he based then and now on a platform of “reform and change,” he was and still is connected to Chicago’s political machine, the most corrupt in the United States.

He is a byproduct of that system. He could and should have started his reform and changed with them, but you can’t be a reformer when you are a puppet of and in the pocket of those who are corrupt. He has been aided by and promoted by the Chicago machine. His first couple of races he hired consultants to get his opponents thrown off the ballots on technicalities like printed names instead of written, maiden names instead of married names, etc.

Once the other candidates were eliminated, he was unopposed and won. The voters had no options. When Obama became senator, he earmarked $1 million to Michelle Obama’s employer, Chicago Medical Center, who had just happened to double her salary.

The media is shirking their duty by not reporting on this because should Obama be elected to the White House this is who will be controlling the White House. He doesn’t vote for you, even though he talks a good game. He votes for those he owes, those whose pockets he is in. Convicted felon Tony Rezko contributed to his campaign and he only severed ties with his pastor and hate-mongering mentor, the Rev. Wright, after intense pressure to do so.

You can’t bring about reform by voting “present.” Obama says he will cut taxes on the middle class, yet he has voted for tax increases on the middle class 90 times, some as recently as this year. He wants abortion to be paid by the taxpayers and he has taken $900 million in earmarks to John McCain’s $0. When Congress had a discussion about diverting the “bridge to nowhere” funds to Katrina victims, Obama and Joe Biden both voted “no.”

If McCain wins in November and truly brings reform, it should begin with the Chicago political machine, and it will be every interesting to see whose head rolls.

Shannon Leslie

Warsaw