David Freddoso, one of the minions at K-Lo’s House of Crazy, dedicates an entire piece in the WSJ to this:
According to the Chicago Tribune, Mr. Obama’s petition challengers reported to him nightly on their progress as they disqualified his opponents’ signatures on various technical grounds — all legitimate from the perspective of law. One local newspaper, Chicago Weekend, reported that “[s]ome of the problems include printing registered voters name [sic] instead of writing, a female voter got married after she registered to vote and signed her maiden name, registered voters signed the petitions but don’t live in the 13th district.”
One of the candidates would speculate that his signature-gatherers, working at a per-signature pay rate, may have cheated him by signing many of the petitions themselves, making them easy to disqualify.
In the end, Mr. Obama disqualified all four opponents — including the incumbent state senator, Alice Palmer, and three minor candidates. Ms. Palmer, a former ally of Mr. Obama, had gathered 1,580 signatures, more than twice the 757 required to appear on the ballot. A minor, perennial candidate had gathered 1,899 signatures, suggesting the Obama team invested much time working even against him.
The act of throwing an incumbent off the ballot in such a fashion does not fit neatly into the narrative of a public-spirited reformer who seeks to make people less cynical about politics.
Not only have we heard this story over and over an over again, does anyone else find it amusing that law and order Republicans completely get their knickers in a twist because…. Barack Obama followed election laws? I mean, I understand the GOP has become a lawless party of criminals and reprobates, but I didn’t know they were openly advocating NOT following laws.
At any rate, Mr. Freddoso, after watching you and your cohort tongue-bathe the current administration’s perenially lawless and criminal behavior, you might be surprised to find folks getting less than worked up about a candidate who, as you say in your title, played by the rules. It would be a refreshing change.
OBAMA FOLLOWED THE RULES- DO YOU WANT TO VOTE FOR THAT?Post + Comments (50)