Obama’s Vaunted Vetting Team Goes Bust
Bill Richardson was forced to withdraw from consideration for Commerce Secretary today amidst allegations of corruption. Is anyone else wondering how the media will react to the Obama campaign’s vetting process?
Cast your mind back about four months ago. Obama adherents in the mainstream media were falling all over themselves pointing out how allegedly poor John McCain’s vetting process was in choosing Sarah Palin as the VP nominee. The concern they said, was that Governor Palin’s daughter Bristol was (gasp!) pregnant while not being married. Typical hypocrisy from the left.
The bloggers got all excited too, always seizing on an opportunity to highlight their idiocy. Idiots. One particular Daily Kos post went through ridiculous lengths to highlight the supposedly superior Obama vetting process and even pointed out the ”rigorous” vetting of Bill Richardson as a potential VP candidate:
Gov. Richardson tells of how Barack Obama called him several times out of concern about how he was holding up during the process. It might be safe to surmise that he also called the other potential candidates on his list.
Kudos to the vaunted Obama vetting team! Apparently Bill Richardson was too corrupt to be vice-president, but that doesn’t necessarily preclude him for getting a cabinet job.
Meanwhile, that thumping sound you hear? That’s the sound of Richardson under the wheels of the Hope ‘n’ Change express:
Sources tell ABC News that officials on the Obama Transition Team feel that before he was formally offered the job of commerce secretary, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson was not forthcoming with them about the federal investigation that is looking into whether the governor steered a state contract towards a major financial contributor.
I guess it would be asking too much of the transparent hope ‘n’ change bunch to acknowledge that they screwed up here, as anyone who was casually following this story since it broke last month knew that there were some issues. That it took this long for Richardson to withdraw himself from consideration only shows that it wasn’t that much of a problem for the Obama team and they have no problems putting all of the blame on Richardson for not being “forthcoming”. What a classy bunch.
More from Riehl World View and Ed Morrissey
They were aware of the underlying investigation and were waiting to see what would transpire, but Blago’s antics make all that irrelevant. Richardson did the right thing by withdrawing.
But I did get a minor chuckle in your attempt to pair the Richardson situation with that of Palin. The two are almost analogous.
Well, no. Not even close.
The Blago episode has nothing to do with anything here.
Richardson’s acts of impropriety didn’t take place since he was tapped for a cabinet post, but rather before then. Obama’s team vetted Richardson for the VP spot. Meanwhile the extremists in the blogosphere and Obama surrogates in the media made it seem like Obama could do no wrong, that his way was the only way when it came to economics, foreign policy and yes, the selection process. My point is that the Obama team is not as bright as they would like most people to think; not everyone has the Kool-Aid fed intravenously like the Left.
Nevertheless, the Richardson episode will be brushed aside by the media, as he is possibly involved in political corruption of his own doing, unlike Sarah Palin. And oh yeah, I forgot. Her daughter’s boyfriend’s mother was caught selling drugs. Keep holding on to that one…
Thanks for posting…
“The Forum”, I am confused as to your position from your post. You seem to be quite cynical towards boths sides. If that was intended however, I think I may have found a new best friend! However, on to the main business of my post. Myself being a very moderate liberal, finds this article quite amusing. The real reason(s) that we hate Sarah Palin is because she has no real experience in big government. Now before you do the Barack Obama has no experience in ANY executive office let me explain. Obama did not have advertisements stating he had more experience than McCain. McCain’s opening platform was that he was more experienced in government. Then he goes and picks Palin. Of all the brilliant Republican women who are worth my respect, McCain chooses the woman who has 18 months experience as governor of Alaska. There are 15 cities in the United States with more people in them than the state of Alaska, and with these cities, are major urban problems, which Palin has no experience dealing with considering the homogeniety of Alaska’s population (a.k.a. white as the snow up there) and the lack of major cities in Alaska. Then the McCain campaign says she has more experience because she was mayor of a city of 5,000. I smell hypocrisy! One of my local high schools has about 3,000 students. Case and point, should he be 1st in line to become President? Better yet, I live in Detroit, so scandal or not should Kwame have gotten a look for veep? (rhetorical sarcasm, please don’t take that seriously) NO!!! I like Obama but I got off the Democrat’s bandwagon a while ago and started thinking for myself. It’s time for America to start thinking for itself too.
Frank -
It was more of my take on how ridiculous the Obama adulation really is. It’s beyond sycophantic behavior, at least during the campaign anyway. This idea that he can do no wrong and that everything he and his team engage in, is the correct, most efficient way to go about things. (This idea may be coming to an end as we have seen in recent weeks). That Obama’s vetting process was stellar and perfect, is what they wanted people to assume. Well, if that’s the case, then what happened with Richardson? That was the point I was trying to make, and it looks a little embarrassing at this point.
As to your point about Sarah Palin, I disagree somewhat with your contention that what liberals don’t like about Sarah Palin is her lack of government experience. I believe this is true to an extent, but the insane vitriol from self-proclaimed feminists, liberal ideologues on the Left in the media and whatnot, during the campaign, just showed a deeper, more disturbing anger. It went beyond the whole government experience argument, in my opinion. Governor Palin has a good record of standing against corruption in Alaska, primarily against the GOP, which is part of what makes her appealing to most conservatives. But I will reassert the fact that Obama has no executive experience, and personally, I don’t believe Senators make good leaders in general. For that reason, I’d rather Palin not run for US Senate and remain governor where she should complete her term, run for re-election, gain some more experience, stick to her conservative principles and do what got her the nomination in the first place. The Palin in 2012 idea is a bit premature for a variety of reasons, in my opinion.
And as for McCain, there were numerous ways his campaign, Senator McCain himself, and his aides, screwed up the campaign.
Thanks for posting.
John