The American Spectator

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The Judgement Thing

By Philip Klein on 12.9.08 @ 12:21PM

Dave is right to point out that as far as we can tell from the indictment, Obama appears to be in the clear with regard to the  charges about Blagojevich trying to sell the Senate seat. However, the Blagojevich connection is merely the latest in a long line of troubling associations for Obama. The most charitable assessment of the pattern is that Obama is content looking the other way in the face of wrongdoing to gain political advantage at the time. This is the case with the financing he received from Tony Rezko, his membership in Jeremiah Wright's church, and his relationship with Blagojevich. While the issues didn't cost him the election, the question that remains is whether the judgment he's displayed in his associations in the past, will be a prologue to how he conducts himself as president. Can somebody emerge from a corrupt political world, navigating it adroitly, without internalizing some of its tactics?