Obama Transition Web Site ‘Open for Questions’ — Except on Blagojevich

In fairness, the site is designed for policy-related questions. I believe that asking about the “scandal”-du-jour is your job, and you might get your chance tomorrow.
Seriously, though, anyone complaining because we’re asking Obama to discuss his policy towards Iran or Russia or Wall Street oversight instead of getting an exact number of words Obama spoke to Governor Rod is really pathetic. Aren’t these the sorts of questions we’re supposed to be ENCOURAGED to ask?

C’mon, Jake, you’re smarter than this and you know the ways of the internet. Many of those “questions” seem to be part of a coordinated effort (“Freepers”, maybe?) to flood the site with anti-Obama smears. The website is perfectly within its rights to confine the questions to matters of policy and not allow it to be hijacked. These are the ways of the internet, as even the ABC site moderators know.
On the point of the questions themselves, I do wish the media will be fair in its questions. Of course, everyone is curious about the Blagojevich situation but it seems to me there is no need for the media to be hostile and accusatory. If the facts that had come out had indicated even the POSSIBILITY that the Obama people had hinted at favors being offered to Blago in exchange for Obama’s preferred candidate (presumably, Jarrett) being appointed, then accusatory questions would be appropriate. But since the exact opposite seems to be the case, it seems to me fair for the media to inquire about the facts but I see no need for accusations, innuendo or hostility.

This is a habit of Jake Tapper. He loves getting the Freepers here and commenting on his blog. He exists for one reason: to give ammo for right-wingers. He’s been on the Michael Savage’s show, who’se a despicable waste of human life.
And the Obama team comes up w/ a policy webpage, and we have hacks like Jake Tapper to spew GOP stupidity.
And I agree w/ the other commentators who rightly note that the ONLY evidence EXCULPATES Obama. So why this obsession is beyond me; well, actually, I know why; b/c Tapper and the rest of the degenerates in the media like Ben Smith of Politico like creating controversies where non exist.

Obama is a product of and tool of the very corrupt Chicago political machine. WE told you so. This is just the beginning of the nightmare that will unfold and Obama is entangled within it’s web. Obama and Rham Emmanuel ran Gov. Blagojovich’s campaign in 2002. Emmanuel assumed Blago’s Congressional seat after he won the Gov’s race. Rezko was the money man for Obama and Blagojovich.
WHY did Obama lie about “not talking to Blago” yesterday when his own David Axelrod and Gov’s records, photos and likely tapped conversations say he did??
Is this the “Change” you hopey, changey sorts were waiting for? LOL!
Damn, we could have and should have had Hillary as our next President. Missed opportunities indeed.
Obama is so over before he ever got started.

The voters got suckered.
The media promoted Obama 24/7 for a year and half.
The DNC betrayed Hillary and failed to vet Obama. If they did vet him they covered up what they found.
The entire 2008 campaign debacle was unfair and undemocratic.
Let’s hope MUCH MORE comes out to destroy Obama BEFORE he’s sworn in next month.
Let’s hope the media actually does their job and investigates and reports the TRUTH about Blagojovich, Obama, Rahm Emmanuel, David Axelrod, Mayor Daley, David Wilhelm, Valerie Jarret, Jessie Jackson, Jr., Antoin “Tony” Rezko, etc…………………..
Chicago is full of dirty crooks. That’s been true for a century! WE should no better as a nation than to EVER elect ANYONE from Chicago as a U.S. President.
What you people who voted for Obama thinking?
Hillary should be the next President.
I LOVE Patrick Fitzgerald!
Merry Fitzmas indeed!!!!!!!!!!!

Lisa,
don’t fall for the ‘Obama’s preferred candidate’ phrase. He officially appointed her his WH adviser 10 days after his election and it was made known a few days before that. So when exactly did he spend that time ‘preferring’ her for the seat?
Or did he get elected on Tuesday, celebrated on Wednesday, preferred her on Thursday, changed his mind on Friday, started thinking of another job to give her on Saturday, came up with one on Sunday, discussed it with her on Monday, let his closest advisers know on Tuesday, made up his mind of Wednesday, turned his attention to Hillary on Thursday.

Question, It doesn’t matter who the “preferred candidate” was (though I believe it was Jarrett) or even if there was a “preferred candidate”. The fact is that it’s clear from the tapes that the Obama people weren’t willing to play Blago’s game in any case.

Lisa,
Actually it’s pretty alright to have a “preferred candidate”, you know, just somebody Obama thought could do his job well. It’s only when money starts changing hands that that is bad.
To all those right-wingers here frothing at the mouth over the Blago scandal, please explain why Blago used expletives to refer to Obama? When did calling somebody a vulgar name become a synoym for “My good buddy”?

Grey Matter,
I know it’s alright to have a preferred candidate. “Question” was nit-picking about whether Jarrett was one and advising me not to “fall for it” (though I have no idea why it matters).

“On the point of the questions themselves, I do wish the media will be fair in its questions.”
I hope they’re just as fair as they were with Sarah Palin.

Obama is a thug. Always was and always will be. Soon the rats will start eating each other. Get some popcorn and enjoy the show.

‘Mark, Please inform me as to which questions to Sarah Palin you think were “unfair”?’
Not specific questions, so much, as the “guilty until proven innocent” approach that so many in the media and Obama fanatics took. I’d bet you weren’t willing to cut her any slack; why should Obama get that luxury?

“Stay tuned for the GOP Civil War, though!”
I don’t know of any GOP pols being thrown under the bus right now.

“Even without the Troopergate, she apparently, for instance charged the state too liberally for per diems- on days when she was at home- and not for official trips.”
Riiiight…she “apparently” …all of which is evidence of obvious criminality on the part of Sarah Palin. She was cleared; we’ll see if Obama uiltimately is as well.

Aaah….I love the smell of left-wing panic in the morning…merry Fitzmas to all!
Why yes, nothing to see here….only don’t you think it’s a little, oh, I don’t know, unusual that two ofthe President-Select’s closest associates (no, he doesn’t have friends) are in jail. (Counting Rezko) Though the gov was out on bail so I guess that makes it…OK?
Trust me when I tell you this is only the beginning.
have a lovely Fitzmas one and all!

Mark,
She was never cleared. She did do the per diems. Somebody is filing a lawsuit on it in Alaska, I think. Anyway, how about her fear-mongering and comments designed to appeal to Islamophobia and the whole “he’s not like us” rubbish?
Hmm? She has never struck me as reconciliatary other then being a shrill.

Is Jake Tapper a Republican? Because I have to say, for a White House correspondent he does very little analysis of the actions (or lack thereof) of the current tenant of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave…
I’m glad that journalists have decided to be thorough and tough in questioning but I’m just wondering where they were 5 years ago when they were singing the praises of the Iraq war that has cost thousands of our soldiers’ lives?

Mark,
Whatever. He and Joe Biden can talk in complete sentences and are clearly more intelligent and sharp then Sarah. What is he supposed to say? I was not shocked by Blagojevich’s behaviour?
Hmm, some of you over here who were typing furiously on November 3rd on how McCain/Palin would win in a landslide, how the Bradley effect would rear its head, how many whites actually weren’t going to vote for Obama, how the youth vote wasn’t actuallt going to turn out.
And who had the last laugh on that? :)
Speculate all you want, but we shall see.

So glad we have “proteapal” to inform us that Obama “doesn’t have friends.”
This silliness is getting tiresome…

“Whatever. He and Joe Biden can talk in complete sentences and are clearly more intelligent and sharp then Sarah. What is he supposed to say? I was not shocked by Blagojevich’s behaviour?”
But of course — Joe “FDR got on the tube in ’29″ Biden is obviously one sharp guy. And Barack “call the president of Canada” Obama is as well. But that has nothing to do with the matter at hand. It just says you don’t like Sarah Palin.

I was just on the Obama open for questions website and found all kinds of questions about the governor.

Mark,
No. It says I liked the Democratic ticket. I liked Obama and Biden, and supported them not because I disliked Palin. It was Obama vs Bush no. 3, and Palin just made the choice even easier- her behaviour really turned me off.
Yeah, Biden didn’t have to go to six universities to get a degree, did he? And Palin’s interviews show she hasn’t improved, has she? Biden came across as very intelligent. You don’t ge to be Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee if you’re a moron, do you?
Uh, no one is denying that Obama knew Blago. Hello, he was the US Senator of Illinois and he’s the governor. It’s impossible their paths wouldn’t cross. But Obama clearly, if he or his team had any contact with Blago, smacked his offer down.

Lisa,
I think Question was just pointing out that was the nature of Jake’s logic.

Mark,
So there you were! You went to dig up and appropriate quote from the newspapers! How hardworking!
Um, in my opinion, I think Obama knew that Blago WAS up to some slime- and already sought to keep his distance from him (he did not allow Blago to speak at the DNC when Blago wanted to, for one). He is saying that he was not involved in Blago’s schemes. And I think he is answering that way because otherwise the media will speculate on “What did he know” before the FBI is ready to release the info.

“No. It says I liked the Democratic ticket. I liked Obama and Biden, and supported them not because I disliked Palin. It was Obama vs Bush no. 3, and Palin just made the choice even easier- her behaviour really turned me off.”
Of course you didn’t. You disliked Palin (like a lot of your compadres) because she was a threat to Obama.

Wrong, Mark. A lot of us disliked Palin because she implied, among other things, that we were from the wrong parts of America, you know, the unpatriotic parts. She was mean-spirited, divisive AND uninformed. A deadly combination.

I’m a little more curious as to what people expect out of Obama on this? Seems clear from current tapes that they didn’t play nice with Blago. He called on him to resign (albeit indirectly). What should he do?
Granted, I think this story is still developing and I think it is important that real journalists dig and find out if there was any connection to folks in the Obama camp. I try not to be surprised when politicians turn out to be crooked, as Blago seems, but it always seems to take one’s breath away at how brazen they can be…

Mark,
Yeah, in 2006. It was more in the interests of Democratic party. But they’d never been good friends or particularly close.
And since then, he’s increasingly distanced himself from Blago. Explain why Obama did not allow Blago to speak at the DNC then? Come on, can you explain why is it Blago called Obama an expletive over the Senate apptmt? Clearly they refused to play ball with him.

“Wrong, Mark. A lot of us disliked Palin because she implied, among other things, that we were from the wrong parts of America, you know, the unpatriotic parts. She was mean-spirited, divisive AND uninformed. A deadly combination.”
Ahh, so that would explain the slime job that began on Aug 29 then, eh? Right.
Look, it’s a little delusional to think that Obama could come through the Chicago political slime with his political virginity intact. Obama was unvetted by a media that was for the most part in love with him. They didn’t want to pry too deeply into Rezko and all the other rot, and they certainly weren’t going to dwell on it while they could talk about Palin’s per diems or Cindy McCain’s past drug use.

Mark,
You are pointedly ignoring the issue of Palin calling some people not being from “real parts of America” just because WE didn’t love God, Guns and Religion, and we weren’t like them.
Um, the Rezko thing was old news. Obama didn’t do anything wrong. And the media did not bring up the issue of Palin’s per diems much, and hardly touched the speech she gave for the AIP (how ironic. Who’s un-American now?) or Cindy’s drug use, while Fox News and the Freepers were floggin Obama’s cocaine use (which he admitted HIMSELF in his book) in his teenage years like no tomorrow.

“You are pointedly ignoring the issue of Palin calling some people not being from “real parts of America” just because WE didn’t love God, Guns and Religion, and we weren’t like them.”
No, I’m pointedly saying that has nothing to do with whether or not Sarah Palin was criminal or even dishonest. You don’t like what she says about “real America” or whatever, therefore she has to be guilty of whatever. Obviously. Conservatives might be relatively easier on Obama in their opinions. The ruthless slime job on Palin began the moment she was announced. Whining in hurt tones about her rhetoric is disingenuous.

“Um, the Rezko thing was old news. Obama didn’t do anything wrong. And the media did not bring up the issue of Palin’s per diems much, and hardly touched the speech she gave for the AIP…”
You’re kidding, right? All those things were gone over ad nauseam, often in a highly distorted way. The record is just too clear, sorry.

This is exactly how we knew a pro-Obama web based community would act.
The biggest Dem site, DailyKos, completely shut out any non-pro Obama voice during the primaries and election. The people there are well trained to down-rate (and eventually hide) dissenting voices. Of course they are going to behave the same way on Obama’s website.
Surely nobody is surprised. I only wonder if Obama’s webmasters counted on this happening, or actually thought it wouldn’t.

Blagojevich is a tough cookie. Obama’s team rolled the dice and struck first. Too bad that meeting wasn’t bugged.
What’s the difference between buying votes and endorsements and “rewarding” senate seats?
And who wants Hillary Clinton’s seat?
Could it be an Obama endorser?

Ah too bad Jake.
You should get a life or a job. Obama has nothing to say on the matter at this time. If there is anything we should know it will come out in time.

Maybe Obama’s supporters don’t care about the Bago questions and want him to answer on issues.
I know the beltway pundits think that they decide what an important question is, and the general public is just supposed to accept it. That is the thing with internet beltway media doesn’t control it.
Time for the beltway pundits to talk about something regular Americans care about? like: will i keep my job? Not how many leading innuendo based questions can Jake and his cadre of elitist disconnected beltway pundits, ask to try and manufacture a scandal.
NO wonder you guys are going out of business.

All of this is so shady. I now absolutely believe that Obama told his gal pal Valerie J (probably senate canidate number 1)to pull her name because the stuff was about to hit the fan. Obama knew something all right he just cant be that clueless.

After reading all twenty pages of the indictment on smoking gun, I think it is pretty clear Obama’s team was in discussions with Blago. There is so much yet that has not been revealed and I think when all is said and done, the Obama administration will be regarded as the most corrupt administration in history. For anyone to think that Barry could emerge the winner from the cesspool that is Chicago politics is naive. And then to assume he is suddenly going to clean up his act is wishful thinking.
Also, for those of you who keep saying the Rezko matter is “old news”, pull your heads out of the sand. With the arrest of Blago and Harris, the temperature is rising. Rezko and Blago were pretty closely linked, as I recall. Someone’s gonna sing.

Oh, please… Like all similar social promotion websites that do this kind of crowdsourcing, in the process of policing itself, the community has developed a relative consensus on what it wants to see, and what it doesn’t want to see. You’ll see similar effect on Digg, Reddit, Yahoo Buzz, and the rest of Google’s Moderator service on which the Obama technology is based. It is a simple artifact that emerges from all such social communities.
Now, there are a couple reasons I can see for the users doing this, one is an obvious one, that many of these questions are simply spammed by certain users. One user has 30 near-identical questions about moving Guantanamo detainees to the U.S. for trial, and others have quite a few duplicates of the Blago questions, these people are abusing the system in an inappropriate manner and deserve to have their content flagged as such. As for the honest questions caught in the crossfire, when it comes down to it it doesn’t really matter whether it was flagged or not, because the votes on said content are overwhelmingly negative. It would seem that the users don’t see answering those questions again as a priority.

Finally the Obamafog beginning to lift? Now that you understand that everything that comes from The One’s mouth is not necessarily Gospel, perhaps you will start covering the Birth Certificate and Citizenship coverup?

Actually it’s not just Blago. Try asking a question about Jon Favreau – it will be flagged and removed also!

Actually it’s pretty alright to have a “preferred candidate”, you know, just somebody Obama thought could do his job well. It’s only when money starts changing hands that that is bad.
To all those right-wingers here frothing at the mouth over the Blago scandal, please explain why Blago used expletives to refer to Obama? When did calling somebody a vulgar name become a synoym for “My good buddy”?
Posted by: Grey Matter | Dec 10, 2008 11:40:31 PM
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Remember what jessie jackson said?
Now his son is claiming ‘no foul’.
Hum……

“It’s only when money starts changing hands that that is bad.”
The “Obama” organization bought the Democratic presidential nomination, and the White House that went with it.
What’s the big deal about selling one little Senate seat? How the heck do folks figure the REST of them got there?
Better we should worry about bait-and-switch politicians who won’t STAY bought.//

Jake, I have been one of your biggest fans, but that ended with this article. Kaput. The Open for Questions forum was not designed for the radical right wingers to spew their low-brow poison. It was designed for intelligent, serious questions about the new administration’s policies and plans for America. The rad righties have plenty of palces to spew, comment sections on MSM sites like this one, who love their input.
Wow, Jake, I’m really in shock at your coarse response to such a great innovation. Open for Questions is a great way for all of us to tell Obama’s team what we’re concerned about. Now you have set it up for vicious attacks, and maybe you have played a part in ruining it. I could cry!!

Obama’s made his statement about when he’ll answer questions, so what’s the point of repeating the same questions over and over again? There’s an ongoing investigation. We get it.

Oh please, I was on open for questions last night and I posted a few serious questions which received high ratings. The questions had to do with foreign policy, education, the criminal justice system, and lack of transparency regarding the TARP funds. Other questions had to do with health care, tax policy, the mortgage crisis, energy policy, etc. Some people were clearly using the site to launch their personal agendas and vendettas. A lot of the “Blago” questions were actually the same question posted over and over by the same user. Flagged for redundancy. And many of the other “Blago” questions were just plain spiteful. Flagged for nastiness. Most of the “Blago” questions were not questions actually, but rather attacks. And they were flagged as such. If Obama had any untoward dealings with Blago, it will certainly come out in due time. In the meantime, many of us are much more concerned with getting our country back on its feet.

so ,what part of office will oprah w. get…the media and the members of conress are going ruin this country if not stopped. actors and all who support him need to be removed from this country…how stupid can people be to not see the facts about obama and his team…the wrath of GOD will soon be seen,,,judgment shall soon follow…