Getting to know the Democratic frontrunner: exactly who (really) is Barack Obama?

(Washington, DC)-A Wall Street Journal article by Scott Gottlieb caught my eye because it’s the first article I’ve seen that explores a specific policy area, healthcare, of the Dem presidential frontrunner Sen. Barack Obama. The article, ‘Obama’s Health Care Record,’ analyzes the impact of mandates on health insurers and the higher costs passed on to consumers. Gottlieb notes, “By my count, during Mr. Obama's tenure in the state Senate, 18 different laws came up for a vote and passed that imposed new mandates on private health insurance. Mr. Obama voted for all of them.”

I’ve had personal experience with mandates, though I don’t know if the mandate was facility-driven or government-enacted. When my younger daughter was 13, we took her to the emergency room. She had symptoms of appendicitis. The very first test my daughter had: a pregnancy test. We told them our daughter wasn’t sexually active. Didn’t matter. “We give them to all girls who are old enough to menstruate,” the nurse told us.

I was glad to see the WSJ article because for months now, I’ve been asking repeatedly why no one is willing to look not only at Obama’s specific record of deeds and actions, but also at every candidate’s history. Not the one you read on official bios, or the one you hear in campaign speeches, but at what the candidate actually did.
I keep reading about the senator’s work on behalf of the poor in Chicago. Specifics, please?

I did an archive search. By way of an article in the University of Chicago Chronicle, I did learn Obama participated in a panel on juvenile justice in 1997. One of Obama’s fellow panelists was William Ayers who at the time had a new book out. Ayers is known for his intense activism during the 1970s, a kind way to describe those who advocate setting off bombs to deliver a political message. Obama and Ayers were two of four speakers talking about the juvenile criminal justice system. Obama was described as “working to combat legislation that would put more juvenile offenders into the adult system.”

As an aside, I’d like to note I harbor some anger towards Ayers. The actions he and his fellows set in motion when I was in college had an impact even at our university in a small Southern state. In the early 70s our campus was conflicted by riots over the Vietnam War, out-of-state activists and rumors the Weather Underground Organization was coming to set off bombs. I remember someone setting off fireworks. Several students fainted. For weeks we were under a curfew mandated by the governor. Add in the fact we were having midterms. On every corner there was a soldier, actually a member of the National Guard, standing at attention with weapon ready. Going to class, work, the library or anywhere was a royal pain for weeks. Ayers was never convicted, but the Washington Post mentions a quote from September, 2001, from a story in the New York Times, “Although never convicted of any crime, he [Ayers] told the New York Times in September 2001, ‘I don't regret setting bombs...I feel we didn't do enough.’ That’s a great perspective to deliver to juvenile justice, right?

As a voter, I want to know more about a candidate who may well be our next president. When Obama worked for a law firm, what did he work on? Who’d he help sue? The Chicago Sun-Times** did a think piece on Obama’s work there and elsewhere, in April, 2007. Were questions posed in the article ever answered?

As a voter, I want to believe we can have a candidate who will put aside racial prejudice, who will govern for the benefit of all (even those of us who work hard) and who will work to rise above partisan politics. But what I’m seeing is mostly campaign rhetoric.

The WSJ article notes, “The burden of paying for state mandates is usually borne by individuals who buy their own insurance, small employers and others not covered by ERISA. In total, about half of the people who have insurance bear the brunt of the cost of state mandates.” So I’d like to know why I am bearing the cost of those mandates, whether they’re testing 13 year old girls for pregnancy or extending coverage to unmarried dependents under the age of 30. I’d like to know the specifics, the nitty gritty and the down and dirty for every single presidential candidate. Isn’t that why we have a free press?

In 1990, as he was being interviewed after becoming the first black to head Harvard’s Law Review, Obama told the New York Times, “''I personally am interested in pushing a strong minority perspective. I'm fairly opinionated about this. But as president of the law review, I have a limited role as only first among equals.''

Tell us more about every candidate. And if we’re smart, we voters will ask for more.

(--filed by Kay B. Day; photo of White House grounds from White House website)

Update on Saturday, August 27, 2011 at 2:02PM by Kay B. Day, Editor

**The Chicago Sun Times link is no longer active.**