Barack Obama Spinning and Ducking in Illinois Senate Scandal

In light of new information that KQHA has retracted a report it posted on November 5th of a meeting between President-elect Barack Obama and disgraced Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, calls for Obama to hold a press conference to deal with his or his staff's role in the affar should only increase. The retraction does not prove that a meeting did not take place. It only proves that a media outlet ran with a story for which it had no corroboration. The only way to get to the bottom of whether a meeting took place and what was discussed is for the president-elect to practice a little of the transparancy he preaches and face probing questions on his relationship with Blagojevich, whether he met with him to discuss the Senate vacancy, and what role he or his staff may have played in the investigation.

But Obama and his handlers are desperately spinning and ducking tough questions on the scandal. Obama's terse, one sentence statement on the day the scandal broke satisfied none but his most sycophantic supporters and actually raised more questions than it answered. His denial that he met with the governor or anyone on the governor's staff is not believable, and worthy of skepticism. This is especially so since his remarks contradict his chief political strategist, David Axelrod, who told a Chicago television station that the president-elect and the governor did indeed meet and that Obama approved of the names of potential replacements on the governor's list. Axelrod's retraction of his remarks, again, on the day the scandal broke, is even more unbelievable than Obama's denial of a meeting taking place. Most analysts realize that Axelrod was spinning to protect Obama from the fallout associated with meeting the governor about the Senate vacancy. That's what political strategists do.

The Obama team, and his supporters on the left, are tying to have it both ways. They deny that a meeting with Blagojevich about the Senate appointment took place, while at the same time arguing that it would be perfectly acceptable if a meeting did take place. On the second point they are right. Most people would expect a vacating Senator and a governor of the same party to discuss potential successors. Axelrod even went as far as to declare trading political jobs for political favors part of the normal functioning of a democracy. But what is not acceptable is obfuscating and spinning in the midst of a scandal as potentially far-reaching and serious as this one. Barack Obama promised Americans better during the campaign. He should deliver on that promise now and submit himself to examination by a rightly skeptical press.