Posted By: Nick
Ben Smith posts that former Senator Max Cleland was uninvited from a July 8th Obama event in Atlanta because he is a registered lobbyist. Cleland is registered to lobby for a company that makes products to help soldiers recover from injuries; he never actually even lobbied for them though; he registered, but never did any work. But the Obama Campaign’s anti-lobbyist crusade knows no bounds, and Cleland was asked not to come to the event.
Cleland, for those who don’t know, is a war hero. He served in Vietnam where he lost both legs and an arm. He served in the U.S. Senate but was defeated in his 2002 reelection bid when his opponent ran ads comparing him to Osama bin Laden. Since then he has campaigned for fellow democrats, and has continued to speak out on the severe lack of treatment that our Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are recieving.
I personally met Cleland when I worked for a congressional campaign in 2006. Of all the Senators, Governors, Congressman (etc.) that I’ve met, Cleland was by far the most genuine. Despite being a low level staffer on my very first campaign, Cleland took the time to chat with me, ask about how things were going with our field program, and offer some advice and encouragement. This is a man that all Americans should be proud of.
But Barack Obama couldn’t share a stage with him. He couldn’t let Cleland speak in support of his campaign. He couldn’t have this “lobbyist” at an event with him.
Barack Obama should be ashamed.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
For all his talk about making “change,” some of his ideas are way off the mark. Obama should be looking at who these people are, not their reigistration. Isn’t that profiling???
Yeah, this pretty much made me mad all day long. Obama really is missing the point of people’s dislike of lobbyists if this is how he responds to it.
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