PrintSeptember 21, 2009
Obama: ACORN? What's that?
Via Instapundit:
OBAMA: ACORN scandals? There are ACORN scandals? "I didn't even know that ACORN was getting a whole lot of federal money."
This is Obama's MO when something unpleasant is asked by the press. "Tea parties? What tea parties?" you will recall was press secretary Gibb's response to questions about the massive protests.
We would also like to recall that Obama actually worked with ACORN in the early 1990's on Project Vote Smart. He used ACORN foot soldiers in his campaigns for the state senate, recruiting them through his ties with the Maoist New Party in Chicago. And just last year, he used one of their phony front organizations to channel $800,000 to the group for GOTV operations.
He also addressed ACORN leaders after the election:
When Obama met with ACORN leaders in November, he reminded them of his history with ACORN and his beginnings in Illinois as a Project Vote organizer, a nonprofit focused on voter rights and education. Senator Obama said, "I come out of a grassroots organizing background. That's what I did for three and half years before I went to law school. That's the reason I moved to Chicago was to organize. So this is something that I know personally, the work you do, the importance of it. I've been fighting alongside ACORN on issues you care about my entire career. Even before I was an elected official, when I ran Project Vote voter registration drive in Illinois, ACORN was smack dab in the middle of it, and we appreciate your work."Obama cannot escape his close ties with ACORN. And lying about what he knows with regard to the group only makes him look guilty.
Hat Tip: Ed Lasky
CORRECTION
President Obama did not work with the group "Project Vote Smart" in the early 1990's. That group is a legitimate, non-partisan independent voter education organization. Obama, in fact, worked with the group "Project Vote" which has been involved in voter registration fraud as well as other questionable practices.
The two groups are in no way related. American Thinker regrets the confusion in identifying Project Vote Smart as having anything to do with ACORN.
