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And yet for all her professed secularism, my mother was in many ways the most spiritually awakened person that I've ever known. She had an unswerving instinct for kindness, charity, and love, and spent much of her life acting on that instinct, sometimes to her detriment. Without the help of religious texts or outside authorities, she worked mightily to instill in me the values that many Americans learn in Sunday school: honesty, empathy, discipline, delayed gratification, and hard work. She raged at poverty and injustice.}}<ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1546579-4,00.html My Spiritual Journey] Time Magazine, October 2006</ref>
And yet for all her professed secularism, my mother was in many ways the most spiritually awakened person that I've ever known. She had an unswerving instinct for kindness, charity, and love, and spent much of her life acting on that instinct, sometimes to her detriment. Without the help of religious texts or outside authorities, she worked mightily to instill in me the values that many Americans learn in Sunday school: honesty, empathy, discipline, delayed gratification, and hard work. She raged at poverty and injustice.}}<ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1546579-4,00.html My Spiritual Journey] Time Magazine, October 2006</ref>
=== Anti-war movement ===
=== Anti-war movement ===
On [[Memorial Day]] 2008, speaking to an audience of military veterans, Obama made the claim "I had an uncle who was one of the, part of the first American troops to go into [[Auschwitz]] and liberate the concentration camps."<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=SV1sxq8mqvA#t=41 Obama's uncle liberated Auschwitz?] Youtube.com</ref> In point of fact the Soviet [[Red Army]] liberated Auschwitz, and Obama most likely confused his uncle with communists.<ref>http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=65448</ref>
On [[Memorial Day]] 2008, speaking to an audience of military veterans, Obama made the claim "I had an uncle who was one of the, part of the first American troops to go into [[Auschwitz]] and liberate the concentration camps."<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=SV1sxq8mqvA#t=41 Obama's uncle liberated Auschwitz?] Youtube.com</ref> In point of fact the Soviet [[Red Army]] liberated Auschwitz, and Obama most likely confused his uncle with communists.<ref>http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=65448</ref>
==Illinois State Senate (1995-2005)==
Dr. [[Quentin Young]] has reported, as told to Ben Smith, "I can remember being one of a small group of people who came to [[Bill Ayers]]' house tolearn that [[Alice Palmer]] was stepping down from the senate and running for Congress.<ref>[http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8630.html Obama once visited '60s radicals.], February 22, 2008.</ref> "
=== Obama, Elitism, and Ayers ===
Obama has consistently shown himself to be an elitist who looks down on "ordinary" Americans. Asked to explain why working-class [[Democrats]] do not support him while campaigning for the [[Pennsylvania]] primary, Obama replied "it's not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations." In response to outrage when his remarks were unexpectedly publicized, Obama did not recount his statement but instead replied, I "didn't say it as well as I should have."<ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7344532.stm</ref> Although many rural counties went for McCain, Obama carried the state with 54.6% of the vote, compared to 44.3% for John McCain.<ref>[http://www.electionreturns.state.pa.us/ElectionsInformation.aspx?FunctionID=13&ElectionID=28&OfficeID=1]</ref>
[[Image:Features ayers1.jpg|200px|thumb|right|'''Obama served on the Board of the Woods Fund of Chicago with [[Weather Underground]] [[terrorist|terrorist group]] co-founder Bill Ayers'''<ref>[http://foia.fbi.gov/weather/weath1a.pdf FBI fil Weather Underground]</ref> '''at the time this photo appeared''' of Ayers stomping the American flag in ''Chicago Magazine'' in 2001. Obama was hired by Ayers to chair an organization Ayers founded called the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. Ayers contributed to Obama election campaigns and hosted a fundraiser for Obama to meet and greet Ayers contacts.]]
In an attempt counter the view by many that Obama is an elitist, he began running campaign ads claiming that he "worked his way through college and Harvard Law." This claim is at best an exaggeration, as Obama only held summer jobs while in college and law school<ref>http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/obamas_work_claim.html</ref>, and he would have likely benefited from special scholarships not available to most students.
Obama almost always reads from prepared text on a [[teleprompter]] and rarely allows tough questions.<ref>http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=26101</ref><ref name="teleprompter">The Daily Standard, ''Obama Unplugged Lost without a Teleprompter'', by Dean Barnett, 02/12/2008[http://www.weeklystandard.com/content/public/articles/000/000/014/728ofzey.asp]</ref> Indeed, when unable to read from prepared text he often fails at articulating his positions and is caught tripping over his own feet.<ref>This was first displayed in the Saddleback Forum, and has occurred subsequently also.</ref> His most recent debate performances illustrate that he may have been extensively coached over the course of 2008, although he still repeatedly fumbles at moments where he moves off his memorized remarks.<ref>After one debate against Hillary Clinton in Philadelphia, the Obama campaign announced that the questions were too difficult and that Obama would not agree to future debates with her. {{citation needed}}</ref> Even Vice-President Biden jokes about Obama's use of the teleprompter. In 2009, when Biden was giving a commencement speech at the U.S. Air Force Academy, a strong gust of wind blew over his teleprompter and Biden said, "What am I gonna tell the president when I tell him his Teleprompter is broken? What will he do then?" <ref>[http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/05/27/biden-teases-obama-teleprompter-addiction/ Biden Teases Obama Over Teleprompter Dependence, After Mishap]</ref>
Obama refers to America in the third person, as a foreigner would. In his first television interview after becoming president, Obama declared that "all too often the United States starts by dictating." Earlier, when Obama gave his acceptance speech, he said "We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America - I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there."<ref>[http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_pl135]</ref>
President Obama is the first person having ties to a known former terrorist to gain control over America's nuclear weapons.<ref>http://www.clevelandleader.com/node/7127</ref><ref>http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/08/26/obama-associate-bill-ayers-unrepentant-for-acts-of-terror/</ref> Author and blogger Jack Cashill requisitioned a comparison of the writing style of [[Bill Ayers]]' 2001 memoir, ''Fugitive Days'', with Barack Obama's earlier 1995 book, ''Dreams From My Father'', and came to the conclusion that Obama's former boss Ayers may have ghostwritten Dreams.<ref>www.cashill.com, ''Who Wrote “Dreams From My Father"?'', by Jack Cashill, October 9, 2008, retrieved on 10/16/2008 [http://www.cashill.com/natl_general/who_wrote_dreams_from.htm] Cashill states that a computer comparison of Obama's so-called autobiography with that of the terrorist Bill Ayers, supports the theory that Ayers actually wrote parts of Obama's book; also he wrote "None of this, of course, proves Ayers' authorship conclusively, but the evidence makes him a much more likely candidate than Obama to have written the best parts of Dreams". "In assessing the signature of sample passages from Dreams," the experienced analyst found "a very strong match to all of the Ayers samples" that he processed. He did not address the possibility that Ayers had plagiarized from Obama's earlier book. A philosophy professor from England disagreed.[http://wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=77815]</ref> Ayers admitted that he was "guilty as hell" in planting bombs in the 1970s, and that he has no regrets and felt he "should have done more."<ref>[http://www.clevelandleader.com/node/7127]</ref>