Clinton Ambassador Voting for McCain

by Mark W. Erwin
(US Ambassador, Retired)










For much of my adult life, I've supported Democrats for the most part. I served in the Clinton Administration and have supported many worthwhile causes of the Democratic Party. Most recently, I was an enthusiastic and visible supporter of Senator Hillary Clinton's primary campaign.

When Senator Obama won the Democratic primary I did my own research on him with an open mind (see below) and now find that I cannot support Barack Obama for President of the United States.

I will vote for Senator John McCain because the differences between the two candidates are so vast and profound. If you look at each of their records and experience, there really is no comparison.

First, John McCain said he would accept federal funding for his campaign and is keeping his word. Senator Obama promised to do the same but changed his mind once the money started rolling in.

Senator Obama does not have sufficient leadership experience, nor has he been tested in difficult times. He has never held an executive leadership position and I am not comfortable making him the leader of the greatest nation on earth as his first real executive job. His running mate, Senator Biden said "I think he can be ready, but right now I don't believe he is. The Presidency is not something that lends itself to on-the-job training."

In barely two years in the U.S. Senate, Obama became known as the most liberal senator in the Congress. Americans are sick of the bitter partisanship exhibited in Congress, and Senator Obama has a thin record of reaching across the aisle.

Senator McCain, on the other hand has honorably served America for many
years, from commanding the largest squadron in the US Navy, to a long, distinguished career in the Congress marked by bipartisanship and pragmatic leadership.

With most pollsters predicting strong gains in both houses of Congress for the Democrats, we need a President who will provide a balance of power. Our government is in many respects controlled by special interests. I hope that John McCain, will put country before party, to lead the executive branch. He has fought for years to reform the system. He has crusaded for years against earmarks and government waste.

Today we face difficult challenges, including an unpopular war that we must win. We also have a weakened economy, a crisis in our financial system, an energy crisis compounded by dependence on foreign oil, a mounting national debt, unprecedented annual deficits, and a population that seems to be consumed by celebrity and entertainment.

All of the promises invoked by the candidates don't count for much. It is really the ability of a leader to unite opposing forces for the common good that will prove the worth of the next president.

Senator McCain is a true leader and a genuine American hero. Our country and our children deserve the best leadership available. Of the two choices we are given there is but one proven leader. I hope you too will support and vote for John McCain for President of the United States.

May God Bless America…..and you.


Mark W. Erwin
U.S. Ambassador, Ret.

(Ambassador Erwin served as United States Ambassador to Maruritius, the Republic of the Seychelles, and the Federal Islamic Republic of Comoros. The results of his personal research about Barack Obama, in his words, appear below.)

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Ambassador Erwin's Research on Barack Obama
by: Mark Erwin

BARACK H. OBAMA


The following information is the result of my own independent research of the democratic presumptive nominee for President of the United States of America.

Born on August 4, 1961 in Hawaii, his father was an African Muslim from Kenya. His mother was an American atheist from Kansas. They met at the University of Hawaii where Obama Sr. was attending on a Kenyan government scholarship.

His father left his mother when he was two years old to attend Harvard University on a U. S. scholarship. After receiving his M.A. degree he went back to Kenya to work for the government.

His mother later married an Indonesian Muslim and moved to Jakarta where young Barack was enrolled in a Muslim school. Both parents are now deceased.

When he was 10 years of age his mother sent him to live with her parents in Hawaii where he attended and graduated from a private school in 1979. He received his first scholarship to make this possible.

He went on to Occidental College in Los Angeles (on scholarship) for two years and then transferred to Columbia University (on scholarship) where he graduated in 1983.

After graduation he worked for two companies in NYC for two years. They were Business International Corporation and New York Public Interest Research Group. I have not been able to find out much about these companies or his jobs with them since he never mentions these companies or his tenure with them.

Obama then moved to Chicago as director of the ?Developing Communities Project? for almost three years.

He attended Harvard Law School in 1988 (on scholarship) and upon graduation in 1991 he moved to Chicago. While at Harvard he became the first black editor and later President of the Harvard Law Review and yet he never published an article in this prestigious journal.

The new graduate was offered a contract with a cash advance of $40,000 from Times Books to write a book about race relations. While writing his book, Dreams From My Father, he and his wife found it necessary to move to Bali for several months so he could better focus on completing the project. The book was finally published in 1995, 4 years after the advance was paid. It was not about race relations but was about himself. He has since written another book on the same subject.

The University of Chicago also offered him a paid fellowship. He taught on and off from 1992 until 2004 but never published a scholarly paper.

A politically well-connected Chicago law firm also employed him until 2002 where he worked on a variety of matters including civil rights, real estate and corporate representation.

Mr. Obama entered politics by running for the state senate in 1996. He won by challenging enough signatures to have his two other primary opponents plus the incumbent senator, Alice Palmer, disqualified on technical grounds. He thereafter ran unopposed and won.

. . . (cont.)
Ambassador Erwin's Research on Barack Obama (Pt 2)
by: Mark Erwin

During seven years in the Illinois Senate Obama never wrote a single bill and voted ?Present? nearly 130 times. This vote is typically used in order to avoid taking a position on legislation.

Obama ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in 2000 and lost in the primary by a margin of two to one.

In 2003 he began his run for the US Senate. The former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, David Axelrod, was his chief strategist. Obama was selected from all of the democratic senators, representatives and candidates across the country to give the keynote address at The Democratic National Convention in July of 2004.

His republican opponent, multimillionaire and fellow Harvard graduate, Jack Ryan withdrew from the race in June of 2004 due to the release of court sealed custody-hearing records dating back to a divorce in 1999. Senator Obama?s campaign petitioned for the release of the records. Those records contained scandalous sexual allegations and had been sealed by the court at the request of both parents for the protection of the child.

In an even stranger turn of events, the republican leadership in Illinois passed over several Illinois politicians and selected Alan Keyes, a resident of Maryland, who had never even lived in Illinois, to replace Ryan on the ticket. Obama won the election handily.

In 2005 the new U.S. Senator bought a house in the Chicago suburbs through a deal involving a wealthy fundraiser and former law client, Tony Rezko, an Arab-American businessman who has since been convicted of fraud and bribery. In the deal, Rezko paid the full asking price of $625,000 for an adjoining lot owned by the same sellers that sold Obama his house $300,000 less than asking price. He paid $1.65 million. Both closings took place on the same day. The sellers had made it clear that both the house and the lot had to be sold together. The senior partner in the law firm that employed Obama and represented Rezko was by then a partner of Rezko.

He started running for the Presidency as soon as he arrived in Washington in 2005. During his brief time in the United States Senate, Barack Obama has managed to become named the most liberal US Senator in America.

He belonged to an Afro-Centric church in Chicago for over 20 years. The leader of the church, Reverend Wright, professes hatred of whites and Jews, and blames America for all the world?s perceived faults including creating the aids virus in order to inflict it on Africans.

Senator Obama repeatedly defended Pastor Wright, his church and the members who cheered after hearing vitriolic tirades against America until it was no longer politically acceptable to do so.

Clearly Barack Obama is smart and exhibits unlimited ambition. He has been given more in the way of a hand up than anyone I have ever known, and yet he has never held a leadership position. He has collected wonderful credentials but has not done the hard work or taken the risks necessary to lead others.

MWE
9/08

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