Obama's Website contains deceptive information

I have found information on Democratic, U.S. presidential hopeful Barack Obama's website, www.barackobama.com, which I consider to be deceptive. The information in question was online as of Saturday, February 16th at 12 Noon EST and prior to that.

On his website, Obama has a section titled "War in Iraqî. This section can be found at http://www.barackobama.com/issues/iraq/. In this section, there is a heading called "Barack Obama's Planî. Under this heading there is the subtitle, "Judgment You Can Trust". The first paragraph under this subtitle states, "As a candidate for the United States Senate in 2002, Obama put his political career on the line to oppose going to war in Iraq, and warned of 'an occupation of undetermined length, with undetermined costs, and undetermined consequences.' Obama has been a consistent, principled and vocal opponent of the war in Iraq."

After reading this quote I was puzzled. I recalled that Obama was the keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention in 2004. I also recalled that at the time, he was running to be a United States Senator from Illinois. In fact, he won that election and was seated in the U.S. Senate in 2005.

Perhaps, Obama had run for the United States Senate, unsuccessfully, in 2002 and I did not know it. So, I started to do some research. I checked the 2002 Illinois primaries for U. S. Senate. Incumbent Richard Durbin ran unopposed in the Democratic primary, for a second term in the U. S. Senate. Unsurprisingly, Obama did not run in the Republican primary.

Barack Obama was not on the ballot for United States Senate in the Illinois general election of November 2002. He ran that year to recapture his state senate seat. If Obama did not run in the U.S. Senate primaries in 2002, or the general election for U.S. Senate in 2002, then how could he claim to be a "candidate for the United States Senate in 2002"? I could not figure this out.

As mentioned, the site for Barack Obama's presidential campaign is www.barackobama.com. The website is registered to "Obama for Americaî. ìObama for America" has another site registered, www.obamaforillinois.com. Records indicate that this website was registered on July 2nd, 2002 and expires July 2nd, 2008. The site, obamaforillinois.com does not currently display.

By searching the web, I was able to find an archived copy of obamaforillinois.com at

http://web.archive.org/web/20021217033809/www.obamaforillinois.com/news.shtml.

The header at the top of the page says "Senator Barack Obama 13th District Illinois".

After that there is the headline, "News from the Senate". The text reads, "The following are news clippings, press releases, and other stories of interest." Followed by, "With the instant publishing nature of the World Wide Web, we are able to get breaking events to you very quickly on this site... even before we're able to get the information to the Press." The final line says, "So, be sure to check here often!"

Under the title, "The Latest News Stories and Press Releases:" I searched the site for information relevant to a Barack Obama 2002 United States Senate candidacy.

Here is what I found on Obama's own site:

In a December 2nd, 2002 article from Roll Call newspaper entitled, "Democrats and Even Some in GOP Ponder Senate Challengeî, by Lauren W. Whittington, "Other Democrats expected to enter the race in coming months are state Comptroller Dan Hynes, state Sen. Barack Obama and wealthy investment banker Blair Hull, who are all working behind the scenes to secure money and support before making their intentions official. Both Obama and Hull have formed exploratory committees".

Later in the article there was this, "Meanwhile, Obama and other Democrats are nervously watching Moseley-Braun, who continues to be coy about her intentions. If she does enter the primary, Obama has indicated that he will not run".

In a November 29th, 2002 article from the Springfield State Journal-Register entitled "Lahood, Fitzgerald Trade Jabsî by Bernard Schoenburg, Political Writer, "Besides Moseley-Braun, other possible Democratic candidates for the U.S. Senate in two years include former Chicago School Board president Gery Chico, who has already filed as a candidate; state Comptroller Dan Hynes; Chicago investor Blair Hull; state Sen. Barack Obama of Chicago; and U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Evanston".

An October 30th, 2002 column for the Hyde Park Herald entitled "Obama: I'm not against wars but..." by Senator Barack Obama, D-13 began, "The following is a speech that I gave at a recent rally regarding the situation in Iraq. The rally was downtown at Federal Plaza and several Hyde Parkers attended:"

In the text of the speech was this passage, "I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a US occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences".

In an entry dated August 11th, 2002 entitled, "Steve Neal, Chicago Sun Times: Obama could add drama to Senate race:" The article begins, "He could win it all. State Sen. Barack Obama (D-Chicago), the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review, who teaches constitutional law at the University of Chicago, is hoping to be the 2004 Democratic nominee against Republican Sen. Peter Fitzgerald." Then, "Earlier this week, Obama launched a campaign committee to challenge Republican Sen. Peter Fitzgerald in 2004." And, "Obama, 40, a six-year member of the Illinois Senate, is certain to be re-elected in November to a four-year term. In running against Fitzgerald in '04, Obama will be at midterm and won't have to give up his current office".

Further into the article was this, "The poll showed that former Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun (D-Ill.) would be the clear front-runner for the Democratic nomination if she seeks an '04 rematch with Fitzgerald. Obama has said that he would be less inclined to run if Moseley-Braun does".

It should be clear by reading these excerpts, from the reverse chronology on the archive of obamaforillinois.com, that up until December 2nd, 2002, Barack Obama was not a candidate for the United States Senate.

Utilizing a web archiving tool called "The Wayback Machine", www.archive.org, I was able to find other archived copies of www.obamaforillinois.com. I went to the archived version of the site for February 14th, 2003. You can find it directly at, http://web.archive.org/web/20030214004921/http://www.obamaforillinois.com/

This updated version of the site shows a header declaring, "Barack Obama Democrat for U.S. Senate" along with the slogan "A chance to believe again". The site now begins with an introductory letter, "Dear Friends: Welcome to our Web site. I want to introduce myself as a potential Democratic candidate for U.S. Senator in the 2004 Democratic primary".

Reviewing this version of the site, I found two articles of relevance.

The first one was a January 29th, 2003 article from the Hyde Park Herald entitled "Moseley-Braun backs out, Obama in for Senate race" by Todd Spivak. It contains the following paragraph, "Moseley-Braun?s [sic] withdrawal thrust open the door for another Hyde Parker, seven-year state Sen. Barack Obama (D-13), who has already emerged as a top contender among what will likely be a crowded field of Democratic candidates. Convinced that a race against the popular and better-known Moseley-Braun would have split the state?s [sic] African-American vote, Obama for months has waited on pins and needles for her announcement".

The next paragraph says, "?I [sic] would have deferred to Carol had she decided to run,? [sic] said Obama, 41, who formally announced his candidacy yesterday in the Loop. ?I [sic] was waiting with everyone else to find out her plans".

Then there is what appears to be a press release from January 21st, 2003, with the title, "Obama Kicks off U.S. Senate Run". It begins, "CHICAGO - Declaring that the U.S. faces a deficit of fairness, hope and opportunity along with a deficit of dollars, state Senator Barack Obama (D-Chicago) today announced his candidacy for the United States Senate."

From all this information, it should be clear that Barack Obama became a candidate for the United States Senate in 2003.

Why then does www.barackobama.com contain a statement that begins, "As a candidate for the United States Senate in 2002 ..."? Is this a simple error, or is there more to it? Could Obama's presidential campaign be purposely backdating his candidacy for the United States Senate and, if so, why?

I did a very unscientific test. I asked a few people the following question. "If a current, first term United States Senator was a candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2002, when did he become a Senator?" Unanimously, the answer came back, "2003". In other words people think the Senator in question has been in office for five years.

Barack Obama has been a United States Senator for a bit more than three years, not five years. He has been a United States Senator since January of 2005. Is it possible that many people, preoccupied with their own lives, might go to Obama's website looking for information, read the assertion that he was a candidate for United States Senate in 2002 and therefore automatically assume that he must have been a U.S. Senator since 2003? And if so, what of it?

Firstly, creating the appearance of a longer tenure in the United States Senate has the effect of making Barack Obama seem more experienced than he really is.

Secondly, considering that the United States led a coalition in the invasion of Iraq in March of 2003, many people might assume that Obama was a Senator at this time and that he voted against the war while in the Senate. This would be a faulty assumption on two counts. First, Obama was not in the U.S. Senate in 2003 and second the Senate voted to authorize the use of United States Armed Forces against Iraq in October of 2002.

As stated earlier, Barack Obama did give a speech - a good speech I might add - against going to war in Iraq in October of 2002. However, he was an Illinois State Senator at the time and was not yet a candidate for the United States Senate.

Backdating Obama's candidacy for United States Senate arguably creates the effect that he has been a U.S. Senator longer than is actually the case. Intimating that he gave his October 2002 anti-war speech as a candidate for the United States Senate, though not accurate, serves as a stature builder.

Obama's current website, www.barackobama.com, is registered to "Obama for America". The website, www.obamaforillinois.com is also registered to "Obama for America". Is it realistic to believe that they do not have access to their own contradictory information?

I have no doubt that some people will find this nitpicking. They will say that Obama intended to run for U.S. Senate back in 2002. However, as the information shows, he was not a U.S. Senate candidate until 2003. The same folks will go on to say that what is important is the fact that he spoke out against the war in October 2002. I would agree with them that Obama had the right idea back then, but that is not the point here.

Is it not troubling that a presidential candidate has a website that in effect appears to backdate his Senate candidacy? Does this not seem like politics as usual? Is not this recasting of facts, to his convenience, simply the same old, same old? How then can anyone take Obama's slogan, "Change We Can Believe In", seriously if it seems that an attempt was utilized to reshuffle facts in his favor?

The difference between a potential candidate and a candidate is like the difference between a potential college graduate and a college graduate. If I were going to potentially graduate college in a given year, but did not, would I get in trouble if on my resume I wrote that I had graduated in that year? Would not omitting the word "potentially" make a difference?

One thing is; the other thing is not. I suspect that most people would be annoyed if they paid for gold and got gold plated. Omitting the word "plated" would be quite significant to a buyer. As a former president of the Harvard Law Review and a professor of constitutional law, it seems reasonable to expect that Senator Obama realizes the importance of words, the context of words and the omission of words.

One of the knocks against Barack Obama has been a lack of experience. Backdating his United States Senate candidacy might be a way to mitigate that. Considering how busy potential voters are, it is unlikely that many of them would dig deeply into statements presented on his, or any other candidate's, website. What I would hope though is that the mainstream American media give these kinds of statements the scrutiny they deserve.

I believe that Senator Obama now has an opportunity to show that he really is running a different kind of campaign. He can come forward and state that this information on his site is indeed deceptive and he can change it. He can directly accept responsibility. He can name the people on his team who wrote this text and hold them to account. He can claim it was an error, if that is really what it was. Lastly, he can state that his campaign fudged, inferring greater longevity to him in the United States Senate and thus more experience. If he does any of these things, he will be living up to the slogan, "Change We Can Believe In".

As always, you can reach us with your questions and comments at bothsidesdx@hotmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you.