For the first time, Sen. Barack Obama put a figure Friday to the amount of campaign contributions that indicted political fund-raiser Tony Rezko raised for the senator’s campaigns, and the number — about $250,000 — was far more than he previously acknowledged.
“We believe we have identified all money that is traceable. … It’s hard for me to know precisely. I don’t have the capacity to go back and figure out who did he raise money from. There might be additional dollars,” Obama told the Chicago Sun-Times in an 80-minute interview that focused on his 17-year relationship with Rezko, who has become a lingering issue as Obama seeks the Democratic nomination for president.
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Is Rezko still a friend?
“Yes,” Obama said, “with the caveat if it turns out the allegations are true, then he’s not who I thought he was, and I’d be very disappointed with that.”
And it’s that friendship, Obama said, that probably kept him from realizing it was a mistake to enter into a real estate deal with Rezko.
“Probably because I’d known him for a long time, and he’d acted in an aboveboard manner with me,” he said. “And I considered him a friend. … It’s further evidence that I’m not perfect.”
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Saturday shows Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton essentially even in the race for the Democratic Presidential Nomination. It’s Obama 46% Clinton 45% (see recent daily results). This reflects an unusually sharp change from yesterday’s results when Obama led by eight points and reached the 50% level of support for the first time.
Huh. Wonder what that’s due to. (h/t Hot Air)
Related: The AP Style Guide on Defending Barack Obama
Even HuffPo Obama Supporters Not Buying It
Comment by Rob Crawford on 3/15 @ 11:32 am #
Yeah, but it’s all about his judgment, ya know.
Comment by Rick Ballard on 3/15 @ 11:42 am #
“We believe we have identified all money that is traceable. … “
We’re pretty sure that not even the Feds can track all the rest of it - unless Rezko flips. He seems like a stand up guy though - our Web Hubbell or Susan McDougal.
Comment by Karl on 3/15 @ 11:44 am #
From the Chicago Tribune’s interview:
And who can’t trust someone with sterling instincts like that? Maybe he’ll go to Iran and Syria and do that same eye-gazing thing that worked out so well with Dubya and Putin.
Comment by capitano on 3/15 @ 12:38 pm #
How was I to know he was under investigation at the time? I was busy with other Senate duties and it wasn’t in any of the specific news reports that I actually saw or read.
Comment by MayBee on 3/15 @ 1:43 pm #
I have good judgment. You know that. Sure, controversial people have come into my life, and some of my advisors have done things I didn’t approve of. My proof that I wouldn’t have approved is that I have good judgment. Therefore, that I’ve never knowingly associated with people of whom I’d disapprove is indeed proof of my good judgment.
Comment by Jeffersonian on 3/15 @ 2:15 pm #
The PuffHo diarist nailed it…there is zero chance Obama was unaware the Wright’s lunacy until recently. Even as we speak, stories are circulating about Obama nodding at some of Wright’s insane fulminations.
This is just beginning, folks.
Comment by Donald on 3/16 @ 10:27 am #
The people who are going to profess surprise that Obama was there when the hatin’ was going down will not be democrat/communist/heathen. We (People with more than a brain stem) have no heathen.
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