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<p class=MsoPlainText><a
href="http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/10/drudges-latest.html#more">http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/10/drudges-latest.html#more</a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText>The Atlantic<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText>The Daily Dish<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText>Andrew Sullivan<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText>27 Oct 2008 11:19 am<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText>Drudge's Latest<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
line-height:150%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>Go read the original talk that
Obama gave on NPR and see if it says anything even faintly similar to the
truncated quotes about to be used by McCain. I mean: come <em><span
style='font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>on</span></em>. Here's the <a
href="http://www.drudgereport.com/">headline:</a> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in;line-height:150%;background:#E9E9E9'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>"2001
Obama: Tragedy That 'Redistribution Of Wealth" Not Pursued By Supreme
Court"<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
line-height:150%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
line-height:150%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>Here's what it's <a
href="http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/10/mccain-to-attac.html">based
on</a>: the "tragedy," in Obama's telling, is that the civil rights movement
was too court-focused. He was making a case against using courts to implement
broad social goals - which is, last time I checked, the <em><span
style='font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>conservative</span></em> position. The
actual quote in full:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in;line-height:150%;background:#E9E9E9'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>"If
you look at the victories and failures of the civil rights movement, and its
litigation strategy in the court, I think where it succeeded was to vest formal
rights in previously dispossessed peoples, so that I would now have the right
to vote, I would now be able to sit at a lunch counter and order and as long as
I could pay for it I’d be okay." <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in;line-height:150%;background:#E9E9E9'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>"But,"
Obama said, "The Supreme Court never ventured into the issues of
redistribution of wealth and sort of more basic issues of political and
economic justice in this society. And to that extent as radical as I think
people tried to characterize the Warren Court, it wasn't that radical. It
didn't break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the
founding fathers in the Constitution, as least as it's been interpreted, and
Warren Court interpreted in the same way that generally the Constitution is a
charter of negative liberties, says what the states can't do to you, says what
the federal government can't do to you, but it doesn't say what the federal
government or the state government must do on your behalf. And that
hasn’t shifted." <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in;line-height:150%;background:#E9E9E9'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>Obama
said "one of the, I think, the tragedies of the civil rights movement, was
because the civil rights movement became so court focused, I think that there
was a tendency to lose track of the political and community organizing activities
on the ground that are able to put together the actual coalitions of power
through which you bring about redistributive change, and in some ways we still
suffer from that."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
line-height:150%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
line-height:150%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>So Obama was arguing that the
Constitution protects negative liberties and that the civil rights movement was
too court-focused to make any difference in addressing income inequality, as
opposed to formal constitutional rights. So it seems to me that this statement
is actually a conservative one about the limits of judicial activism.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
line-height:150%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
line-height:150%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>Is this really all McCain has
left?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><a
href="http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/10/mccain-to-attac.html">http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/10/mccain-to-attac.html</a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText>ABC News<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText>Political Punch<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText>Jack Tapper<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>McCain to Attack
Obama for Public Radio Comments from 2001<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>October 27, 2008
10:16 AM<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>On September 6,
2001, then-state senator Barack Obama appeared on a public radio chat show to
discuss "Slavery and the Constitution."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>You can listen
to the whole show <a
href="http://www.wbez.org/audio_library/ram/od/od_010906.ram"><b><span
style='color:blue'>HERE</span></b></a>. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>In that show --
WBEZ-FM's "Odyssey" -- Obama discussed the role of the courts in
civil rights. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Today, aides
say, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., will seize on some of those remarks, as hyped
by Mr. Drudge.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Obama in that
interview said, "If you look at the victories and failures of the civil
rights movement, and its litigation strategy in the court, I think where it
succeeded was to vest formal rights in previously dispossessed peoples, so that
I would now have the right to vote, I would now be able to sit at a lunch
counter and order and as long as I could pay for it I’d be okay."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>"But,"
Obama said, "The Supreme Court never ventured into the issues of
redistribution of wealth and sort of more basic issues of political and
economic justice in this society. And to that extent as radical as I
think people tried to characterize the Warren Court, it wasn't that
radical. It didn't break free from the essential constraints that were
placed by the founding fathers in the Constitution, as least as it's been
interpreted, and Warren Court interpreted in the same way that generally the
Constitution is a charter of negative liberties, says what the states can't do
to you, says what the federal government can't do to you, but it doesn't say
what the federal government or the state government must do on your behalf. And
that hasn’t shifted."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Obama said
"one of the, I think, the tragedies of the civil rights movement, was
because the civil rights movement became so court focused, I think that there
was a tendency to lose track of the political and community organizing
activities on the ground that are able to put together the actual coalitions of
power through which you bring about redistributive change, and in some ways we
still stuffer from that."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>A caller,
"Karen," asked if it's "too late for that kind of reparative
work economically?” And she asked if that work should be done
through the courts or through legislation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>"Maybe
I’m showing my bias here as a legislator as well as a law
professor," Obama said. "I'm not optimistic about bringing about
major redistributive change through the courts. The institution just
isn’t structured that way."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Presumably
McCain will go after Obama in ways <a
href="http://hotair.com/archives/2008/10/27/smells-like-socialist-spirit/"><b><span
style='color:blue'>some on the conservative bloggosphere are today</span></b></a>,
accusing Obama of calling it a "tragedy" for not venturing into
"the issues of redistribution of wealth" -- though Obama's campaign
says that's a twisting of his words.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>"In this
interview back in 2001, Obama was talking about the civil rights movement
– and the kind of work that has to be done on the ground to make sure
that everyone can live out the promise of equality," Obama campaign
spokesman Bill Burton says. "Make no mistake, this has nothing to do with
Obama’s economic plan or his plan to give the middle class a tax cut.
It’s just another distraction from an increasingly desperate McCain
campaign."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Burton
continues: "In the interview, Obama went into extensive detail to explain
why the courts should not get into that business of 'redistributing' wealth.
Obama’s point – and what he called a tragedy – was that legal
victories in the Civil Rights led too many people to rely on the courts to
change society for the better. That view is shared by conservative judges and
legal scholars across the country.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>"As Obama
has said before and written about, he believes that change comes from the
bottom up – not from the corridors of Washington," Burton says.
"He worked in struggling communities to improve the economic situation of
people on the South Side of Chicago, who lost their jobs when the steel plants
closed. And he’s worked as a legislator to provide tax relief and health
care to middle-class families. And so Obama’s point was simply that if we
want to improve economic conditions for people in this country, we should do so
by bringing people together at the community level and getting everyone
involved in our democratic process."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p>
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