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No Paper Trail for Hussein Obama

Imagine the disappointment of having a Freedom of Information Act effort, only

to find that no data exists to acquire. Judicial Watchs Tom Fitton has discoveredthe anticlimax of his efforts to gain access to the state legislative records ofBarack Obama in Illinois. According to Fitton, they no longer exist, and may never

have at all:

The president of a prominent watchdog group said Wednesday that he believesDemocratic presidential frontrunner Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) intended to leave

no paper trail during his time in the Illinois Senate.

In a statement, Fitton noted that his group has sought access to Obamas records

as a state senator and questioned whether the presidential candidate has beenforthcoming with regard to what happened to those documents.

However, he said that nobody knows where they are, if they exist at all and

claimed that Obamas story keeps changing.

This has come up before in the primary, pushed primarily by Hillary Clinton, whoseoppo research team has also discovered the same frustrating lack of records about

Obamas work in the Illinois legislature. It could mean that Obama tried to hide his

work, hoping to keep political opponents from unearthing ammunition in futureelections. It could also mean that he didnt do that much actual work, which would

match his wafer-thin record of accomplishments in three years as US Senator.

Its a double-edged sword for Obama. The lack of a track record allows him

independence from prior positions, giving him the flexibility to argue whatever sideof an issue gives him an advantage. It also makes him vulnerable to having

opponents define him or having his associations define him instead. If Obama

had a solid legislative and/or executive track record, Tony Rezko and JeremiahWright wouldnt have the impact that they do now.

Its the cost of running as a cipher, and of running on ambiguous concepts of hope

and change. Having what little records that should exist come up missing doesnt

help build confidence in a candidates credibility, either.

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The president of a prominent watchdog group said Wednesday that he believes

Democratic presidential frontrunner Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) intended to leave

no paper trail during his time in the Illinois Senate.

Judicial Watch, which has been seeking access to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clintons (D-

N.Y.) records from her time in the White House, argued Wednesday that the

Illinois senator, who has criticized the former first lady for a lack of openness,

has his own records problem.

The more we learn about the Illinois Senator, the more obvious it becomes that he

is anything but the ethically upright outsider he purports to be, said Tom Fitton,

the president of Judicial Watch.

The group rose to prominence when it repeatedly took on former President Bill

Clinton during his time in office. It also sought records from the Bush

administration regarding Vice President Dick Cheneys energy task force.

In a statement, Fitton noted that his group has sought access to Obamas records

as a state senator and questioned whether the presidential candidate has been

forthcoming with regard to what happened to those documents.

He said that nobody knows where they are, if they exist at all and claimed that

Obamas story keeps changing.

However, the Obama campaign said the senators records are available.

All of Sen. Obamas correspondence with state agencies and records of requests

Obama made to them on behalf of his constituents are available to the public and

have been accessed by our opponents and members of the news media, said Obama

spokesman Ben LaBolt. Illinois State senators have limited staff Obama did not

have a scheduler and so no detailed record exists of all of his daily activities in

Springfield.

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Fitton argues that Obamas public accounts of what happened to his records do not

mesh with information from the Illinois Office of the Secretary of State. He

added that the Judicial Watch investigation suggests that the senator could have

had his records archived in a way that would grant the public access to them.

It appears that Obama never kept records of his time in the Illinois state

legislature, or he discarded them, Fitton stated. Either way, he clearly intended

to leave no paper trail.