Senator warns of 'Mike Dukakis' attacks
On a day when White House hopeful Barack Obama launched a website to fight internet rumors, he warned some of his most generous supporters in Chicago the attacks may get worse as the election approaches and he'll continue to need their money.
“They're going to try to make me into a scary guy,” Obama told a crowd of about 90 supporters at an elegant private home in Lincoln Park. “They’re even trying to make Michelle into a scary person.”
(AP)
Obama thanked one of his supporters at the event, former advertising executive Rick Fizdale, for spelling out his nametag as “Rick Hussein Fizdale.”
“The theory was, we're all Hussein,” Obama said. “But that accurately captures, I think, the strategy.”
Hussein is a common name in the Middle East but Obama‚s critics use it to suggest he is a Muslim. Obama is a Christian and was never a Muslim, his myth-busting website says. The website also takes aim at such whoppers as Obama refusing to say the pledge of allegiance and his wife serving on a panel with Louis Farakhan and railing against “Whitey,” -- none of it true, the website says.
Rival John McCain has called Obama “Hamas‚ favorite candidate,” Obama told his supporters, prompting laughter. “You laugh, but this is what’s being said.”
Thursday's $28,500-per-person fundraiser at an elegant private home in Lincoln Park, drew nearly 100 supporters. Obama thanked some of them for supporting him since his first run for state senate. He told them he was spending their money wisely.
“You’re going to continue to have to fund this machine for four more months,” he told them. “One way to think about it is: we’re three fourths of the way done.”
Among the big-name donors at the fund-raiser were Obama's national finance chair Penny Pritzker, his Illinois finance co-chairs Jim Crown and John Rogers; Crown’s parents Lester and Renee Crown, developer Neil Bluhm, and ComEd CEO Frank Clark.
Obama, who boasts that he went to Detroit to tell auto executives the country needs tougher emissions standards, told this crowd of high-end donors he opposes John McCain’s proposed lower taxes on the wealthy.
A quarter of McCain's tax breaks would go to people making more than 2.8 million a year, Obama told the crowd that included some making more than 2.8 million a year. They applauded anyway.
From there, Obama went to more heavily attended $2,300-a-ticket fund-raiser at the West Loop loft of Sram bike parts Executive F. K. Day, who had plenty of bike enthusiasts including three-time Tour de France champion Greg Lemond.
Obama assured them that he did not stage a widely circulated photo of himself riding a bicycle this past weekend to curry favor with them.
“I wasn’t trying to pander to this crowd,” he told them.
“Thanks for wearing a helmet!” one of them shouted.
“I want you to know I had an internal debate,” Obama confessed about his decision how to wear the helmet and gear that made him appear a bit un-cool in the photo of him riding with his wife and daughters.
“I knew the [Associate Press] was going to take a picture and [Republicans] would try to portray it like Dukakis wearing a tank helmet,” Obama said. “But I wanted to make sure that the children who saw that picture knew that even the Democratic nominee for president wears a helmet when he goes biking. Now, obviously the rest of my apparel was apparently not up to snuff, because I got a hard time from all sorts of blogs who said I looked like Urkel.”