Is Obama Up to the Task?

The United States of America is the largest and most powerful "corporation" in the world.

Like other corporations it has a chief executive officer (CEO), the president, and a "board of directors," the U.S. Congress.

Unlike the standard business corporation where the CEO is elected by the board of directors, the CEO is elected directly by the citizens of the nation.

The citizens are, in effect, the “shareholders” of the "corporate" giant known as the United States.

Every four years on the first Tuesday in November, the "shareholders" of the world's most powerful corporation elect a new CEO, or president.

An interesting study could be made in the manner in which the regular business corporation selects its CEO.

Of all the qualifications the new corporate CEO must possess, the foremost is experience. What positions of management or command has the prospective CEO held? How well did he perform? How well did the corporation he led prosper? What was the economic condition of the corporation on the CEO's departure?

All of these questions will go unanswered if applied to the newly elected Democrat candidate for the presidency of the United States, Sen. Barack Obama.

Obama has no record of executive or administrative experience in the normally accepted definition of the words. He will be compelled to seek the necessary advice from others with whom he has associated himself in the past. These individuals will no doubt be those persons who will fill the Cabinet posts in his new administration.

This has been the pattern of Cabinet selections in the past and has led, in many instances, to the charge of cronyism.

Nearly all newly elected presidents will bring in their personal lawyer as U.S. attorney general, a critical Cabinet post.

President John F. Kennedy named his own brother, Robert F. Kennedy, as his attorney general.

The position of attorney general is probably the most sensitive office in the president's Cabinet.

The attorney general is often considered the person who guards the chief executive's back.

So little is known of Barack Obama's past or his closest associates that a question has been raised: Has he been properly vetted?

Who will be these individuals who will surround the new president?

While U.S. Senate approval is needed before an appointee can sit in the Cabinet room, prior knowledge about the possible candidate is always helpful.

We do know that Obama's self-professed political philosophy is far to the left. Proof of this philosophy could be bolstered by his relationship with former Weatherman William Ayers, as they served together on the board of an anti-poverty group, the Woods Fund of Chicago, from 1999-2002.

The radical Weather Underground Organization connection of WIlliam Ayers with Obama was reported by Peter Hitchens in the Feb. 2 issue of the London Daily Mail.

Presently, William Ayers holds the position as professor of education at the University of Illinois — Chicago. Ayers, in April 2001, contributed $200 to the re-election of Barack Obama to the Illinois State Senate.

Such are the meager bits of information regarding Obama's past, creating a situation to his disadvantage where speculation by an inquiring press could lead to many articles based on rumor rather than fact.

But published they will be, as more inquiries are directed to Obama and those who surround him, in an effort to flesh out a past that is little known at present.

One of the most disturbing issues at present regarding Obama is his close association with the far-left billionaire, George Soros and the organization Moveon.org.

It should be noted that when Moveon.org, in an advertisement in The New York Times, accused Gen. David Petraeus of treason, a condemnation vote by the U.S. Senate, introduced by Sen. John Cornyn, was by-passed by Barack Obama.

Of further note should be the political contribution of $60,000 to Obama from the Soros family during a primary election challenge for the U.S. Senate in 2004. Obama was one of only a handful of candidates to receive a contribution from George Soros.

In the coming months, much will be written and published about Senator Obama’s past as well as his candidacy. Only a careful scrutiny of all this information that will become available will enable the U.S. electorate to make the proper decision in the upcoming presidential election in November 2008.

Ralph Hostetter, a prominent businessman and agricultural publisher, also is a national and local award-winning columnist. He welcomes e-mail comments at eralphhostetter@yahoo.com.