Watch your Barack..I mean back, Senator!

I hope this doesn't get flagged as a threat message because of the title. Of course that would be a way to get web hits...

Now that Senator Barack Obama is a serious contender for the Democratic presidential nomination it's only natural that he come under closer scrutiny. Two stories over the past couple of weeks threaten to tarnish the reputation of a man who rattled the windows of Washington and skyrocketed to A-list political affluence. The first linked an intern in Senator Obama's office to questionable character Tony Rezko. Shot two came with an article focusing on his admission of drug use in a memoir he published 11 years ago.

At first glance it would seem like the Republican spin machine is shooting to derail the Obama campaign by making the Senator think twice about entering a full-scale run at the White House. On the other hand, could it be someone in his own party, a Senator Clinton, perhaps? She faced no serious obstacles in the way of challengers to a post she sees as rightly hers until the emergence of the young senator from Illinois.

Why do I think this? Two reasons really, both stemming from the stories; the timing of one and the origin of another. Let's begin with the timing of the drug use admission. Senator Obama won the Illinois seat vacated by Republican Peter Fitzgerald. His Republican opponent Jack Ryan dropped out of the race following an embarrassing revelation from court documents of his divorce from actress Jeri Ryan. The Republican party, scrambling for a candidate to run what would most likely be a lost race against a strong Obama campaign, named conservative commentator Alan Keyes in a move reminiscent of Hillary Clinton's relocation to the Big Apple. Keyes came out firing, most notably with the claim that Jesus wouldn't vote for Barack Obama because of his voting record. Don't you think if the Keyes campaign had Obama's memoir admission it would have been open season? Even if it didn't do any damage, it would at least merit a mention.

I'll post more tomorrow...