Obama's money trail

Editor's note: This is the last of a six-part series by the author of "The Audacity of Deceit." Read Part 1, "The Obama-Ayers incestuous money trail," Part 2, "Obama's sweetheart-deal home loan," Part 3, "The groups Obama kept off his résumé," Part 4, "Obama's mentors" and Part 5, "Obama's radicals."

This final installment of our series focuses on several of the people who helped accelerate Obama's political career. The "enablers," though not necessarily radical leftists, are the ultra-wealthy driving forces behind Obama's campaign and many of the leftist foundations for which Obama worked.

The enablers

Tom Ayers: President and CEO of Commonwealth Edison from 1973 to 1980, Thomas Ayers was a lifelong liberal and a prominent Chicago businessman. Referred to as the Godfather of Chicago politics and power, Ayers served on the boards of G.D. Searle, Chicago Pacific Corporation, Zenith Corporation, Northwest Industries, First National Bank of Chicago and the Tribune Company (which owned the Chicago Tribune), and worked with many nonprofit organizations including Chicago United, Community Renewal Society, the Chicago Community Trust, the Chicago Chamber of Commerce and the Chicago Urban League that were designed to help inner city blacks.

These philanthropic organizations drive politics in Illinois, and Tom Ayers was a very powerful political figure in Chicago. He was also the father of Bill Ayers and his brother John.

As the common thread between Obama and the jobs he held before launching his political career, Thomas Ayers and his family have many strong connections to Obama.

Tom Ayers' impact can be felt from beyond the grave as current Commonwealth Edison President Frank Clark is a bundler for Obama – having raised at least $200,000 for the presidential campaign. He also contributed $28,500 to committees supporting Obama.

Penny Pritzker: Like Frank Clark, Pritzker is a bundler for Obama who agreed to raise between $200,000 and $500,000 for the campaign. She, too, contributed $28,500 to committees supporting Obama. She is president of Hyatt/Pritzker Realty and chairman of TransUnion Corporation. As manager of the Pritzker Foundation, she marshaled more than $250,000 to the Chicago Public Education Fund, or CPEF, the successor organization to the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. Pritzker, Obama, Tom and John Ayers (Bill's brother) all sat on the leadership council of the CPEF.

The Crown family: Relevant players in the Crown dynasty are Jim and Paula Crown, Jim's sister Susan and their father, Lester. Jim and Paula Crown are bundlers who agreed to raise more than $500,000 for the Obama presidential campaign. They also contributed $28,500 to committees supporting Obama. Like Tom Ayers before him, Jim sits on the board of General Dynamics.

Lester Crown, chairman of Henry Crown & Co., is a contemporary of the late Tom Ayers. Both individuals were on the board of trustees of Northwestern University.
Susan Crown, vice president of Henry Crown & Co., worked as a staff associate at the Chicago Community Trust from 1983 to 1984. The trust was another pet project of Tom Ayers and in 2001, the trust gave up to $250,000 to the Chicago Public Education Fund on whose board she sat with Tom and John Ayers and Barack Obama.

Change we want?

Despite the sheer number of radical leftists who support Barack Obama, the campaign is likely to brush off this criticism with the notion that the candidate doesn't share their radical views. A review of statements by some key figures leads me to believe that Obama and the radical left are on the same page:

"We are saying that classes are exploitative. Absolutely and that most of the people in the world are on the bottom and many people in the U.S. are on the bottom and that as far as material goods are concerned everyone should have the means of life, absolutely ..."

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– Mark Rudd, Sept. 30, 1969, in a radio interview on WAAC

"I look forward to seeing how he [Hugo Chavez education reformer Luis Bonilla] and all of you continue to overcome the failings of capitalist education as you seek to create something truly new and deeply humane."

– Bill Ayers, speaking before the World Education forum in Venezuela, November 2006

"It's not that I want to punish your success. I just want to make sure that everyone who is behind you, that they have a chance at success, too. I think when we spread the wealth around its good for everyone."

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– Barack Obama, in a conversation with an Ohio plumber who questioned Obama's tax plan, Oct. 14, 2008

"Change won't come from the top, I would say. Change will come from a mobilized grass roots. That's what I'll do. I'll organize black folks. At the grass roots. For change."

– Barack Obama, "Dreams from My Father"

"This is as openly radical a background as any significant American political figure has ever emerged from, as much Malcolm X as Martin Luther King Jr."

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– Ben Wallace-Wells, Rolling Stone

Obama's comment about "spreading the wealth around" is proof that he's a socialist masquerading as a centrist. That makes all those radicals surrounding him all the more relevant. Obama intends to raise the percentage of Americans who don't pay taxes to 44 percent. He'll do that with an array government handouts and programs, and these non-taxpayers will live off the 56 percent of Americans who work hard for their money.

By any definition, that's socialism. Obama's plan to heavily tax the "rich" and foment class warfare show the true direction of his "change" for America.

Read Part 1, "The Obama-Ayers incestuous money trail."

Read Part 2, "Obama's sweetheart-deal home loan"

Read Part 3, "The groups Obama kept off his résumé"

Read Part 4, "Obama's mentors"

Read Part 5, "Obama's radicals"

Order O'Leary's book exposing Barack Obama, "The Audacity of Deceit."

Brad O'Leary is the author of "The Audacity of Deceit: Barack Obama's War on American Values." To learn more, go to www.BarackObamaTest.com.