Hitler Photos - "Those Who Forget History..."

In 1965 LIFE Magazine purchased a cache of color slides from Adolf Hitler's personal photographer, Hugo Jaeger. LIFE recently published a number of these astonishing photographs, and OTT found comparisons with modern-day events disturbing.

Above each LIFE photo is LIFE's caption:

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Fueled by Hitler's oratory and the sense of being part of an epic, invincible movement, Nazi rallies saw hundreds of thousands of people -- or, in the case of this 1937 rally, more than a million -- swept up by the carefully calculated grandeur.

"The great masses of the people will more easily fall victims to a big lie than to a small one," Hitler said.

Compare this with candidate Barack Obama's campaign speech in Berlin on July 24, 2008:


Below are more LIFE photos, along with their captions, and similar pictures from the 2008 presidential campaign.

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Sentries guard the entrance to Adolf Hitler's office in the Chancellery. Hitler was obsessed with oversized architecture and overly grand monuments that would awe and humble any visitor.


Obama addresses the crowd at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

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Nazi flags fill a festival at Innsbruck. It was Hitler who came up with the idea of using the swastika as the symbol of the Nazi Party. After many attempts, he wrote in Mein Kampf,

"I found a definite proportion between the size of the flag and the size of the white disk, as well as the shape and thickness of the swastika."

Obama's unique logo captivated many. Below, a look into the design.

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Women salute during Hitler's 1938 campaign to unify Austria and Germany.



Obama was greeted as a rock star at his campaign stops.


OTT in no way intends to compare Mr. Obama with Mr. Hitler. Rather, OTT wishes to raise concerns about ill-informed citizens blindly following a charismatic leader, focusing on immediate issues whilst ignoring vastly more important dangers.
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Obama Continues to Pull From Clinton Bench

"Change. You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

Despite President-elect Barack Obama's repeated calls for changing the way Washington works, his cabinet selections have received criticism from both sides, claiming he's perpetuating "more of the same."

Most of the nominees have deep ties to the Clinton Administration (listed are the potential nominees, the position for which they're nominated, and their relevant Washington experience):

• Rahm Emanuel, Chief of Staff. Assistant to the President for Political Affairs; Senior Adviser to the President for Policy and Strategy. Leading strategist for failed "HillaryCare" initiative.


• Eric Holder, Attorney General. U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia; Deputy Attorney General.


• Tom Daschle, Secretary for Health and Human Services. U.S. Senator from South Dakota. Senate Minority Leader (Senate Majority Leader January 3-20, 2001). Mr. Daschle's wife, Linda Hall, was acting administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration under Mr. Clinton.


• Peter Orszag, Director of Office of Management and Budget. Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy; Senior Economist; Senior Adviser on the Council of Economic Advisers.


• Hilary Clinton, Secretary of State. First Lady; primary author of aforementioned HillaryCare initiative.


• Janet Napolitano, Secretary for Homeland Security. No Washington experience.

As this article points out, Mr. Obama's first four likely Cabinet nominees have a combined total of 60 years of Washington experience, versus 58 for Mr. Clinton's first four picks and 30 for former president George W. Bush.
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Obama Understands Emanuel

When you know someone well, you can crack on 'em a bit. Much like President-elect Barack Obama, noting that the partial loss of Chief of State Rahm Emanuel's middle finger rendered him "practically mute."

Funny stuff.
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Obama Picks Daschle to Head DHHS; One Promise Kept, One Broken?

President-elect Barack Obama's selection of former Senator Tom Daschle of South Dakota as his nominee for secretary of Health and Human Services seemingly boosts health care reform efforts, but calls into question Mr. Obama's adherence to his commitment to keep lobbyists out of his administration.

Hopes are high, however, that special-interest groups who bickered over HillaryCare in the early 1990s are in favor of at least the concept of health care reform.

The employment of Mr. Daschle by the Mayo Clinic and law and lobbying firm Alston & Bird challenges Mr. Obama's pledge that lobbyists "won't find a job in my White House." A spokeswoman for Mr. Obama's transition office, Stephanie Cutter, reiterated that "[the new administration] will meet every commitment made during the campaign.”

Mr. Obama's issues list includes three main commitments related to healthcare:

1. Barack Obama will make health insurance affordable and accessible to all
2. Obama will lower health care costs
3. Promote public health

The "whats" and the "hows" certainly remain to be seen, but Mr. Obama took an interesting step by nominating Mr. Daschle.
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If Obama Can Keep Two Promises...

... These are near the top of the list. After their well-publicized meeting in Chicago, President-elect Barack Obama and Senator John McCain issued a joint release touching on "...a new era of reform where we take on government waste and bitter partisanship in Washington..."

Significant progress on these two issues, partisanship and government waste, will do much to return government to working for the people, not in spite of them.

Key passages included:

"At this defining moment in history, we believe that Americans of all parties want and need their leaders to come together and change the bad habits of Washington so that we can solve the common and urgent challenges of our time.

Mr. McCain, too, made an important promise during his concession speech on election night:

"I pledge to him tonight to do all in my power to help him lead us through the many challenges we face."

The thought of these two leaders working together to cure some of the ills that poison Washington is intriguing, but their relationship has been strained to this point.

As noted by the Wall Street Journal, Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain attempted to work together on an ethics and lobbying bill, and it ended badly:

"I would like to apologize to you for assuming that your private assurances to me...were sincere," Sen. McCain wrote in a stinging letter to Mr. Obama. "Please be assured I won't make the same mistake again."

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Obama Doing the Detroit Dance

Seemingly everyone has advice for President-elect Barack Obama on how to handle the bailout requests from U.S. automakers, and, now, their suppliers. How Mr. Obama handles this, given the considerable lobbying influence exerted by the Detroit Three, will be an indication of how he navigates the special-interest minefield.

While OTT is firmly opposed to a bailout, we do take solace in Mr. Obama's remarks during his 60 Minutes appearance Sunday:

“My hope is that over the course of the next week, between the White House and Congress, the discussions are shaped around providing assistance but making sure that that assistance is conditioned on labor, management, suppliers, lenders, all of the stakeholders coming together with a plan — what does a sustainable U.S. auto industry look like? So that we are creating a bridge loan to somewhere as opposed to a bridge loan to nowhere."

That last sentence is key -- if the automakers have a workable plan, and they truly need a bridge loan in order to execute, it may be tenable for taxpayers to shoulder the loans.

But what have executives in Detroit achieved to indicate they might be up for this task? Produce automobiles no longer in demand? Enter into short-sighted union agreements? Promote a brand strategy that's no longer competitive? And union leaders have demonstrated over and over that they're far more concerned with short-term gains for their senior members than long-term success for their business partners.

New York Times columnist Tom Friedman summed the situation thusly:

“If I thought with $25 billion we could save this industry, I’d be for it. But I see no plan right now, no reason to suggest that these people who have driven this industry into a complete ditch have a plan to get it out in the long term.”

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Obama Already Receiving Permission to Break Tax Promise

Before his term even begins, President-elect Obama is getting a pass from many to break one of his core promises: to cut taxes for 95% of working families. It's not just the mainstream media continuing their love affair with Mr. Obama; even traditionally conservative outlets are helping him cushion the inevitable.

In a recent AP-Gfk poll, 80% of participants believe cutting taxes should be a goal when Mr. Obama takes office in January, but only 36% believe it should be his top priority.
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Obama Pushes for Money and Czar for Automakers

President-Elect Obama is pushing for the lame-duck Congress and President Bush to approve $50B in emergency loans for the Big Three automakers and appoint a czar to "oversee the companies."

As Bloomberg notes:

By injecting himself into the talks about how to save General Motors, Obama is making an exception to his decision to steer clear of policy-making until he takes office.

That was fast. In his first press conference since winning the election, Mr. Obama said, "The United States has only one government and one president at a time," and followed with, "I am not going to be spending too much time in Washington over the next several weeks."

Apparently Mr. Obama will make an exception to this rule when it serves the cause of his powerful union allies.

OTT has a suggestion for an auto czar: a bankruptcy judge.

The previously linked DailyTimes.com article notes that Mr. Obama might change his tax plan (again) in response to deteriorating economic conditions. The Economist agrees with this theory.
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Report Shows Obama Wrong About Minneapolis Bridge Collapse

When the I-35W bridge collapsed on August 1, 2007, Senator Barack Obama hailed it as an example of President George Bush's lack of focus on the nation's crumbling infrastructure.

As it turns out, funding wasn't the problem. Human error was. In a report released today, federal investigators said a design error (undersized gusset plates) combined with a poor decision (allowing construction crews to store 287 tons of equipment and materials for a line-widening project on the bridge) caused the collapse that killed 13 people and injured 145.

But you won't hear Mr. Obama, or other public officials who used the tragedy to further their political ambitions, issue any corrections.

Just last month the AFL-CIO used the first anniversary of the collapse to blast Mr. Bush:

"The I-35W bridge was not an isolated example of a structure in disrepair. It is a symbol of America’s failing infrastructure and the lack of urgency to do anything about it. It is beyond ridiculous that the Bush administration opposes H.R. 3999, a sensible investment and reform proposal."

The union organization, a strong supporter of Mr. Obama, also hammered Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty:

"Bush is not the first executive to say no to bridge repair. Last year, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty—often mentioned as a possible vice presidential candidate for Sen. John McCain—vetoed a $6.6 billion transportation spending plan that included money to replace the I-35W bridge and inspect and repair other bridges. The state legislature overrode the veto.

Such opportunism isn't uncommon, but perhaps will become increasingly rare in this "post partisan" world.

Or perhaps not.
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Obama Breaks Promise to Keep Lobbyists Out of White House

Transition chief John Podesta revealed guidelines for employing lobbyists in the administration of Barack Obama. During the campaign Mr. Obama often hammered Senator John McCain from accepting money from lobbyists:

"I don't take a dime of their money, and when I am president, they won't find a job in my White House."

It seems "won't find a job" comes with pre-conditions.

Mr. Obama announced these pre-conditions on his website today:

• Federal lobbyists cannot contribute financially to the transition.


• Federal lobbyists are prohibited from any lobbying during their work with the transition.


• If someone has lobbied in the last 12 months, they are prohibited from working in the fields of policy on which they lobbied.


• If someone becomes a lobbyist after working on the Transition, they are prohibited from lobbying the Administration for 12 months on matters on which they worked.

Mr. Obama's team seems to split hairs when defining "lobbyist." As detailed in this Politico.com article, David Axelrod, Mr. Obama's chief campaign strategist, said:

“No one who's an active lobbyist, no one who's been lobbying on issues for the last two years related to their industries is going to come into our administration and work on those.”

OTT analysis: Broken promise. Despite these preconditions, Mr. Obama has broken his vow of keeping lobbyists out of his administration. This was a foolish promise to make, as lobbyists have a role in policy creation, much like rats have their place in the food chain.
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Aides Discuss Obama's Priorities

John Podesta, co-chair of President-elect Barack Obama's transitional team, shared a number of priorities for the Obama Administration, including:

• Expanding health care to the nation's 47 million uninsured
• Overhauling education policy
• Overhauling energy policy, including reducing U.S. reliance on foreign oil
• Passing a middle-class tax cut
• Extending unemployment benefits
• Increasing financial aid to states to help with health-care costs
• Passing an economic stimulus package... or two
• Initiate federally-funded construction projects to create jobs

Interestingly, the article does not explicitly mention Mr. Obama's top priority -- reviving the economy. Unfortunately readers can't check this against Mr. Obama's official priority list, as it has been removed from his transition website and replaced with the following:

The Obama Administration has a comprehensive and detailed agenda to carry out its policies. The principal priorities of the Obama Administration include: a plan to revive the economy, to fix our health care, education, and social security systems, to define a clear path to energy independence, to end the war in Iraq responsibly and finish our mission in Afghanistan, and to work with our allies to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, among many other domestic and foreign policy objectives.

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Obama Breaks "Post-Partisanship" Promise With First Decision as President-Elect

President-Elect Barack Obama has disappointed supporters and foes alike with his selection of Representative Rahm Emanuel as chief of staff. The pick has been hailed as wise given Mr. Emanuel's well-deserved reputation as an effective legislator who can successfully guide Mr. Obama's policies through Capitol Hill, but this partisan pugilist is "...an ironic choice for a president-elect who has promised to change Washington, make politics more civil, and govern from the center," according to House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH).

As recently as Tuesday Mr. Obama repeated his call for an end to partisanship in his election night speech:

"Let us resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long."

This article in today's Wall Street Journal details both positive and negative reactions to the appointment. Representative John Larson (D-CT) stated, "Rahm has a rare blend of talent in both policy and politics. And, contrary to popular belief, he's a guy with a heart."

Mr. Emanuel's position on immigration reform angered some Latino organizations, however.

"On the Hill, he came up with the strategy of how to slam Republicans and not move on immigration," said Arnoldo Torres, former executive director of the League of Latin American Citizens and aide to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

OTT analysis: While Mr. Obama's selection of Mr. Emanuel as his chief of state does seem to fly in the face of a "post-partisan world," OTT recognizes that Mr. Obama faces many challenges, including those from within his own party, and Mr. Emanuel's skills will be invaluable repelling the ultra-left agenda of Speaker Nancy Pelosi et al. A broken promise, but a good choice.
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Obama's Broken Promises from the Campaign Trail

While the focus of ObamaTruthTracker.com is Barack Obama's promises related to how he'll govern as president, it's worth reviewing some major broken commitments from the campaign.


First up is Mr. Obama's promise to accept public financing for the general election. He reached an agreement with Senator John McCain way back in March of 2007, when Mr. Obama was a long-shot candidate to win the Democratic nomination. He went so far as to write:

“If I am the Democratic nominee, I will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election.”

But Mr. Obama broke his pledge in June of 2008. His campaign staff had the audacity to claim that his earlier promise was not to stay within the public financing system, but pursue an agreement to do so. And we thought "depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is" was nuanced.

Less nuanced was the anger spewing from the left when Mr. Obama broke his pledge to filibuster FISA ("Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act"). Readers may recall that FISA "prescribes procedures for the physical and electronic surveillance and collection of 'foreign intelligence information' between 'foreign powers' and 'agents of foreign powers' (which may include American citizens and permanent residents suspected of being engaged in espionage and violating U.S. law on territory under United States control)" [source: Wikipedia].

As this article in the Washington Post details, Obama missed a FISA vote in February of 2008, but released a statement declaring:

"I am proud to stand with Senator Dodd, Senator Feingold and a grassroots movement of Americans who are refusing to let President Bush put protections for special interests ahead of our security and our liberty."

Recognizing the need to bolster his foreign policy credentials, Mr. Obama reversed course in October, voting for FISA and releasing this statement:

"Given the legitimate threats we face, providing effective intelligence collection tools with appropriate safeguards is too important to delay. So I support the compromise, but do so with a firm pledge that as president, I will carefully monitor the program."

A few days later Mr. Obama attempted to further defend his change of heart, also reported by the Washington Post.
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Welcome CynthiaMcKinney.com readers!

No doubt many new ObamaTruthTracker.com readers join us from CynthiaMcKinney.com, which, after an active run during the presidential election, is going back into hibernation -- much like Ms. McKinney's political career.

Recognizing that Senator Obama made many promises to countless special interest groups, this site was created to monitor Mr. Obama's progress on promises made versus promises kept.

Should you read in interesting article concerning Mr. Obama's commitments, please forward them to OTT via the email address in the right rail. You can also add OTT's feed to your favorite reader.

Please don't hesitate to share your thoughts and suggestions regarding the direction of ObamaTruthTracker.com. And now it begins.
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