Teamsters Defend Endorsement of Obamateamster.org
Teamsters Defend Endorsement of Obama
Made popular 1839 days ago in Opinion
nytimes.com — The Teamsters union vigorously denied on Monday that its decision to endorse Senator Barack Obama in the presidential race was in any way tied to Mr. Obama's statement that federal supervision of the union had run its course.

The union also noted that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Mr. Obama's rival for the Democratic nomination, suggested that she might also support ending the union's consent decree with the federal government when she spoke to the Teamsters' general executive board last year.

The decree is a 19-year-old agreement between the union and the federal government, under which government-appointed monitors have worked to root out mob influence from the union, which has 1.4 million members.

Mr. Caldwell was reacting to an article in The Wall Street Journal on Monday, which said that Mr. Obama won the Teamsters' endorsement after he privately told the Teamsters, according to campaign and union officials, that he supported ending the federal oversight.

Bill Burton, chief spokesman for the Obama campaign, called the article in the Journal "surprisingly sensational."

"Obama's position on this is old news," he said.

"Despite the sensational nature of this ridiculous story and the Clinton attack, Obama has not said he would take the Teamsters out of the consent decree - he's said it has run its course," Mr. Burton said. Referring to Mrs. Clinton, he said, "This is a pathetic effort to distract attention from the fact that voters are seeing through her political pander on the gas tax gimmi

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Posted by ffox
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Do you believe Barack Obama committed himself to ending the consent decree in exchange for an endorsement?
Yes
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User Comments
PollM
Posted 1839 days ago
0 up votes, 0 down votes
He clearly tipped his hand before the endorsement.
bish66
Posted 1839 days ago
0 up votes, 0 down votes
Obama says and does anything to get elected, including throwing people close to him under the bus.

He needed the endorsement from the teamsters to win blue collar voters, so he promised them a lot of change. Simple as that.
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