2008 Election Coverage

Barack Obama and His Renegade Parking Lawlessness

March 9th, 2007

Obama finally paid his late parking tickets two weeks before he launched his presidential campaign, thus ending parking ticket-gate before it even got started. He paid parking tickets he received while attending Harvard Law School, more than a decade ago. Aparently, Obama received 17 parking tickets in Cambridge between 1988 and 1991, according to the city’s Traffic, Parking & Transportation Department.
Of those tickets, he paid only two while he was a student and paid them late, said Susan Clippinger, the office’s director.

In January, about when the Boston Globe began asking local officials about Obama’s time at Harvard, including any violations of local laws, someone representing the senator called the parking office to inquire about the decades-old tickets.  Obama then paid the $375 with a personal credit card.

No big deal.  Except that it demonstates an incredible arrogance to repeatedly park illegally and then only pay your fine when it becomes a campaign issue decades later.  I guess it isn’t a big deal… but it’s the type of thing someone who things they are better than everyone else would do. 

I determined in 1996 that I was going to vote from here on out based on the character of the candidate (as best I could determine it).  It’s hard to glean much from people in the public eye so I feel like I have to try to glean from character tid bits like this.  It’s a shame because I sure wouldn’t want someone judging me on this sort of basis, but it’s all I got.  McCain and Obama have been cast by the media as the “high character” candidates in either party.  We’ll see how they hold up to this continued scrutiny.

Entry Filed under: Obama, Barak Obama, John McCain, 2008