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# Too much tomfoolery
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/too-much-tomfoolery-editor/
- Published: 2008-07-16T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T20:11:11.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*By Tim Dillenbeck Santa Monica*

Re: page 4, Wednesday, July 9, Going Postal column, “And did I mention he’s a black man?”

Concerning Steve Breen’s statements about implied conflicts in Obama’s policy positions: 1) Regarding gay marriage: A personal belief that marriage is between a man and a woman does not preclude Obama from respecting and defending the rights of gays to marry. 2) On campaign finance: “Obama ‘landed’ $125,000 ….The booty was bundled from 186 separate ‘small donor contributions,’ as Obama prefers to call them, so as to avoid an appearance of taking ‘big lobby money.’”

OK. $125,000\. 186 donors. That averages out to $672 per donor; looks like small contributions to me, not “big lobby money.” And Jack Abramoff, as you remember, was associated with a scandal involving Tom DeLay, which has nothing to do with Obama. Your unsubstantiated inferences fail to connect. 3) On Iraq: There is nothing incongruous about “resisting the call for “immediate withdrawal” while pushing for a “phased redeployment” of forces. Obama is vitally aware that we can not exit Iraq with the same precipitous haste we entered. May I refer you to “The Obama Doctrine” in the March 24th issue of The American Prospect magazine. I think you need to be brought up to speed on his comprehensive foreign policy positions.

Taking quotes out of context and re-arranging them to contrive untruths is transparent and ineffective partisan tomfoolery. I expect better of Steve in the future.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 16, 2008.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/071608.pdf?ref=smdp.com)