Attempt to smear Obama will fall flat

Senator Obama continues to be put through the meatgrinder. He has been questioned about some stock that he indirectly invested in (via a “blind fund”). It turns out that some of those who contributed to his campaign were companies in that fund.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Wednesday that he was not aware that he had invested in two companies backed by some of his top donors and did nothing to aid their business before the government.

The Illinois senator faced questions about more than $50,000 in investments he made right after taking office in 2005 in two speculative companies, AVI Biopharma and Skyterra Communications. Obama said his broker bought the stocks as part of a quasi-blind trust.

“At no point did I know what stocks were held, and at no point did I direct how those stocks were invested,” Obama told reporters at the end of a press conference called to tout an unrelated immigration bill. (Watch Sen. Obama explain the investments Video)

“What I wanted to make sure is that I didn’t want to invest in companies that potentially would create conflicts with my work here,” said Obama, who has campaigned on the need for stronger congressional ethics rules. “Obviously, the thing didn’t work the way I wanted it to.”

Obama purchased $5,000 in shares for AVI, which was developing a drug to treat avian flu. Two weeks after buying the stock, Obama pushed for more federal funding to fight the disease, but he said he did not discuss the matter with any company officials.

Obama also had more than $50,000 in shares of Skyterra, a company that had just received federal permission to create a nationwide wireless network that combined satellite and land-based communications systems.

Among the company’s top investors were donors who raised more than $150,000 for Obama’s political committees, the New York Times reported Wednesday. The stock holdings were first examined Monday by the financial Web site, Thestreet.com.

The reports found no evidence that any of his actions ended up benefiting either company during the roughly eight months he owned the stocks. Obama lost about $15,000 on Skyterra and earned a profit of about $2,000 on AVI.

Emphasis mine.

Some are trying to play this as a scandal.

My prediction: this will be the public’s long term reaction. Why? See the highlighted part.

What I’ll also say is that if Senator Clinton has an advantage is that she has had practice in dealing with her opponents randomly throwing mud at her in hopes that some will stick.

Master’s Swim Meets…

Workout Notes 3600 yards; 5 x 100 fist warm up, 5 x (25 front, 25 sfs, 25 3g, 25 free) on the 2:30, 10 x 75 free, 25 back on the 2 (mostly 1:42-1:43, one 1:45); I did the last 100 in 1:31. Then 400 worth of strokes (8 x 25 fly), then 4 x (100 free, 100 pull, 100 fins) 21:17.

Not that bad; the pool was virtually empty. Not sure where everyone was.

Now about masters swim meets:

click here for a larger image.

Actually, I am mostly too slow for these, but they usually let me swim anyway. Most of the people who show up at these swam for a college team, or at least for a highschool team.

Injury wise: I think my injury recovery has hit a new phase. I haven’t had the deeper aches, but I do get ocassional tingles. And the bursitis area is still a bit tender to the touch.