Mike Graham: a national sick joke?

Mike Graham identifies himself as "a citizen of the Oklahoma Cherokee Nation, a retired service connected disabled Army veteran." He regularly posts columns on the Web, although I don't think I've seen his work in the press. For some reason he doesn't like Barack Obama:

Native Americans Against Obama For Good ReasonsObama, during the democratic primary campaign, stated he supported Native American issues. Obama even stated he supported bringing about a national holiday that recognizes Native Americans, but to date Obama has not seen fit as a U.S. senator to add his name to the national Native American Holiday Bill, currently before the U.S. Senate.

Not only has Obama failed to support Native American Indian issues, Obama has not supported the Native Hawaiian Government Recognition Bill before the U.S. Senate during his first term in office as a U.S. Senator. Obama should be front-and-center of this issue as he proudly claims Hawaii as his home state.

S.310: U.S. Senate Native Hawaiian Government Recognition Bill:

Title: A bill to express the policy of the United States regarding the United States relationship with Native Hawaiians and to provide a process for the recognition by the United States of the Native Hawaiian governing entity.

Obama failed to address "Real" Native American issues during the Democratic Primaries.

Obama over all, did not win the Native American Vote in the primaries across the country.Graham follows these specific claims with a bunch of worthless rants. We can summarize them as follows:NATIVE AMERICAN HEALTH CARE: A NATIONAL SICK JOKE!

NATIVE AMERICAN EDUCTION SYSTEM: A NATIONAL SICK JOKE!

NATIVE AMERICAN POVERTY RATE: A NATIONAL SICK JOKE!

OBAMA HAS NO PLAN FOR "CHANGE" FOR NATIVE AMERICANS

A VOTE FOR OBAMA IS A VOTE FOR NO REAL CHANGE!

NATIVE AMERICANS AGAINST OBAMA FOR GOOD REASONSComment:  Would it be fair to note that the person screaming "NATIVE AMERICAN EDUCTION SYSTEM: A NATIONAL SICK JOKE!" misspelled "education"? Yes, I think so.

I trashed Graham's posting in Indianz.com's forum. Here's what I said:

Graham's posting consists mainly of a series of "Obama made no commitment" statements. My response:

1) Candidates are wise not to make too many commitments, especially when they haven't won the nomination or the election yet.

2) A lack of a formal "commitment" doesn't mean a lack of a policy on an issue.

3) McCain hasn't made a commitment on these issues either. He doesn't have sound policy proposals on most of them.

Obama on Hawaiian recognition

Graham is flatly wrong on the issue of Hawaiian recognition. Here are the facts:

Democratic convention plans Native Hawaiian recognitionU.S. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, issued a statement in full support of Native Hawaiian recognition in January before the state's caucuses. He said if the bill did not become law this year that he would sign it as president if elected.Where most Indians stand

As for this statement:Obama over all, did not win the Native American Vote in the primaries across the country.So what if Hillary Clinton won, say, 41% of the Native vote, Obama won 39% of it, and McCain won 20% of it? (All numbers are rough estimates.) The fact is that Natives voted for Democrats by something like 4-1. Clinton's and Obama's proposals for Indian country were close if not identical. And Clinton has endorsed Obama as the best choice for Indians and America.

If Graham is implying that most Indians oppose Obama and the Democratic agenda and prefer McCain and the Bush agenda, he's wrong again.

Finally, some information for Mike Graham about where Obama stands on the issues:

Barack Obama's Principles for Stronger Tribal Communities