The voters need to know and should demand an honest response from Barack Obama, a young man with talent but short on experience and judgment, but long on bad character relationships, what his true associations were with a number of unsavory characters who happened to be in the “neighborhood?”

The latest on Obama’s long list is Rashid Khalidi a former spokesperson for Yasser Arafat’s PLO, an individual who Barack and Michele were frequent dinner guests at his home when Khalidi was a professor in Chicago.

And when Obama was asked about Khalidi there was a familiar tune: “And I do know him.  And I have had conversations.  He is not one of my advisers.  He is not one of my foreign policy people.  His kids went to the lab school where my kids go as well.”

To me it sounds the way Obama described Pentagon bomber Bill Ayers, “A guy I know in the neighborhood.”

Obama was in the homes of these very questionable characters, which as we all know, implies a closer friendship than Obama wants to admit.

In fact Obama launched his political career at a fund raiser in Ayers’ living room.

I guess he just happened to be in the neighborhood and stopped in for some coffee resulting in Obama being on a fast track to the White House.

We all know it was more than that.  Both Obama and Ayers served on a Foundation board that gave away $100 million over seven years and a significant amount of that funding went to radical education programs conducted by Ayers.

Then there was the dubious association with real estate felon Tony Rezko, who also just happened to be in the neighborhood.

And, who can forget Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who married Michele and Barack and baptized their children and helped Obama find Christ, but who blessed America by calling it, “God Damn America”.  I guess Rev. Wright just happened to be in the “neighborhood” and of course Obama never heard Wright’s anti-American lectures from the pulpit.

Then there is the connection of Obama to the organization called the Association of Community Organization for Reform, better known as ACORN.  This is a group that Obama represented as legal counsel and who’s campaign has made $800,000 in contributions to ACORN  — but today is being investigated by law enforcement, including the FBI, for fraudulently trying to steal the presidential election for Obama.

And ironically ACORN is working in all the battleground states.

Now if all these unsavory characters were not enough, Obama has added to his campaign economic and financial advisors Franklin Raines, former CEO of Fannie Mae who ran it into the ground and took a $90 million bailout package and Tim Howard, former Chief Financial officer of Fannie Mae, both of whom were at the heart of the financial crisis and are now being investigated for fraud along with the two companies who the government bailed out.

Obama as a Senator and his advisors were forewarned by John McCain two years ago of the financial crisis to come and that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were at the heart of the house of falling cards and that regulatory measures were called for.  But there was too much lobbying money flowing into the likes of these individuals as well as Barney Frank and Chris Dodd.

These are the very identifiable characters that were at the heart of the financial crisis we see today and yet Obama is going to use those that got us here to get us out of this mess?

I’m sorry that these unsavory characters happened to be in the “neighborhood” and that this so called “talented” person called Obama, who is short on experience and judgment, can’t be honest about his questionable relationships.

If we are to believe all of what this scary guy brings to the table we might want to consider during these financial times purchasing the Brooklyn Bridge from Obama.