Here’s a troubling pattern for the Barack Obama – one that should scare the pants off of most Americans. Barack Obama, who since his earliest days has been and remains attracted to a radical, activist, left-leaning agenda, has associated himself with some really shady characters and organizations that don’t share Main Street American values.

And, when these ties are exposed, Senator Obama at first attempts to minimize the situation or attack those raising the claims…but when attacking or minimizing proves unsuccessful, Obama casts these “connections” aside and quickly attempts to distance himself.

America first witnessed this with Obama’s handling of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright situation. When statements made by Obama’s pastor of 20-years grew too problematic, the Senator attempted to calm the fury by making a speech about race relations in the U.S. The left fawned over the “chosen one” for his prophetic comments. Main Street America yawned. When the fury over Wright’s “God d*mn America” comments wouldn’t pass, Obama said, “See ya” to his friend.

Most recently, Obama appears to have weathered the storm over his close connections to American-born terrorist William Ayers largely by ignoring them...and the elitist media gave him a pass.

Now, with mainstream newspapers, television, radio shows, blogs and Internet filled with troubling assertions about voter fraud and the inextricable involvement of ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), Obama faces a new and more serious controversy. The Illinois Senator needs to address this issue and his long-time, close ties to this questionable group.

According to hundreds, if not thousands of media reports, ACORN activists have registered the Dallas Cowboys, Mickey Mouse and other notable cartoon characters, and even the dead to vote. Thousands of other instances of voter fraud in key battleground states are now bubbling to the surface. With vote fraud allegations against ACORN in Seattle, St. Louis, Kansas City, Cleveland, New Mexico, Wisconsin and other states, Barack Obama’s ties to ACORN need to be examined and explained in much greater detail.

Will he support his former employer’s suspicious and questionable activities? Will he ignore the situation and hope it goes away? Will he distance himself?

To further complicate matters and to demonstrate Obama’s lack of Main Street values, there’s a YouTube video of a 2007 Obama interview at a community organizing convention. In this segment, Obama promises that community organizations (like ACORN) would be granted unprecedented access to help a “President Obama” set the agenda even before he is sworn into office. That’s a truly scary endeavor for a centrist America given these organizations' radical, socialist-leaning agenda.

ACORN leaders have claimed that they “want a new America.” Barack Obama has gone to great lengths to position himself as a different type of politician. ACORN’s and Obama’s “new” and “different” desires should give all of us pause.

Equally important, Senator Obama’s inextricable links to the most radical of radical individuals and organizations belies his thin claims of centrism...and call into question what Obama truly believes at his core...because that’s where an Obama Administration would end up philosophically and from a public policy perspective.

Give the Obama presidential campaign credit. They have masterfully positioned their candidate in the political center. But, Barack Obama is no moderate. He’s an unrepentant extremist-liberal masquerading in centrist clothing to get elected.

With three weeks, America needs to know the real Barack Obama. It remains to be seen if the McCain campaign is capable of effectively telling this story. Thankfully, ACORN is helping to accomplish this task.