But I thought Obama was different from all the others?

Well, OK – not really, but so many faithful devotees believe he is, even when article by article slowly trickles out proving that he’s really not. Like this one (from the NYT, no less) about how he’s finally released a list of the earmark requests he’s made over the last three years (h/t: Jim Geraghty):

The list included $1 million for a hospital where Mr. Obama’s wife works, money for several projects linked to campaign donors and support for more than 200 towns, civic institutions and universities in Illinois.

But as the Senate debated a bill to restrict the controversial method of paying for home-state projects — a measure defeated Thursday evening — Mr. Obama’s presidential campaign also said that only about $220 million worth of his requests had been approved by Congress. And among those that had been killed were his request in 2006 for $1 million for an expansion of the University of Chicago Medical Center, where Mr. Obama’s wife, Michelle, is a vice president.

Mr. Obama’s aides and officials at the hospital said Mr. Obama’s wife had had nothing to do with the request. Campaign officials said he had voluntarily released the list of his earmark requests to underscore his promise to bring greater openness and transparency to government, an issue on which he has tried to put Mrs. Clinton on the defensive.

[…]

Mr. Obama had previously released the requests for earmarks that he made last year. And Thursday’s statement disclosed details of his requests from 2005 and 2006 for the kinds of home-state projects that critics often describe as pork-barrel politics.

Many senators have been reluctant to release such lists out of fear that they would open them to questions about ties to political donors or controversy back home about which organizations they had favored. As a result, it also is hard to judge how often they succeed in pushing the requests.

[…]

In other cases, Mr. Obama’s requests benefited political supporters.

His campaign’s list said the senator had secured $1.3 million of an $8 million request in 2006 for a high-explosive technology program for the Army’s Bradley Fighting Vehicle. The list said the program was overseen by General Dynamics.

One of Mr. Obama’s top supporters, James S. Crown, serves on the board of General Dynamics, a military contractor. Mr. Crown is a member of Mr. Obama’s national finance committee.

Mr. Obama also secured $750,000 of a $3 million request for renovation of a space center named for Mr. Crown’s grandfather, Henry Crown, at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.

In addition to the University of Illinois, Mr. Obama secured several million dollars for a project at Chicago State University. Emil Jones Jr., the president of the Illinois State Senate and an early and powerful political benefactor of Mr. Obama’s, has been a dogged champion of Chicago State, and one of Senator Obama’s closest friends. A Chicago businessman, James Reynolds, sits on its board.

But Bill Burton, a spokesman for Mr. Obama, said these requests had all been considered worthwhile by the senator’s staff, and that Mr. Obama never discussed any of them with Mr. Crown, Mr. Jones or Mr. Reynolds.

Dan Riehl details what appears to be another BO earmark request related to campaign contributors.

Barack Obama: Business as usual you can believe in.

Update: I should have known that on the same day the NYT publishes probably its first substantive, critical look at BO’s rhetoric versus reality, they publish a puff piece on him as well. This is their way of being a “balanced” newspaper – I guess. (Via Memeo)