You've probably heard the saying, "Show me your friends and I will show you your future." If that's true, here's the one thing: What can we learn about where we're going from President Obama's and ACORN's friends?

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We've been trying to figure that out, as has "The O'Reilly Factor":

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAN BANK, 'FACTOR' PRODUCER: Excuse me, ma'am? I'm trying to go into the ACORN house. I'm wondering if you know what exactly is going on in there?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, I don't.

BANK: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, you need to take that off of me.

BANK: Do you normally go in there?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't think it's any of your business.

BANK: Well, I have here over 270 organizations that use that as their mailing address for millions of dollars going in. Do you know what that's all about?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, I don't.

BANK: Do you know Wade Rathke?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't need to answer that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

But apparently asking a few questions is such a cause for concern that about a dozen left-wing groups needed to hold a strategy session today at the Center for American Progress, the liberal policy center run by former Clinton chief of staff John Podesta.

The organizations are meeting to try to come up with how to deal with all the bad press from right-wing hate-mongers about ACORN.

Among the groups are: Advancement Project; Alliance for Justice; Center for American Progress Action Fund; Center for Community Change; Common Cause; Fair Elections Legal Network; Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and People for the American Way.

Meanwhile, ACORN's chief organizer and CEO Bertha Lewis is reportedly the featured speaker.

So, what do we know of these ACORN friends?

Time Magazine said of the Center that there is, "No group in Washington with more influence at this moment in history," since President Obama has nominated so many of its past and present staff members.

George Soros gave the group $3 million to get started. Among the groups attending are the kind of left-wing movers and shakers you might expect. For example, the Advancement Project has board members from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the powerful Service Employees International Union.

Meanwhile, the Center of Community Change has several union members on its board and lists on its Web site that it helped establish the Community Reinvestment Act. That, as you'll remember, caused the financial mess we're in right now. So they might consider leaving that off the resume.

The People for the American Way inspired MoveOn.org.

And this is all just scratching the surface.

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