Originally Posted By: First Amongst Daves


The speech is being compared to speeches by your greatest presidents. And so, sorry, what's your point?


Well for one thing, it shows that he's a lot more statesman than politician. And I like what one of his fiercest critics these past few days actually said about him yesterday.

 Originally Posted By: JOE SCARBOROUGH

Really, I—actually, I may surprise some people. I think it‘s judgment. I think it‘s the type of person, how he or she makes decisions. The thing I‘ve been most impressed about—and I have not been throwing ticker tape parades for Barack Obama over the past couple days. The thing that I like so much about Barack Obama is when there is a problem, he doesn‘t parse the issue. He doesn‘t go away. He doesn‘t fight it for two or three years. He gets out in front of it. I like how this man operates in crisis situations. He‘s been very impressive how he does that.


And there it is. We pick presidents to LEAD, not to write legislation, not to divide us along political and ideological lines. We pick them to make tough decisions and to show leadership. And that's pretty much how he handles most controversies in this campaign. Head on and unafraid. The standard M.O. for politicians faced with a hard question or a crisis is to retreat with advisers an then come back with one mealy mouthed politically safe and somewhat ambiguous carefully worded answer. What Obama has consistently done is meet those questions head on and defuse them. Which with anyone else would seem fairly obvious but with American politicians of late, seems remarkable.

Plus of course the fact that his opponent's Senate Career has been all about making the safe political choices that would advance her career for higher office. Stating with the initial back to back Iraq votes.