RKMBs Forums .::Important::. Politics and Current Events Obama in '08?

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Barack Obama
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Barack Obama

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Junior Senator, Illinois

In office
2005–present
Preceded by Peter Fitzgerald
Succeeded by Incumbent (2011)

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Born August 4, 1961
Honolulu, Hawaii
Political party Democratic
Spouse Michelle Obama
Religion United Church of Christ

Barack Hussein Obama (born August 4, 1961) is the junior U.S. Senator from Illinois. According to the U.S. Senate Historical Office, he is the fifth African American Senator in U.S. history and the only African American presently serving in the U.S. Senate.[1] Obama delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. In November 2004, he was elected to the United States Senate as a Democrat. Recent opinion polls identify Obama as the second most popular choice among Democratic voters for their party's nomination in the 2008 U.S. presidential election, after Hillary Clinton.[2] He is married to Michelle Obama (née Robinson) with whom he has two daughters.
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rex said:
I think it would be best for him to either get more experience in the government or run as vice president. He's too young to be president. But if he does run I would be glad that the democrats would finally have a strong candidate.

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dogbert said:

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rex said:
I think it would be best for him to either get more experience in the government or run as vice president. He's too young to be president. But if he does run I would be glad that the democrats would finally have a strong candidate.

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Agreed. Some have argued that by him not having a track record, he'll have less skeletons in his closet, although I don't know if I buy that.

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First, one can be an intriguing novelty only once. If he waits to run, the past half-century suggests that the wait could be eight years (see reason four, below). In 2016 he will be only 55, but there will be many fresher faces.

Second, if you get the girl up on her tiptoes, you should kiss her. The electorate is on its tiptoes because Obama has collaborated with the creation of a tsunami of excitement about him. He is nearing the point when a decision against running would brand him as a tease who ungallantly toyed with the electorate's affections.

Third, he has, in Hillary Clinton, the optimal opponent. The contrast is stark: He is soothing; she is not. Many Democrats who are desperate to win are queasy about depending on her. For a nation with jangled nerves, and repelled by political snarling, he offers a tone of sweet reasonableness.

Fourth, the odds favor the Democratic nominee in 2008 because for 50 years it has been rare for a presidential nominee to extend his party's hold on the presidency beyond eight years.

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Matter-eater Man said:
Since the other Obama thread is really about exploiting Obama's middle name--

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Group's TV ad to air this weekend on cable networks in N.H., D.C.
By April Simpson, Globe Staff  |  December 16, 2006

He wowed them in New Hampshire last week, and everyone seems to be talking about a possible presidential run in 2008. Despite his flirtation with the idea, Democratic Senator Barack Obama of Illinois insists that he hasn't made up his mind.

But the volunteer group Draft Obama has produced a television ad to air this weekend on cable networks in New Hampshire and Washington, D.C. Composed of recordings of his speeches and wildly applauding audiences, the ad shows an image of Obama with voters and of President Bush while Obama speaks to an enthusiastic audience, saying, "Do we participate in a politics of cynicism, or do we participate in a politics of hope?"
The ad, viewed 40,000 times since it was posted Wednesday on YouTube.com, according to the group -- is meant to spark a grass-roots movement and send a strong message to the senator, organizers said.
"We wanted to make sure that . . . [he] knows that there are thousands of supporters ready and rearing to go," said Ben Stanfield, a Maryland computer technician who registered the domain name draftobama.org two years ago and began posting on the site in October.
Political observers say it is early in the presidential campaign season for a draft ad. But some also point out that Obama has a book coming out and is riding a wave of popularity that should be exploited.
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Eric Zorn
Published December 19, 2006

It's hard to tell who's shrieking louder these days: Those who are insisting that Barack Obama is a political blank slate and nobody knows what he stands for, or those who are insisting that the track record of Illinois' junior Democratic senator shows he's a hard-core, wild-eyed liberal.
It's hard to tell because both sides are being drowned out by the indignant snorts of those who say that Obama lacks the "experience" to be a presidential contender, along with the polite interjections from those who demand to know just what Obama has done in his public life to justify the broad enthusiasm for his prospective entry into the Democratic primary field for 2008.
All I hear amid the noise is the thrum of resentment and fear:
Resentment that he's not playing by the old rules--that he hasn't acquired his political capital by spending years swapping favors and grandstanding in lesser offices or by climbing the coattails of his politically powerful father.
And fear that he's going to be a hell of a good candidate--brilliant, telegenic, immensely likable and on the popular (negative) side of the war in Iraq from the git-go.
Not to say that he'll be a perfect candidate.
The skeptics, the condescending, self-congratulatory promoters of the so-called "Baracklash" against the hype (another Newsweek cover photo this week, golly!), are fond of insinuating that those who think Obama should run for president are naive idealists drunk on the idea that the man can do and has done no wrong.
Every political movement has the hypnotized true believers, of course. And at this point Obama seems to have more than his share. But there are many realists in the ranks. And they know that, while Obama has his faults and has made some dumb moves in his career (land deal with a sleazebag, golly again!), the frenzied hand-waving over his prospective candidacy today is merely the objections of those who protest too much.
Obama says he will announce in the coming weeks his decision on whether to run.
The blank-slate argument: Obama's somewhat wonky new book, his speeches and his voting record in the Illinois Senate and U.S. Senate reveal plenty about his political philosophy.
The too-liberal argument: Those who realize that Obama, does, in fact, have a record to examine fret instead that he's way off to the left. It depends on one's perspective, of course, but he's reached out in several speeches to the Christian evangelical community, supported the 700-mile fence along the Mexican border and voted against Sen. John Kerry's proposed timeline for troop withdrawal from Iraq.
To take another example, his voting record has earned him an American Civil Liberties Union approval "score" of 83 percent, same as Sen. Hillary Clinton and Kerry and lower than the score of 11 other Senate Democrats.
The no-experience argument: I'm fond of the gotcha point out there that a certain other lanky, big-eared former Illinois legislator with just two years in Washington was mocked for his lack of experience when he ran for president in 1860, and he turned out to be an OK chief executive.
But one doesn't have to see Obama as the reincarnation of Abe Lincoln to realize first that experience--the length of one's resume--is not necessarily a predictor of success in the Oval Office; second, that no experience as a mayor, governor or legislator can really prepare a person to be the leader of the free world; and third, related to the first two, that the ability to inspire, to lead, to listen and to deliberate is a personality trait, not a skill one learns in the political trenches.
The no-accomplishment argument: Obama has served in the minority party in the U.S. Senate for two years--not a position with much leverage. Still, he managed to get his name on sunshine legislation to track and search government spending online, action to send additional humanitarian relief to the Congo and a nuclear-threat reduction program. He's also promoted the interests of military veterans.
But look, this is not a brief for Obama. It's a suggestion that the cynics as well as the supporters pipe down, take a breath and judge him by the same standards by which we have always judged prospective candidates.
Don't believe the noise or the hype. Examine his record and his experience for yourself--just don't pretend he doesn't have them.

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Wednesday said:

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the G-man said:
This columnist argues:Barack Hussein Obama: Once a Muslim, Always A Muslim

while Obama may not identify as a Muslim, that's not how the Arab and Muslim Streets see it. In Arab culture and under Islamic law, if your father is a Muslim, so are you. And once a Muslim, always a Muslim. You cannot go back. In Islamic eyes, Obama is certainly a Muslim. He may think he's a Christian, but they do not.

Then, there are the other items in his background. As best-selling author Scott Turow wrote in Salon, Obama went to a Muslim school for two years in Indonesia. His mother, Anna, married an Indonesian man (likely another Muslim, as Indonesia is Muslim-dominated and has the largest Islamic population in the world).

And Obama has a "born-again" affinity for the nation of his Muslim father, Kenya, and his Kenyan sister. (Although Kenya is largely Christian, it has a fast-growing Muslim population that has engaged in a good deal of religious violence and riots against Christians. And Kenyan courts will apply Sharia law, when the participants are Muslim.) Wrote Turow:

Obama's father died in a traffic accident in Nairobi in 1982, but while Obama was working in Chicago, he met his Kenyan sister, Auma, a linguist educated in Germany who was visiting the United States. When she returned to Kenya in 1986 to teach for a year at the University of Nairobi, Obama finally made the trip to his father's homeland he had long promised himself.

There, he managed to fully embrace a heritage and a family he'd never fully known and come to terms with his father, whom he'd long regarded as an august foreign prince, but now realized was a human being burdened by his own illusions and vulnerabilities.

So, even if he identifies strongly as a Christian, and even if he despised the behavior of his father (as Obama said on Oprah); is a man who Muslims think is a Muslim, who feels some sort of psychological need to prove himself to his absent Muslim father, and who is now moving in the direction of his father's heritage, a man we want as President when we are fighting the war of our lives against Islam? Where will his loyalties be?

Not sure I agree, but its an interesting read.

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Articles like this probably won't sway very many outside the fearful right who never would have voted for him anyway.

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the G-man said:
Perhaps, but if the "sensible right" or the
"cynical campaign consultant right" takes what the "fearful right" wrote, repackages it in a less histronic manner and distills it into a pithy sound bite, it may resonate with some swing voters in middle America.

After all, "once a Muslim always a Muslim" is not particularly different than, say, "once an oil man, always an oil man" (one of the left's accusations against Bush/Cheney) in terms of its inability to recognize that people change and/or can put the country's interests above their own.

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Pariah said:
That's interesting, very interesting.

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Wonder Boy said:

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Matter-eater Man said:
I think most people would like to see more experienced candidates in this post 9/11 world but the political process still turns experience into a liability. McCain & Kerry both had their records fuel more than a couple of negative campaign ads.

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Yes. And hypocritically, Kerry launched attacks on Bush's Vietnam-era service in the National Guard.

Even as Kerry simultaneously bemoaned Bush's counter-attack on Kerry's questionable Vietnam service.

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Matter-eater Man said:

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Wednesday said:

Articles like this probably won't sway very many outside the fearful right who never would have voted for him anyway.

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I guess I disagree with you Wednesday. Working on people's fear & ignorance can be very effective in a campaign. I wish you were right though.

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Matter-eater Man said:
You mean when all the Bush toadies made up accusations of Kerry falsifying his documented service record & he was actually defending himself? Not sure how that is hypocritical.

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Matter-eater Man said:

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Wonder Boy said:

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Matter-eater Man said:
I think most people would like to see more experienced candidates in this post 9/11 world but the political process still turns experience into a liability. McCain & Kerry both had their records fuel more than a couple of negative campaign ads.

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Yes. And hypocritically, Kerry launched attacks on Bush's Vietnam-era service in the National Guard.

Even as Kerry simultaneously bemoaned Bush's counter-attack on Kerry's questionable Vietnam service.

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You mean when all the Bush toadies made up accusations of Kerry falsifying his documented service record & he was actually defending himself? Not sure how that is hypocritical.

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the G-man said:

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Pariah said:

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Matter-eater Man said:
You mean when all the Bush toadies made up accusations of Kerry falsifying his documented service record & he was actually defending himself? Not sure how that is hypocritical.

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What did they make up again?

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I think they made up the idea of Kerry voting for the war. Or maybe they made up the idea that he then voted against it.


By the way, was Kerry defending himself when HIS toadie falsified National Guard records and got them aired on CBS?

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Wonder Boy said:

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Matter-eater Man said:

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Wonder Boy said:

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Matter-eater Man said:
I think most people would like to see more experienced candidates in this post 9/11 world but the political process still turns experience into a liability. McCain & Kerry both had their records fuel more than a couple of negative campaign ads.

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Yes. And hypocritically, Kerry launched attacks on Bush's Vietnam-era service in the National Guard.

Even as Kerry simultaneously bemoaned Bush's counter-attack on Kerry's questionable Vietnam service.

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You mean when all the Bush toadies made up accusations of Kerry falsifying his documented service record & he was actually defending himself? Not sure how that is hypocritical.

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the G-man said:

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Pariah said:

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Matter-eater Man said:
You mean when all the Bush toadies made up accusations of Kerry falsifying his documented service record & he was actually defending himself? Not sure how that is hypocritical.

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What did they make up again?

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I think they made up the idea of Kerry voting for the war. Or maybe they made up the idea that he then voted against it.


By the way, was Kerry defending himself when HIS toadie falsified National Guard records and got them aired on CBS?

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Wonder Boy said:....
By the way, was Kerry defending himself when HIS toadie falsified National Guard records and got them aired on CBS?

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the G-man said:

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Wednesday said:

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Matter-eater Man said:

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Wednesday said:

Articles like this probably won't sway very many outside the fearful right who never would have voted for him anyway.

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I guess I disagree with you Wednesday. Working on people's fear & ignorance can be very effective in a campaign. I wish you were right though.

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Rethinking things, maybe you're right.

Sad.

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Politics is war by other means. Playing on fear is part of the 'art of war' for both sides.

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Matter-eater Man said:

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Wonder Boy said:....
By the way, was Kerry defending himself when HIS toadie falsified National Guard records and got them aired on CBS?

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Since this battle was fought a bit ago on other thread(s) & it's off topic I'm passing on commenting much more on Kerry. Suffice to say we dissagree about your accusations.

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Matter-eater Man said:

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the G-man said:

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Wednesday said:

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Matter-eater Man said:

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Wednesday said:

Articles like this probably won't sway very many outside the fearful right who never would have voted for him anyway.

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I guess I disagree with you Wednesday. Working on people's fear & ignorance can be very effective in a campaign. I wish you were right though.

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Rethinking things, maybe you're right.

Sad.

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Politics is war by other means. Playing on fear is part of the 'art of war' for both sides.

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Playing on fear like that shows a true lack of integrity.

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Pariah said:
Or maybe it's spot on.

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