Of first criteria, oratorial skills comes down the list. Of course, I don't want a prompter-dependent garbler. A candidate must stand up at the lectern, looking like he has backbone and some old-fashioned empathy. He/she should not lay out the agenda he wants me to remember as though it's the first day of a new semester.
Our four contestants will probably soon get over feeling like finalists in a national declamation tourney. Obama is, I believe, the brainiest of the bunch. His Harvard Law Review background got him in trouble when he came up against Bobbie Rush, a Southsider with gang credentials. I look at Obama and can see how he is trying to be more one of the folks. He forgets it when he meets his rivals and has trouble. Sure, I swooned the night of the 04 convention debut. But that performance does not play well on TV beauty contests and possibly detracts sometime on the stump. His wife comes on as a natural out in Iowa picnics. Whatever happens to him this term around, I'm sure we'll find him prevailing over time. And he's got Chicago pols on his side.
As you know, I like Edwards. That is because he is further to the left than the others. He really wants to change the domestic agenda. He didn't grow up as poor as Abraham Lincoln or LBJ, or even me. Like most Southerners he lived a confined world view. Now he probably has a better one than any except Hillary, who has traveled with Uncle Sam on the really grand tour. It is one of her greatest strengths. I'm trying to get hold of Carl Bernstein's book. He has some personal data I want to check out. There is no way I imply that she shouldn't have a fair chance at the gold ring. However, it irks me when she plays an idea two ways. If she wants to be her own thinker, she should not depend upon Bill's charisma to pull chestnuts out of the fire for her. And she definitely should lay off the blame game about the boys piling on her. This is not football, where muscle gives an advantage.
Richardson has a wonderful sense of humor as far as I'm concerned. He smiles like it would hurt his face if he didn't. He has a lot of experience and gives the impression that if he were not to win, neither he nor the country would evaporate.
When you think of the top four, this is remarkable on the token quotient. A woman, an African-American, a Mexican-American, and an Appalachian high achiever.