What kind of Barama weed are people smoking today?
I've seen this piece of news iterated in hundreds of news feeds :
"Given the responses that I've been getting over the last several months, I have thought about the possibility" although not with the seriousness or depth required, he said. "My main focus right now is in the '06. ... After November 7, I'll sit down, I'll sit down and consider, and if at some point I change my mind, I will make a public announcement and everybody will be able to go at me."
Obama was largely unknown outside Illinois when he burst onto the national scene with a widely acclaimed address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.
In recent weeks, his political stock has been rising as a potentially viable centrist candidate for president in 2008 after former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner announced earlier this month that he was bowing out of the race.
In a recent issue of Time magazine, Obama's face fills the cover next to the headline, "Why Barack Obama Could Be The Next President." He is currently on a tour promoting his latest book, "The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream."
People are desperate in this country for a real leader when they place their presidential hopes on a guy that became famous for a political convention speech, has written a good book about being the son of immigrants, and not much else.
As much as I would like to smoke of that happy optminist weed, I will take a pass. Call me a party pooper. I think of myself as a realist.
I would loooove to have Obama in the White House. Unfortunately Barack Obama is too green.
You want to know a secret? Obama knows it too. He's not "testing the waters" for a Presidential nomination. Why would he?
He's proving to be a good marketer who knows how to use the attention he's receiving with more than a dose of class. He's an incredible communicator and new enough for people to still see him as a decent human being (give him another 4 years and maybe people will change their minds).
He comes across as being cautious and realistic. Which is why I believe, he will most certainly settle for Vice-President.
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Marketing | Politics | Publishing | 2008 Elections | Barack Obama | Democratic Party | Illinois | President | Senate
Liza, You are a much-needed
Submitted by Sonya on 25 October 2006 - 1:34am.
Liza,
You are a much-needed voice of sanity in a sea of blogging foolishness. Barack Obama is not going to run for president. You know it. I know it. Obama knows it.
However, I must take it one step further and say that it is nothing short of fantasy to think that a black man could be elected President of the United States in 2008. I remember when some of the same people who now speculate about an Obama candidacy were pushing for Colin Powell to run:
Now the Powell-for-President drumbeat is sounding throughout the land. In an October Newsweek cover story, Joe Klein wrote this of the general: "He stands, at 57, as the most respected figure in American public life. He is an African-American who transcends race; a public man who transcends politics. He seems a distinctly American character, with an easy confidence that inspires trust even among the most skeptical." R.W. Apple, Jr., in The New York Times, called Powell "a coveted general" in a page-one story about competing GOP and Democratic hopes to claim him as one of their own; in the Los Angeles Times, James Pinkerton published a column headlined "Colin Powell: A President for All Seasons."
I contend that Obama-mania, much like Powell-delirium, allows some so-called progressives to feel warm and fuzzy and reinforce the lie they tell themselves about how racism isn't as bad as colored folks say it is.
Here's some food for thought:
In fact, white Republicans nationally are 25 percentage points more likely on average to vote for the Democratic senatorial candidate when the GOP hopeful is black, says economist Ebonya Washington of Yale University in a forthcoming article in the Quarterly Journal of Economics. White independents are similarly inclined to vote for the white Democrat when there's a black Republican running, according to her study of congressional and gubernatorial voting patterns between 1982 and 2000, including five Senate races in which the Republican nominee was black.
But racially motivated crossover voting is not just a Republican phenomenon. Democrats also desert their party when its candidate is black, Washington found. In House races, white Democrats are 38 percentage points less likely to vote Democratic if their candidate is black.
"The artist must elect to fight for freedom or for slavery. I have made my choice. I had no alternative." -- Paul Robeson
progressive historians
Submitted by Lorraine on 25 October 2006 - 12:40pm.
Sonya and Liza,
There's an interesting Obama discussion going on over at Progressive Historians. I'm posting your commentary over there.
I feel neutral toward Obama right now. yes. He's very motivational. But having read the Harper's piece on him in the latest issue, I'm not so sure.
And both of your comments are sobering.
People are desperate in this
People are desperate in this country for a real leader when they place their presidential hopes on a guy that became famous for a political convention speech, has written a good book about being the son of immigrants, and not much else.
THANK you.