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Obama in the spotlight: What you should know (Media has elected Obama President!)
The Slate ^ | 7-27-04

Posted on 07/27/2004 7:51:30 PM PDT by jmstein7

One rival politician from his home state of Illinois has called Barack Obama "the Tiger Woods of politics."

But that comparison is unfair - to Obama. The 42-year-old U.S. Senate front-runner and Tuesday night's keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention is having a much, much better year than the struggling golfer.

Obama's already been the subject of a publicity avalanche that's included a 5,744-word profile in the New Yorker - not bad for a politician who's never been elected to anything higher than the Illinois state Senate.

Bidding to become just the third African-American since Reconstruction to win a Senate seat, Obama has been leading by 20 percent in the polls - and that was before his original GOP foe dropped out because of a lurid sex scandal.

Even before the balloons and confetti were swept up from his Democratic primary victory in March, the Chicago Sun-Times wrote: "If he is elected in November, Obama will immediately replace Colin Powell as the person most talked about to be the first African-American elected president of the United States."

Who the heck is this guy? Here are 10 things you might want to know about Tuesday night's star, Barack Obama.

1. He has a remarkable bio - one that prompted the Democrat's 2000 keynote speaker, Harold Ford Jr., to call him "an American story."

His father was a Kenyan - also named Barack Obama - who was studying economics in Hawaii and later left for Harvard and then his home country, never to return. His mother was an 18-year-old white woman from Kansas. Her second husband was an Indonesian oil manager, so Obama spent part of his youth in Jakarta.

His family struggled, but Obama went to Hawaii's top prep school, then Columbia and Harvard Law School, where he was the first African-American to edit the law review.

2. His first name means "blessing" in Swahili. On the campaign trail, he wins voters over by joking about his unusual name and says that it rhymes with "Yo Mama" - although he steers away from its rhyme to a certain Middle Eastern terrorist.

3. He declared that Iraq didn't have ties to al-Qaida or weapons of mass destruction - back in 2002. The same autumn that candidates John Kerry and John Edwards were voting to authorize President Bush to go to war, Obama was speaking at anti-war rallies.

"I am not opposed to all wars. I'm opposed to dumb wars," he said two years ago.

4. He can be candid about his past. In 1995, he published his autobiography, "Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance," and admitted that as a teenager he experimented not only with marijuana but with cocaine.

"I guess you'd have to say I wasn't a politician when I wrote the book," he told the New Yorker. "I wanted to show how and why some kids, maybe especially young black men, flirt with danger and self-destruction."

5. He's very supportive of Bill Cosby's recent controversial comments about African-American teenagers, their parents, and black popular culture.

"I understand the basic premise that Bill Cosby was talking about, and I think he's right about it," Obama said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "There's got to be an element of individual responsibility and communal responsibility for the uplift of the people in inner-city communities."

6. When asked, he says he considers himself an African-American. "The reason that I've always been comfortable with that description is not a denial of my mother's side of the family," Obama told the New York Times. "Rather, it's just a belief that the term African-American is by definition a hybrid term. African-Americans are a hybrid people. We're mingled with African culture and Native American culture and European culture."

He added later: "If I was arrested for armed robbery and my mug shot was on the television screen, people wouldn't be debating if I was African-American or not. I'd be a black man going to jail. Now if that's true when bad things are happening, there's no reason why I shouldn't be proud of being a black man when good things are happening, too."

7. He's unapologetically liberal. After law school, Obama shunned white-shoe law firms and worked as a community organizer in a poverty-stricken Chicago neighborhood.

As a state lawmaker, he pushed for death-penalty reforms and an end to racial profiling. He also pushed for health-care coverage for children.

8. He's not only a good candidate, but a lucky one. The man he was supposed to run against, Republican Jack Ryan, dropped out recently when unsealed divorce papers said he had dragged his wife, TV actress Jeri Lynn Ryan, to sex clubs. Possible replacement candidates, like former Chicago Bears football coach Mike Ditka, have shied away from taking on Obama.

If he wins in November, Obama will become only the second black Democratic senator, after Carol Moseley Braun, also of Illinois. Massachusetts elected a black Republican, Edward Brooke, in the 1960s and '70s.

9. He's ready for prime time, but apparently not on the major broadcast networks. ABC, NBC and CBS, which used to offer wall-to-wall convention coverage, didn't televise the convention at all Tuesday night.

When Obama took the stage around 10 p.m., the networks were airing shows like "Last Comic Standing" and "Navy NCIS." But you could catch the speech on the major cable news channels or C-SPAN.

10. He really could end up in the White House. Why not? He's not only brilliant and a good public speaker but has movie-star good looks and a great story to tell. He's a bit to the political left, but some pundits already see Obama drifting to the center.

Illinois state Senate President Emil Jones recently told a youngster at an event that if his parents voted Obama into the Senate, then he would have a chance to vote for him for president someday.


TOPICS: Extended News
KEYWORDS: dncconvention; kerry; obama
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To: Remember_Salamis

It is not well known, but in the early 70s, 6 or 7 white kids attended and graduated from Kamehameha. They were allowed in because the school could not find enough qualified kids of Hawaiian ancestory. I know one of these kids - he is the manager of Hawaiian operations for Starwood Resorts and lives in Princeville. He said he used to donate to Kamehameha (like they need donations!!), but has stopped following the recent attempt to get a white kid in school.

As I am sure you know, the race-based requirements are a joke, because 1% Hawaiian blood will get you in. My wife has an acquaintance whose 14 yr old daughter is 3/32 Hawaiian, but looks like a young Vanna
White. Anyway, the will of Princess Puahei(sp?)Bishop states "children of Hawaii", not "Hawaiian children", but I guess the courts cannot understand plain English.


161 posted on 07/28/2004 7:28:38 AM PDT by KAUAIBOUND (Hawaii - a Socialist paradise for left-wing cockroaches)
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To: jmstein7

It could be really fun watching the 2008 Dem primaries. LOL


162 posted on 07/28/2004 7:29:59 AM PDT by MEGoody (Flush the Johns - vote Bush/Cheney 04)
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To: Reagan Man
I'm not sure how Clinton made the military second class as you say. It was, after all, the Clinton army that fought in Afghanistan, and the beginning stages of Iraq (when things were going well for the troops.) It takes about 2 and a half years for a president to put his individual stamp on our armed forces because of the budget cycles. Also, how are we no longer a bastion of freedom and liberty? You are free to state whatever you like in this forum, and I have the liberty to disagree.

Plus what Obama was pointing out was that those are not our greatest qualities, our greatest quality is that fact that we have unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That we have a country founded on the tenets of equality and opportunity. It is those qualities that allow us to have the strongest economy, and give the military the strength that it needs. Our troops are not fighting for some king on high, but for the ideal of a better tomorrow for their kids and other future generations.

It would behoove you to realize that military might alone can accomplish little, just ask the Greeks, Romans, Spanish, British, French. It is the fact that we have freedoms worth fighting for that make us as formidable and great as we are. And if we lose those freedoms then we lose everything.
163 posted on 07/28/2004 7:56:59 AM PDT by drknowitall (It Helps to Knowitall)
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To: KAUAIBOUND

Punahou


164 posted on 07/28/2004 8:00:13 AM PDT by TedsGarage
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To: reg45

Not from Kenya which is in east Africa


165 posted on 07/28/2004 8:01:18 AM PDT by cyborg (http://mentalmumblings.blogspot.com/)
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To: mlmr

I was not impressed. Smell a Slick Willy? I sure do. He's worse than Slick Willy. I think George Stephanopolous calling him the 'Tiger Woods of politics' was entirely welcome. I'd say BO's views and politics are the opposite of Tiger Woods, even down to his own views about his ethnic identity. I don't believe anything he says but I know a lot of people fell for it last night.


166 posted on 07/28/2004 8:06:24 AM PDT by cyborg (http://mentalmumblings.blogspot.com/)
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To: drknowitall
I find your response somewhat out of step with the conservative agenda of Free Republic. You defend Bill Clinton and you lend credence to Barak Obama. Sounds like you're on the wrong political website.

As to your specific points.

>>>I'm not sure how Clinton made the military second class as you say.

I never said that. You did. What I implied was something different. After eight long years of der schlickmeister as CIC, funding for the US military was drastically undercut, leaving US defenses vulnerable. Just compare Bush41`s last budget in 1993 with Clinton's last budget in 2001. Clinton reduced defense spending 20.7% of budget outlays and a whopping 31.8% of GDP. Under Clinton we spent the lowest amounts on defense since 1940! We don't need a Kerry in the White House or Obama in the Senate to further undermine the US military.

The facts are crystal clear. Without a strong military to defend our way of life, there would be NO America. Period!

So, Barak Obama may have impressed you with his rhetorical flair for the obvious. To me, he came across as a liberal hack, trying to hide his true political agenda.

It's the US military that has protected and defended our freedom for the last 228 years. Again. Without a strong US military, America would cease to exist.

167 posted on 07/28/2004 9:20:34 AM PDT by Reagan Man (.....................................................The Choice is Clear....... Re-elect BUSH-CHENEY)
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To: Mo1
I guess .. but did you catch the look on her and Jesse Jackson's face after he was finished speaking??

I haven't been watching this convention. I have a very sensitive gag reflex.

168 posted on 07/28/2004 10:07:48 AM PDT by My2Cents ("Fair, balanced...and unafraid.")
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To: jmstein7
Ain't no way he'll go very far, because the name Obama sounds too much like Osama.

I heard this same kind of media buzz over 30 years ago about a "dynamic" and young black state legislator named Julian Bond. Where is he now? I thought he was going to be the first black president. Oops! My bad, there has already has been one, Bill "Arkansas Dirt Clod" Clinton! If--God forbid--John "F" Kerry were elected then he would be the second black president.

No real need for Obama, the democrats have used "affirmative action" to place white men in the position that would have ordinarily gone to a black man.

169 posted on 07/28/2004 10:21:47 AM PDT by Che Chihuahua (Rule # 2: Arrogance is always a cover for ignorance. Are with you with us Mr. Kerry?)
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To: drknowitall
To correct you, it was NOT "Clinton's army" that fought in Afghanistan, it is the AMERICAN ARMY that fights wars.

It is absolutely ridiculous that you would use a DNC talking point that was bandied about seven months ago by their media butt boys. That talking point justifiably went into the ash heap of truly stupid thoughts. Especially because your subhuman hero Clinton is on record as "loathing the military."

Don't you write a "blog" on that insipid little website MoveOn.org?

170 posted on 07/28/2004 10:46:36 AM PDT by Che Chihuahua (Rule # 2: Arrogance is always a cover for ignorance. Are with you with us Mr. Kerry?)
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To: KAUAIBOUND

"The article states that he went to Hawaii's top prep school - does anyone know if it was Iolani or Punahou?"

Punahou Class of '79.

Because government schools in Hawaii are so unbelievably bad, there is fierce competition to get into private schools. As a result, it is more difficult to get into Punahou and Iolani than Harvard in terms of the percentage of acceptances (although both prep schools have a lot of alumni children "legacies").

Punahou was founded in 1841, Iolani in 1863. Both are generally ranked in the top ten or fifteen prep schools in the United States. Other well-known alumni or students of Punahou are Steve Case (of AOL-Time Warner fame), Sun Yat-Sen (president and founder of post-imperial China--he also went to Iolani), Hiram Bingham (explorer who discovered Machu Picchu and was later a U.S. Senator from Connecticut), Samuel Chapman Armstrong (Civil War Union general and subseqent founder of Hampton University, the first college for blacks), and of course golfer Michelle Wie.

Given Hawaii's cosmopolitan makeup, Punahou would not have granted Obama "preference" simply because he was part black. He would have competed to get in just like everyone else. He then did well there. I therefore would suspect he got into Columbia and Harvard because of merit, not affirmative action.


171 posted on 07/28/2004 12:57:19 PM PDT by kaehurowing
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Comment #172 Removed by Moderator

To: NutCrackerBoy
He is a good person, but his politics are toxic. I think the primary long-term antidote is to keep politics honest, while avoiding the appearance of demonizing. With subtlety, neutralize the concept of stealth liberal candidates.

He certainly IS electrifying. I had a local lawyer come in to my office today, she's a prominent Democrat, and her parents are of East Indian heritage, she was practically gushing about the man. She was ready to elect him President in four years!

Being as my job requires me to be fairly non-partisan, she doesn't know my politics, but she was impressed that I knew a lot of facts about him. I asked if she thought that he would get some resentment from American blacks who were the descendants of slaves, for whom affirmative action was created as a remedy, she didn't think so. Of course, she benefitted from the same programs, even though her ancestors did not suffer from Jim Crow laws in this country.

I strongly suspect that Obama will win his Senate race, by the time 2008 rolls around, we will have three-plus years of his voting record to use against him. Maybe it won't be as bad as we fear.

173 posted on 07/28/2004 10:29:07 PM PDT by hunter112
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To: flaglady47
Wonder what skeletons you may have in your own attic.

I do have a few, but I'm not running for political office. On the other hand, I've never been to a 'sex club'. Even if I were interested in such a thing (I'm not), it would be quite the challenge to get Mrs. hunter112 to go along. I can't even get her to attend City Council meetings with me!

174 posted on 07/28/2004 10:40:17 PM PDT by hunter112
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To: jmstein7

Never heard of the guy. He's only a big deal to liberals. No more chance of becoming president than Gephardt, Kennedy, Dean or Daschle.


175 posted on 07/28/2004 10:42:29 PM PDT by Eddie Haskell (GOD BLESS RONALD REAGAN)
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To: reg45
Sure would like to hear Obama talk about reparations, wouldn't you?

Obama is the decendant of native Africans, not slaves. It can be argued that Obama's ancestors were the ones who SOLD their brothers into slavery for "a handful of trinkets and beads".

That's why it would be interesting! There are only three possible answers: 1) No reparations, which angers the Jesse Jackson blacks; 2) Reparations, which exposes him to be the ultimate liberal to white America; 3) Conditional reparations, where Jesse can have them, but Obama cannot. This raises the question of how the reparations are to be calculated, and we have the same ugly business of figuring out what percentage each black person is the descendant of slaves, sort of like the rules of the Jim Crow era had for figuring out who could marry a white person.

I'd love to see Obama talk his way out of that issue!

176 posted on 07/28/2004 10:45:16 PM PDT by hunter112
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To: pete anderson

He's 33 right now, that would make him 41.

Still young for the Presidency.

VP in 2008 and/or 2012.

Then if everything holds up, top of the ticket in 2016.


177 posted on 07/28/2004 10:53:04 PM PDT by Luis Gonzalez (Sin Patria, pero sin amo)
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To: KAUAIBOUND

"Progressive" (and we all know that is code for communist/socialist), is how I've heard him described by some proud Dems.


178 posted on 07/28/2004 10:59:28 PM PDT by bellas_sister (" Senator, do you know there's a girl found dead in your car?")
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To: unixfox
I don't think so... there is a HUGE buzz over him and after seeing him speak and the reaction of the crowd I know I can admit I am terrified of him...

He supposedly has links to the "new" Black Panthers (that has yet to be confirmed though). The little I have read about hin he is a Socialist.

179 posted on 07/28/2004 11:02:59 PM PDT by bellas_sister (" Senator, do you know there's a girl found dead in your car?")
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To: Lauratealeaf
Obama is a threat to Hillary.

If that is true he will end up dead in a plane crash.

Unless, OBAMA/CLINTON '08

or maybe: CLINTON/OBAMA '08

180 posted on 07/28/2004 11:05:45 PM PDT by bellas_sister (" Senator, do you know there's a girl found dead in your car?")
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