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.
Punahou, according to Matthew Continetti's article in the Weekly Standard.
His policies, well that's another matter...
Yeah...the black Jerry Lewis.
In your dreams, mutt!
What the hell is "remarkable" about his bio. He's a mixed-race kid who went to prep school and became, yet another, commie lawyer and fought to give productive peoples' money to someone else. Big friggin' deal. If he were 100% white, we'd never had heard of him.
Perspective.
Tim Russert mentioned on MTP the Sunday that Obama was on, that the GOP leader of the Illinois state senate once said Obama is left of Mao Tse-tung. That was probably a little over the top, but the politics shouldn't be lost on anyone.
And, if Kerry does not get elected, he will be a threat to Edwards in 2008. Only room for 2 of these three on the 2008 ticket...
Nobody named Obama is going to be elected President of the United States. Senator of Illinois, probably, considering they elected that dolt Carol Moseley Braun in the past.
Yup, agreed. He's got what it takes. In fact, much of what he speaks about hits. He's too young right now to run for highest office, but there's no doubt he could start that run 10 years from now.
He's also got some points. I agree with him on several things he brought up and I am further right than Reagan about a number of things. I think that if he were 10 years older and the defacto nominee for 2004, he'd be poised to unseat Bush. Hell, just listening to the guy, he makes sense...a little heavy on the "poor" rhetoric, but he's not a nutty Dean.
And as I said before, I have no race issues. I'd vote Powell or Rice before this guy over Kerry.
Obama is a Liberal.
Obama is not a god.
I will not join mounting hysteria over this man based on this performance.
He is a typical young liberal. Which is to say that energy serves to distract from his message. AS liberals age they have to struggle with the loss of that vitality youth provides. Most lose their humor in the process. If you want the perfect example look at Katie Couric's decline as her wrinkles have advanced.
Obama's biggest obstacle, at the moment, will be if he can retain looks and energy as age progresses.
He is a possible threat down the line. The solution is not to attack him. It isn't to build him up into an undefeatable god. That will only serve to build his reputation as it served Clinton. The best procedure to counter him is to acknowledge it was a stylistic speech, hit the right upbeat note for the evening. Then focus on grooming young conservatives to counter him. Quietly, without making it seem it is down out of desperation.
Obama is not a threat in the present. It better that threat has been identified while the opportunity exists to counter him in future.
He needs to be converted to the Republican party!
If he is misguided but sincere he needs to be enlighten!
He 's a racist commie. Get over it, mister to the right of Reagan!
Clinton/Barak '08.
sour grapes.......he is talented....he really needs to be converted to the republicans!
I agree. Politics aside, he seems to have what it takes. I'd take him over Hillary any day. Too bad he can't grow more of a brain and come over to the Good Side.
****
diddo!
I was unimpressed with his slick delivery, pushing of hot buttons, distortions of truth, and frequent cliches.But he looks like just the candidate Demonrats like.
Forgive me if my suspicion if inaccurate, but you've shown wild enthusiam for Obama. Mentioned you are further right than Reagan. Then made pointed references you aren't racist even though I'm still trying to understand why racism is an issue.
I'm having doubts you are a conservative by these remarks.
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