Posted on 10/01/2005 6:22:32 PM PDT by FairOpinion
FOR countless Democrats around America, the announcement last week of a new initiative linking Senator Hillary Clinton to one of her party’s most appealing new stars amounted to a match made in political heaven.
Not since President George W Bush crushed the Democratic party’s hopes in last November’s election have two senators with perhaps the strongest chances of beating Republican rivals to the White House formed such an intriguing alliance.
Clinton has been linked with Senator Barack Obama, the charismatic black Democrat from Illinois, in a healthcare initiative that unites two formidable and ambitious politicians who have their eyes on making US presidential history.
The details of the senators’ health proposals were in danger of being swamped last week by renewed speculation about how long America might have to wait for either its first woman or first black president.
“This is a powerful partnership,” noted Norman Ornstein, a political specialist at the American Enterprise Institute, one of Washington’s most influential think tanks.
Obama’s emergence as a popular national figure has helped fuel optimism in Democratic ranks that the Republicans will not recover from a recent series of crushing setbacks — including widespread criticisms of the government’s hurricane-relief actions, the criminal indictment of one of the party’s leaders on Capitol Hill and Bush’s continuing problems over Iraq.
Ever since he burst onto the political scene with a spellbinding speech to the Democratic convention last year, Obama, the 44-year-old son of a black Kenyan father and white American mother, has been tipped for the highest office. His autobiography, Dreams from My Father, was on bestseller lists for more than a year.
He comfortably won his 2004 Illinois Senate race but, taking a leaf from Clinton’s book, adopted a low profile as a novice senator during his early months in Washington. He spent most of his time cultivating Illinois contacts and working quietly in a junior role on several Senate committees.
All that changed when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. Appalled by what he described as America’s “historical indifference” to the plight of poor black people, Obama accused government planners of being “detached from the realities of inner-city life in New Orleans”, saying the Bush administration “simply doesn’t recognise what’s happening in large parts of the country”.
On one visit to affected areas he appeared at a press conference given by former presidents George Bush Sr and Bill Clinton, and was spotted chatting to Hillary.
Although the two had often crossed paths in Senate corridors, Obama had previously made clear to reporters that he was not seeking the kind of leadership role Clinton now fills in her party.
“What Senator Clinton did when she first came in was what any person would do when they come into a new environment, that is listen and learn before you speak and you act,” Obama recently told Time magazine. “I have tried to follow that same wisdom.”
Yet Katrina inspired a change of heart and within days Obama was giving his first nationally televised interviews. A tall, glamorous figure with a mesmerising speaking style, he has since popped up in public frequently and joined Clinton in voting against John Roberts as Bush’s choice for the new chief justice of the US Supreme Court.
For Clinton, Obama’s emergence represents both an opportunity and a potential longer-term threat. For much of the past five years she has been building bridges to the communities she needs for a successful White House run in 2008.
She has devoted herself to security issues and forged a strong relationship with the military. She has softened her stance on abortion, emphasising the human agonies involved, and worked hard to shed her reputation as a bruising ideologue by co-operating with Republican senators on a range of issues. She has backed Bush on keeping US troops in Iraq.
Yet Obama’s support — and his presumed influence with blacks and other poor immigrant communities — could be critical to Clinton’s success. Not the least of Senator John Kerry’s problems against Bush last year was his failure to mobilise black voters who traditionally support the Democrats.
So it was not just doctors’ eyebrows that were raised when Clinton and Obama announced last week they were working together to find a solution to America’s medical malpractice crisis.
So many lawsuits are filed against doctors that the cost of malpractice insurance is driving many of them out of business.
Ornstein noted that the announcement was likely to fan speculation about Obama’s vice-presidential prospects. “He’s got national candidacy written all over him,” he said.
Few Democrats believe America is ready for a presidential ticket comprising a woman with a black running mate — at least not in 2008. “That’s too much history all at once,” one party strategist said.
Yet there are signs that Obama is positioning himself to inherit Clinton’s mantle as the next great Democratic presidential hope should the New York senator slip in her Senate re-election campaign next year — or otherwise fall from the reckoning.
When Katrina struck, Obama was out of the country on his first foreign trip as a senator to inspect disarmament projects in Russia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan. On his way home he passed through London and paid a brief visit to No 10 and a meeting with Tony Blair.
“They let me sit in Winston Churchill’s reading chair,” he proudly told reporters later. One day visitors may be told it was also the chair used by President Obama.
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She already has 85% of the black vote.
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Why would the RATS ever run a black person for president? Why pay for the cow when you will always get the milk for free?
The Dems must be afraid that Bush and the GOP have been making inroads into the minority communities.
Playing the race card is a very dangerous game.
Just look what is happening in the Mayoral Race in NY.
The more Freddy is seen with the likes of Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, the higher Bloomberg's numbers go.
The cast of characters that would be at Obama's side would turn it into a sideshow.
For every minority vote it gets you, it turns off two middle class, and especially working class voters of every color..
I thought Hillary's "perfect mate" was Ellen DeGeneres.
What skeletons does Richardson have?
"its going to be Clinton/Richardson."
Richardson has too many problems.
Remember,, among his many other problems, he is the one who got Monica Lewinsky her job. I don't think Slickette would want to chance bringing all that up again.
Everyone, clear your minds from reality and consider a United States with Hildabeast and Obama in the white house. Think about what they would try to do. Lord, God, please do not let this tragedy visit this country.
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I thought Hillary's "perfect mate" was Ellen DeGeneres.
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Ooouuugh. I feel my dinner coming back on me. Eeeeeooough.
Sure he is,.......Ward Churchill's chair.
Anyway, unless I'm overlooking a youthful governor with a good head of hair and a way with words, it's going to be John "Breck" Edwards.
Yes!!! America is excited.
America is just as excited as the liberal MSM and the DNC are.
Here is a photo of America just thinking about it.
We conservatives are doomed and we know it.
Pass it on.
Bring 'em on! It will mark the demise of the democRATS.
My own hunch is that Mark Warner is going to be the Dem presidential nominee in 2008. It just makes more sense than anything else. You can usually count on the parties to pick their best possible candidate, and I think that's Warner.
I don't think Richardson will be anywhere near the discussion. Outside his past, there's just something really off-putting about him personally. On every interview of him I've seen, in some very hard to define way he just seems to ooze mediocrity and lumbering incompetence.
Great "analogy in pictures". :)
Only 52% in the bluest of blue states?
I think Slickette has a problem.
Schumer got more than 65% of the vote in his re-election in 2004.
Touche!
she cannot have any chance at winning without moving the hispanic vote. the african american vote is locked up, they do not need Obama.
how many problems can Richardson have that will reverberate, when Clinton himself is being rehabiliated - with help from Bush 41 & 43?
The only reason for Hillary to choose Obama is to woo the blacks back to the plantation.
What's the W mean on your tunic?
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