[Merry]

Momentum is building for Obama. Don't underestimate his appeal.

[Eva]

Obama will be Hillary's running mate. She'll promise him a shot at the presidency after she has her two terms.

[Republican Red]

I don't get it. Is his appeal that he is black and can pronounce "ask"? Is there any piece of legislation that he has accomplished in his 2 years in the Senate?

[LibLieSlayer]

He has no experience, no class, no integrity, and he is a marxist... that is why he should NOT run!

LLS

[watsonfellow]

Um, ok but I would warn you not to overestimate his appeal. You see because the problem he has is a little something called overexposure.

After winning his senate election (before he was even a senator) newsweak made them his "man of the year" say what?

I think people generally don't really like politicians that are hyped up that much.

[Let's Roll]

He has zip, zero, nada experience.

These serious times call for serious candidates.

NO senators - governors or former governors only, please.

[subterfuge]

Article reads like an echo chamber of liberal bed-wetters.

I could write a couple of thousand words detailing how stupid OpRAH, Halle and Larry King are. And for the record, Halle Berry looks like a little boy with little bumps on her chest.

[subterfuge]

Berry told the Philadelphia Daily News that she's so in love with what Obama stands for, she would be willing to "collect paper cups off the ground to make his pathway clear."

Proof that women in general are too emotional to have the right to vote.

[jmaroneps37]

I agree. Please rat run some guy with a moslem name. Please do it rat, please.

[YoungSoutherner]

<<>> I don't think her boyfriend will be happy to hear this.

[Brilliant]

He should run, and he should be the nominee. And he should lose.

[chimera]

Berry told the Philadelphia Daily News that she's so in love with what Obama stands for, she would be willing to "collect paper cups off the ground to make his pathway clear."

But what does he stand for? Marxism? I guess people either don't know that, don't care, or are okay with it. Shows you how low politics has sunk in this country. Time was we looked for leadership, experience, courage, integrity, accomplishment. Now all the credentials seem to be are media-driven hype, pretty face, and a minority group-identity appeal.

[southernerwithanattitude]

Nothing smells like surrender like electing a Muslim named politician.

[linn37]

So in a debate,who gets more makeup ,Obama or Edwards?

[Southside_Chicago_Republican]

Berry told the Philadelphia Daily News that she's so in love with what Obama stands for, she would be willing to "collect paper cups off the ground to make his pathway clear."

HOSANNA!

[kabar]

Obama has not come under any real scrutiny. Let him run for President and we will find out a lot more about him.

[toddlintown]

First his wife slides into a job and receives a pay raise that triples her salary to $316,962. Sure, that happens to all of us.

Now the specter of Obama endorsing the ethically challenged Alexi Giannulous, the Democrat nominee for Illinois State Treasurer. "I'm going to take a look at what's been going on and I'm going to ask Alexi directly what is happening," said Obama, an early and enthusiastic backer of the first-time candidate. That was months ago. In the meantime, no more than a handful of voters has ever heard of Giannulous, but a lot of money bought a lot of TV ads featuring an endorsement from Sen. Barack Obama, and that carried Giannoulias to a victory over an underfunded opponent

Now Speaker Mike Madigan is starting to raise questions about Giannulous. Obama profiles himself as the Democratic point person on ethics in the Senate, yet back in his home state, the man he strongly endorsed for state Treasurer was once under fire from the Chicago Tribune for questionable loans and questionable answers about those loans.

So now we have Blessed Barack's wife, a wife who suddenly triples her salary, and a still-unexplained endorsement of a candidate whose background Madigan notes, is tainted. "I mean my history in politics, if you were alleged to be connected to the mob, you were done, but life seems to go on," says Madigan.

Go back and look at the Trib's scathing editorial from April 12, 2006, "Deposit some answers, please." Unfortuantely, since then, the Chicago Tribune has jumped on the Obama-as-Superstar Wagon, letting Channel 5 NBC reporter Carol Marin and the Sun-Times continue doing the job that the Tribune has chosen to ignore.

Where's Nancy Pelosi and her "Culture of Corruption" charges when you need her? Oh, I forgot. That only applies to Republicans.

Meet the new boss, Barack Obama. Same as the old boss.

More here about Blessed Barack's friend:

Alexi Giannoulias won the Democratic primary for state treasurer. No more than a handful of voters had even heard of him a few months ago, but a lot of money bought a lot of TV ads featuring an endorsement from Sen. Barack Obama, and that carried Giannoulias to a victory over an underfunded opponent.

Obama said he was a fine young man, and that apparently was good enough for most primary voters. But we need to learn a whole lot more before November.

And the paper goes on to say Alexi has some serious questions to answer about the paper's revelations that his answers about giving out bank loans in the primary weren't exactly accurate.

Giannoulias has been nothing but puzzling when he has been questioned about his ties to Michael Giorango, a convicted bookmaker and prostitution ring promoter.

Giorango has received multiple loans from Broadway Bank, where Giannoulias is vice president and senior loan officer. The bank is owned by the Giannoulias family.

When he was questioned by the Tribune in March about loans made between 1994 and 2002, Giannoulias said the bank's decisions were made while he was still in law school, when he wasn't a full-time bank employee.

But the Tribune reported Sunday that newly discovered public records show Broadway Bank made nearly $12 million in additional mortgage loans to Giorango just last year–when Giannoulias was overseeing the bank's loans.

Giannoulias' newest response? Those 2005 loans were negotiated by his brother, Demetris, the bank's chief financial officer.

In March, Giannoulias said Broadway Bank "never financed any casinos. We never did anything like that." But newly obtained records show that the recent loans went partly toward a mortgage that Giorango and another convicted felon used to acquire a casino boat marina in Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Let's get this straight. Voters are supposed to be impressed by Giannoulias' experience at the bank. Yet his defense here is that he was clueless as to what his bank was doing?

And he wants to take control of the entire state treasury?
Giannoulias was asked if it was acceptable for a state treasurer to lend money to crime figures. His response to Tribune reporter David Jackson: The treasurer should work to get "the best rate of return for taxpayers to create jobs."

What, no questions asked?

There's no suggestion that the loans were illegal. Giannoulias makes the point that they met standards set by federal regulators and passed audits. But, oh, there are a lot more questions to be answered.

Has the 30-year-old candidate for treasurer ever really been more than a junior officer at the family bank? If he had the authority his title implies, how can he claim he didn't know about this bank business?

How well does he know Giorango?

And what's Obama's real connection to Giorango?