Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

What's driving Obama-mania?
CS Monitor ^ | Dec 11, 2006 | Gail Russell Chaddock

Posted on 12/11/2006 2:33:11 PM PST by jdm

MANCHESTER, N.H. – With standing room crowds chanting for the star to show, Sunday's Democratic fundraiser could have been a rock concert. But it was only Sen. Barack Obama's first visit to the nation's first primary state.

If Senator Obama should jump into the Democratic presidential primary, where he is now ranked just behind Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York in recent polls, Democrats in the land of retail politics wonder if there's a living room big enough to hold the throngs who'd come to hear him.

"Right now, he's a rock star. Getting 1,500 people out on a Sunday afternoon ... says something different is going on here," says Jim Craig, former Democratic leader in the New Hampshire House.

So what's driving Obama-mania?

It isn't a single set of issues such as the war or the economy. Rather, the attraction seems to be a mix of Obama's own compelling personal narrative and many voters' desire for a less caustic brand of politics.

"It's the sense that you're in the presence of someone who is touched with the gift of grace," says Ross Baker, a political scientist at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J. Obama, Illinois' junior senator, exemplifies the hope that there's some way to triumph over the intense polarization of American politics, he adds.

A barely known state lawmaker and community organizer in Chicago, Obama shot to superstar status after an electrifying speech at the 2004 Democratic national convention in Boston. With a father from Kenya and a mother from Kansas, he embodies two racial cultures deeply at odds in American history.

(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; News/Current Events; US: Illinois
KEYWORDS: balakosama; barforama; electionpresident; empty; inexperienced; inhaled; mania; obama; obamarama; oprahthekingmaker; osamaobama; queenoprahisthekey
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 81-100101-120121-140 ... 161-179 next last
To: jdm
"It's the sense that you're in the presence of someone who is touched with the gift of grace," says Ross Baker

I read that line, said "Barf!" out loud, decided I couldn't read another word, and scrolled down to your image. LOL!

101 posted on 12/11/2006 3:42:11 PM PST by AnnaZ (I keep 2 magnums in my desk.One's a gun and I keep it loaded.Other's a bottle and it keeps me loaded)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CenTex

[Hillery is looking for an attractive running mate...]

Bingo. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Hussein Obama, can't you just picture it?


102 posted on 12/11/2006 3:42:12 PM PST by khnyny (God Bless the Republic for which it stands)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: jdm; Red Badger
Freeper 'Red Badger' said it best on another thread:

"Barak Obama, the Donovan McNabb of politics...."

103 posted on 12/11/2006 3:42:15 PM PST by Lancey Howard
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: sodpoodle

Stupidity!!!!!


104 posted on 12/11/2006 3:45:13 PM PST by mulligan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Echo Talon

You got me there, Obama, Blackwell, Steele and Swann are all black...but "one of these people is not like the others"........

Are they a Rat Dream? or a race-traitorous dupe of the VRWC?

Its the MSM "intelligensia" at work. Why else is the Honorable Clarence Thomas relegated to being a tag-a-along to Judge Scalia, rather than the respected jurist that he is?


105 posted on 12/11/2006 3:51:05 PM PST by King Moonracer (Bad lighting and cheap fabric, thats how you sell clothing.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: Lancey Howard

That's a real insult to Donovan McNabb.


106 posted on 12/11/2006 3:51:36 PM PST by khnyny (God Bless the Republic for which it stands)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 103 | View Replies]

To: Dante3

Absolutely correct. This is a media driven show.


107 posted on 12/11/2006 4:07:36 PM PST by conservative blonde (Let's call the Jr. Senator from Illinois by his full name, Barack Hussein Obama)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: mulligan

Stupidity!!!!!


I know - it's like the run up to the Oscars or the Emmys. Mara Liarson(sic) on Fox said "someone said she hadn't seen such reaction to a candidate since JFK" All style, no substance.

Right. Let's ask how much executive experience, business background he has. Let's ask him about military assets - fiscal and monetary policy, homeland security. Ask him how many cabinet officers are in the executive branch. He is such a juvenile.

But then again, he is only being sent out there as a stalking horse for Hilary. He'll have the skids pulled out very shortly, when the MSM gets its orders.

sp

We are doooooooooooooooooooooomed.


108 posted on 12/11/2006 4:07:43 PM PST by sodpoodle (Human destiny - who lost the road map?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 104 | View Replies]

To: TommyDale

Yes, he was born in Hawaii to a US-born (Hawaiian) mother and a Kenyan father.


109 posted on 12/11/2006 4:11:33 PM PST by oblomov (Progress is precisely that which the rules and regulations did not foresee. - von Mises)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: Jim Noble

That's scary. And probably not far off track.


110 posted on 12/11/2006 4:11:36 PM PST by GATOR NAVY
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: jdm

What's driving Obama-mania? I think it's a quasi-Stockholm Syndrome. We're at war with Islamist terrorists -- they want us dead -- and the politically correct crowd are feeling guilty that we may be painting all Muslims with the brush. So, what better way to prove our sympathy with the greater Muslim world than to embrace an American politician with an Islamist-like name? "Don't confuse us with that Geo. W. Bush guy...We actually like Muslims. See?! We're willing to fawn and drool all over this Osama Obama guy."


111 posted on 12/11/2006 4:13:14 PM PST by My2Cents (Scrape the Bottom. Vote for Rodham.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: jdm

Just your typical 'Rat.

112 posted on 12/11/2006 4:14:39 PM PST by Mike Bates (Irish Alzheimer's victim: I only remember the grudges.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: jdm

MSM they need news.


113 posted on 12/11/2006 4:16:43 PM PST by Unicorn (Too many wimps around.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: jdm
"It's the sense that you're in the presence of someone who is touched with the gift of grace," says Ross Baker...

Its entirely possible that Prof. Baker was misquoted. The following would be more accurate:

"It's the sense that you're in the presence of someone who is touched with the gift of race," says Ross Baker.

With so many qualified conservative blacks (Thomas, Sowell, Rice, Keyes, etc), the liberals just HAD to jump on the first liberal black who was even marginally palitable.

114 posted on 12/11/2006 4:21:28 PM PST by kidd
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: kidd

"It's the sense that you're in the presence of someone who is touched with the gift of grace," says Ross Baker...

Obama is all about white liberals expunging themselves of the "original sin" of racism. Only a properly ordained liberal democrat of color can perform this ritual.

Just think...with an Obama bumpersticker a good liberal can park their hybrid in Harlem with no worries. Its aura of kumbaya will protect it.


115 posted on 12/11/2006 4:27:49 PM PST by Snickering Hound
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 114 | View Replies]

To: oblomov

I was joking. I know that, but I was being sarcastic to make people think about it, with a middle name like Hussein...


116 posted on 12/11/2006 4:31:25 PM PST by TommyDale (Iran President Ahmadinejad is shorter than Tom Daschle!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 109 | View Replies]

To: jdm

The press.


117 posted on 12/11/2006 4:32:49 PM PST by dr_who_2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: TommyDale

Born in hawaii to an american white woman, and a kenyan father.


118 posted on 12/11/2006 4:36:21 PM PST by omega4179 (Crush all Rinos 2008)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: omega4179

can an admitted coke snorter become president? isn't that a felony?


119 posted on 12/11/2006 4:38:41 PM PST by omega4179 (Crush all Rinos 2008)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 118 | View Replies]

To: HarmlessLovableFuzzball

That's right. He sounds sane. That's unusual for a D.


120 posted on 12/11/2006 4:38:54 PM PST by RightWhale (RTRA DLQS GSCW)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 81-100101-120121-140 ... 161-179 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson