Posted on 12/24/2006 11:55:09 AM PST by freespirited
In this holiday season, Democrats are trying to decide if Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois is the gift their party has been waiting for, or just another sack of sticks and ashes.
One thing is certain: He has presidential hopefuls on both sides of the aisle checking their hole cards.
Obama is a genuine, up-from-the-grassroots phenomenon. On the wings of one spectacular speech, he has ignited the hopes of disillusioned voters from coast to coast. We haven't seen his like in a generation or more.
Whether that star-power can withstand the withering fire that will be directed at him from both political parties is a question still to be answered. But, for the moment, some tough old ward-heelers, veterans of Democratic defeats, are letting visions of sugar plums dance in their weary heads.
"We don't have red states, we don't have blue states, we just have red, white and blue states." Music. The kind we haven't heard in half a century.
Democrat hopefuls who have been waiting their turn and Republican stalwarts who are sure they have earned their chance are already lobbing grenades at this dangerous upstart.
"Nice fellow, but he has no experience."
Irrefutable. It was exactly the same charge leveled against the last senator to win the presidency, John F. Kennedy. It almost worked. Sen. Kennedy won one of the closest races in presidential history against a man who had a great deal of experience at many levels of government. Richard Nixon. Perhaps the memory of Mr. Nixon leaves voters no longer convinced that a lack of experience in Washington should be the deal breaker.
"Nice fellow, but he's, well, you know.... Of course it wouldn't matter to me, but is America really ready for, well, you know...."
Race is always a subtext in American life, just as is religion. Again, we have the Kennedy model. The senator from Massachusetts carried the burden of the Al Smith landslide of 1928. No Catholic could be elected president. It had never happened, would never happen. Suspicion of the Catholic Church was too ingrained in many parts of American culture. But America had moved on from the days of Al Smith. Kennedy's charisma trumped fading prejudice.
Has America moved on from the days when the Ku Klux Klan marched arrogantly in the streets of Washington, D.C., in the 1920s, the same decade when anti-Catholicism broke the Democrats' "solid south?"
Barack Obama is African-American, but he is also the first potential national politician with that racial background to rise after the bare-knuckled civil rights conflicts. He brings none of those tendrils to the table. That fact raises hackles in some segments of the battle-scarred black political establishment.
Mr. Obama is not required to make race the primary factor in every issue on the national agenda, as are warriors who cut their teeth on the Bull Connor battlegrounds: Those for whom politics is informed by the marches, the imprisonments and the speeches and the murder of Martin Luther King Jr.
In fact, it could be argued that Barack Obama is the first of the generation about which Dr. King had his dream. A public person who could be judged, "not by the color of his skin but by the content of his character."
Which brings us to the question, what is Sen. Obama's character? A few people have read his books. More have heard him speak. He admits to standard youthful indiscretions. He has had middle-class experiences. Faith. Family. Education. Marriage.
We look at other candidates. Hillary Clinton. Good marks as a senator, reaching out to Republican colleagues. But few gifts as a speaker, eight tough years in the White House and the health care debacle. John McCain. A genuine American hero, but his latter-day embrace of President Bush and his lurch to the right have damaged his reputation as an independent straight shooter. Rudy Giuliani, "America's Mayor" after the catastrophe of 9-11, brings his messy marital history, which will be replayed ad nauseam on TV.
All have something Sen. Obama lacks. Baggage. Heavy baggage from the 1960s through Iraq. Perhaps he is betting America is ready for a candidate with star quality to help us, as he says, "Turn the page."
He should run. He'll never have another moment like this.
I still ask, so Obama was born a Muslim, he is not an apostate however and therefore in no danger from the radical Muslim nut groups -- but Obama choose Christianity over Islam, so why is he not criticized by Muslims? Why does he get a pass?
If Jimmah Carter and John Kerry get in the car too,then my joy would be complete.
Among the CEO qualifications I look for first in a candidate for the President of the U.S.A., the man is wholly unqualified.
No thanks, I'll pass.
Discounting, of course, most of Massachusetts, San Francisco CA, Berkeley CA, Bolder CO, Ithaca NY, much of Manhattan NYC, etc, etc, etc.
Osama-Obama really is an empty suit. And unable to entertain two sustainable thoughts in any one time span.
But he talks really well.
As long they ride in the back seat.
Obama er Osama..... maybe be an empty suit, but so is Bob Caesey, the man who beat Rick in PA. Empty suit are perfect for the morons who vote because the empty suit dont challenge them to think....
By the way...is he a Muslim....or did he pull a convert thing to Christianity before an election?
My only question is why is this Obama's time? ROTFLOL
Were he a republican he may be a communist, but as a democrat he is surely one.
Merry Christmas Vn_survivor_67-68,
Just another example of "liberal happy talk inc." The reality concerning Obuma," He Ain't Nothing but A Thing, Just Another Liberal On a String."
May all you Freepers have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year's.
Signing off from "Radio Free Lillian, Alabama."
Humbly Your's
NSNR-CSAOTL
When team Clinton gets done with him, he will be lucky to get elected dogcatcher.
By way of paternity, he is Muslim. There has been some discussion, and a belief expressed (perhaps wrongly) that the religion, like Judaism, is matrilineal. But because the Muslims consider females to be merely incubators for their seed, the religious orientation of the mother probably doesn't count for very much. He did attend a madrassa while he was living with a Muslim stepfather in Indonesia, but then he also attended a Catholic school, and no record of his conversion to the Roman Catholic religion has yet been made public knowledge. It is known he attends a congregation of the United Church of Christ, but not because of any epiphany - it was a decision of choice, just "fitting in" with the neighborhood, a form of protective coloration.
In fact, Osama-Obama is on record, during debates with Dr. Alan Keyes in the 2004 Senatorial election in Illinois, as saying he had little empathy for the evangelicals, a position entirely in line with membership in the United Church of Christ, a remarkably liberal body with not too much to do with the teachings of Christianity, Christians in name only. So it would not be much of an intellectual leap for Osama-Obama to stand up, one day, and declare himself a Muslim.
Obama overkill. This hot flame will fizzle fast.
He is a flat out kerry leftist, and will work hard for redistribution of wealth for votes.
Barack Hussein Obama is just a bullshit artist nothing more.
Not in Minnesota. They like Muslim congressmen there.
Another poster boy for the looney left.
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