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.
They will overlook it because he loves to kill unborn children....since I am a smoker it's the only thing I like about him
My fear is hillary CLINTON.....she will be underestimated by all and my fear is she could take control of this country and then God help us all
I'm in the 6th district, don't include me in this idiotic, uninformed, and foolish voting for a muslim. ; )
Minnesota didn't vote this idiot into office, only the idiots who reside in the 5th district did.
Thanks Diana - You're exactly right...stance on the issues is all we need to know about any of our politicians.
I'll put a billion to one odds on the real God!
Fine, but who is going to stand and debate him?
Doesn't "It Take a Village II"?
Obama is a genuine, up-from-the-grassroots phenomenon.
Is there any truth to this? Who funds him? Where did he come from and what has he been doing for the past 40 years.
What? A socialist? Go ahead, you can say it.
United Church of Christ,
The most leftist church in america, provided SS marriage and doubts the divinity of christ.
In the same place the Unitarians were 25 years ago and sinking.
I remember watching the Nick Clooney show in Cincinnati when I was a kid. LOL!
Theres a nice article about Obama in the LA Times today too. Obviously there more than a few dems who are less then happy about a Hillary campaign.
The LA Times article said he smokes but usually bums the cigs from other people. LOL!
He also play poker. Apparently he's a conserative poker player.
One spectacular speech does NOT a President make.
Let Obama take out Hillary.
Begala and Carville must be wondering how they can hatchet Barack.
As for Jimmah, he had a real reputation as a Washington outsider and had been the governor of Georgia. Obama makes John Edwards look like an elder statesman.
Yes, but Nixon didn't have much experience at fixing election results like Papa Kennedy and the Democrats of Cook County, IL, which won the race for JFK. Hmmm, looky where Obama's from...
Obama's 15 minutes are about halfway done. He and Cindy Sheehan can commiserate in the future about their "glory days" in the public eye.
Can we say "flash in the pan"?
You mean Hussein.
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