Obama Unlike Any Politician, Black or White (Drooling Acolyte Alert)

Real Clear Politics ^ | July 3, 2008 | Thomas Schaller

[Eurale]

Democratic Sen. Barack Obama is the first nonwhite candidate in U.S. history to win a major-party presidential nomination. That fact alone makes him a tradition-breaking, political pioneer. Much less discussed is that Mr. Obama is an atypical, nontraditional African-American politician, too. I'm not talking about Mr. Obama's rhetorical abilities or personal charisma, which set him apart from the vast majority of American politicians of all races. I refer instead to five aspects of Mr. Obama's biography that make him unique even among America's black political class.

[snowman1]

I just hope this guy wears a tie because that is the only way he will ever get his head out of his ASS!!!!!!!!!!!

[mkjessup]

"Thomas F. Schaller is associate professor of political science at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and coauthor of Devolution and Black State Legislators...

The weekly national political columnist for The Baltimore Sun, Schaller has also written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The American Prospect, The New York Sun, The Boston Globe, The Washington Examiner and Salon, and has appeared on Comedy Central's The Colbert Report, MSNBC's Hardball, National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation and Morning Edition, PBS's The Tavis Smiley Show, and C-SPAN's Washington Journal. Tom earned his Ph. D. in political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

He lives in Washington, DC with his wife Traci and their black lab, Max."

Why am I not surprised?

A real fine left-wing resume' if you ask me.

[yldstrk]

You mean he is one of the biggest panderers telling everyone what they want to hear?

[Blood of Tyrants]

Yep, he is unique in the fact that he is THE MOST LIBERAL SENATOR IN CONGRESS. Other than that, he is just another crooked Chicago ‘Rat.

[reagan_fanatic]

I wonder if this guy would be drooling like this over a black REPUBLICAN candidate?

Hmmmm?

[Dick Bachert]

You KNEW this was coming, right?

[supremedoctrine]

THis is Real Unclear Politics-—
I though RCP was supposed to be GOOD.
This meaningless meandering in search of a theme,
exploits Identity Politics at its worst.
Author makes a big point of singling out Obama as
having all FIVE items in his background-—as if that’s
a GOOD thing we can’t afford to ignore.

[Dick Bachert]

“People get the government they deserve.” Joseph deMaistre.

And when people become THIS freaking STUPID and inattentive to their freedoms, THIS is the candidate they deserve.

1 minute satirical Obama video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tR6b-kWncI4

Hurry before some diversity loving (RIGHT!) Obamaniac at YouTube pulls it.

[Eurale]

It’s posted on RCP via the Baltimore Sun.

[CholeraJoe]

I don't know. He's lots like Mugabe.

=

[RichInOC]

The more people try to argue that Barry’s a different kind of politician, the more I look at him and realize he’s the same old thing. When Bubba and Hillary left the levers of power, I sighed “Thank God. Never again.” I didn’t think, “You know, next we need that in black.”

[3AngelaD]

Dude is drowning in Kool-aid. And obsessed. See his equally squish-headed The South Will Fall Again:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/01/opinion/01schaller.html?ref=opinion
which concludes with: “Mr. Obama should not hope to capture states in the country’s most racially polarized region.” Or, in other words, BO will have a hard time winning in the South because the South continues to be a caldron of hateful racism, intolerance and ignorance. Writer never takes into account the fact that BO’s philosophy and policies are anathema to many, many people who are not by definition racists.

[RedEyeJack]

OK... BHO’s story is a minority version of Horatio Alger. The issue is not his minority status but his positions and his character. His stated positions in the primary race were all strongly liberal. He is now in the process of revising many of those positions so that he can now appeal to a broader segment of the electorate. His willingness to compromise his positions so quickly and so shamelessly indicates serious character flaws. His willingness to allow his surrogates to label political criticism of his previous positions and/or his changes to those positions as racism shows even more character issues.

[andy58-in-nh]

Obama is certainly unlike any previous Presidential candidate for a major political party.

He is possessed of a brief and undistinguished political career in statewide office, has never worked in business or served in the military, has no discernible accomplishments in any commonly recognized field of endeavor, and is running on a platform of amorphous platitudes; to wit: Change and Hope.

As such, Obama's candidacy is not the culmination of 50 years of civil rights progress, but the end result of the dumbing down of America.

[weegee]

Democratic Sen. Barack Obama is the first two-year Congressional candidate in U.S. history to win a major-party presidential nomination. That fact alone makes him a tradition-breaking, political pioneer

History is determined by what details you choose to focus on.

[weegee]

It is the culmination of affirmative action, advancement based on skin color (Barack Obama has a white mother, and a half arab father, and did not grow up as a descendent of slaves nor even long under American “oppression”).

Obama’s campaign for the White House has consumed his entire tenure in Congress.

[weegee]

Horatio Alger or Alger Hiss?

[driftless2]

"end result"

That is the most concise statement I've heard about what's happening. In 1972 George McGovern with a much longer resume including impressive war service was drubbed by Nixon in a fortynine state landslide. Today a much less impressive Obama stands a good chance of being elected. Obama's campaign is all style without substance. If he looked and sounded like Dennis Kucinich, whose policies he mirrors, we wouldn't be talking about him.

[popdonnelly]

Obama is the black Adlai Stevenson.