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The Black Senator Who Could Challenge Hillary
The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 10-6-2006 | Alex Massie

Posted on 10/05/2006 6:19:24 PM PDT by blam

The black senator who could challenge Hillary

By Alex Massie in Washington
(Filed: 06/10/2006)

A black senator with only two years in office has emerged as the outstanding star of the Democrats' campaign for next month's mid-term elections.

Senator Barack Obama is bringing hope to Democrats

Kenyan-born Barack Obama, 45, is already being touted as a challenger to Hillary Clinton for the party's presidential nomination.

Another scenario sees him as Mrs Clinton's running mate, raising the possibility of a first female president and first black vice-president in one fell swoop in 2008.

Mr Obama is disproving the adage that Washington is "Hollywood for ugly people". He is the Denzil Washington of Capitol Hill, bringing glamour to the staid hallways of the US Senate, and was this week given the ultimate glamour accolade: the front cover of Men's Vogue.

Accompanied by pictures taken by Annie Liebowitz, photographer to the great and glamorous, the magazine's article is headlined, simply, "Barack Obama: The Path to Power."

Mr Obama has been careful not to declare himself a non-runner in the presidential stakes, but ever since he delivered the best speech heard at the Democratic convention in Boston two years ago, he has been tagged for greatness.

"What gives people a jolt in their gut about the idea of President Obama is the idea that it would be a ringing symbol that racism no longer rules our land," argues John McWhorter, a leading black intellectual.

A civil rights lawyer, Mr Obama was the first black editor of the Harvard Law Review. He is known for a charisma some observers would say is on a par with Mrs Clinton's husband Bill, the last Democrat president. He was elected as a senator for Illinois in 2004 by a landslide.

He grew up in Indonesia and Hawaii, the son of a white woman from Kansas and a black man from Kenya, and promises the prospect of a national reconciliation on racial issues.

The prospect of an Obama candidacy is especially appealing to those Democrats desperately searching for an alternative to Mrs Clinton, the front-runner to win her party's presidential nomination.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: black; challenge; emptysuit; hillary; johnmcwhorter; mcwhorter; senator
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To: Howlin

lol, that's my assessment of him.


21 posted on 10/05/2006 6:40:57 PM PDT by Hawk1976 (Borders. Language. Culture. AAA-0. Free Travis Mcgee.)
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To: CrazyIvan

Will not be long before Democrats are calling him "Obie", or "Rack".


22 posted on 10/05/2006 6:41:55 PM PDT by operation clinton cleanup
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To: Howlin

Thank you. This guy is a zero.


23 posted on 10/05/2006 6:42:19 PM PDT by Jorge
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To: operation clinton cleanup
And what would Mr. McWhorter have to say if Barak was a Republican?

Oreo?

24 posted on 10/05/2006 6:44:05 PM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: blam

They're both a freakin' joke.


25 posted on 10/05/2006 6:45:13 PM PDT by Recovering_Democrat (I am SO glad to no longer be associated with the party of "dependence on government"!)
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To: hinckley buzzard
"Probably the same thing. John McWhorter is on our side, one of the good guys."

No he's not. If he supports Obama because he's black, he is as racist as David Duke. Or Jessie Jackson, Al Sharpton, and La Raza.
26 posted on 10/05/2006 6:46:48 PM PDT by outdriving (Diversity is a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.)
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To: blam

It seems to me that if Obama decides to challenge HRC, he better watch his barack.


27 posted on 10/05/2006 6:46:58 PM PDT by HoosierHawk
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To: Jorge

yes, he's a zero.

but propelled by the media, transforming him into a superstar celebrity figure - he could win.


28 posted on 10/05/2006 6:47:37 PM PDT by oceanview
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To: outdriving

"Is Obama a Muzzie? Does anyone know?"

No, he is Christian, but his fathers and half-brothers are Muslim. He was born in Hawaii.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Barack_Obama#Background


29 posted on 10/05/2006 6:55:00 PM PDT by Bokababe ( http://www.savekosovo.org)
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To: oceanview
but propelled by the media, transforming him into a superstar celebrity figure - he could win.

I don't believe it.

This guy looks good initially but as soon as you scratch beneath the surface he starts looking more and more hollow, and unable to stand up to any challenge by a REAL candidate.

30 posted on 10/05/2006 6:57:00 PM PDT by Jorge
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To: hinckley buzzard
Probably the same thing. John McWhorter is on our side, one of the good guys.

Ooops, my bad. I have seen him on CSPAN. He does speak common sense. I was thinking of someone else.

31 posted on 10/05/2006 6:59:04 PM PDT by operation clinton cleanup
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To: Zeroisanumber

I never heard that he was born in Kenya. As far as I know, he was born in Hawaii, while his father was in college, when his father got accepted to Harvard grad school, he abandoned the family, returning only a few times to visit the kid. The mother remarried, another Muslim and moved to Indonesia, then back to Hawaii. The kid was raised alternately Muslim and Catholic. Since he was Muslim in his early days, I would consider him to still be Muslim.


32 posted on 10/05/2006 7:00:11 PM PDT by Eva
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To: Jorge

they said the same thing about Hillary winning in NY. about how the famed "NY media" was going to ask her tough questions. we all know how it played out.

any negative ads against Obama will be portrayed as racist.

what we need to do, is get some good conservative Hispanic candidates - some visible people, groom them for our team. To beat a guy like Obama, you need major Hispanic support. The Hispanics don't cower to this "white guilt" syndrome regarding african americans.


33 posted on 10/05/2006 7:02:09 PM PDT by oceanview
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To: outdriving
Not sure why he supports Obama, but read this:

http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/_dmn-bill_cosby.htm
34 posted on 10/05/2006 7:03:31 PM PDT by operation clinton cleanup
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To: blam
" President Obama is the idea that it would be a ringing symbol that racism no longer rules our land,"Bull....this is racist on its face. The ONLY reason he would be a potential vote-getter would be that he could gain the BLACK vote, purely on RACE and that he's a "Democrat", which gets him 90% of the Black vote, anyway.
35 posted on 10/05/2006 7:04:18 PM PDT by traditional1
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To: oceanview

I don't think that he is a "zero". He is self-made. He isn't afraid to speak his mind, he is intelligent, educated and likable.

I'd vote for him before I'd vote for Hillary, but then again I wouldn't vote for Hillary even if hell froze over, so I guess that isn't saying much!


36 posted on 10/05/2006 7:06:28 PM PDT by Bokababe ( http://www.savekosovo.org)
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To: oceanview
...they said the same thing about Hillary winning in NY.

Common..... NY?

I love my friends and relatives in NY but the creeps they elect have NO CHANCE nation-wide.

37 posted on 10/05/2006 7:06:50 PM PDT by Jorge
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To: Jorge

Obama needs to only win Ohio, plus the Kerry states, to be elected president.


38 posted on 10/05/2006 7:08:05 PM PDT by oceanview
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To: oceanview

One main reason why Barak Hussein Obama will not win the Presidency: he's a not-quite-one-term Senator:

(1) He has no executive experience, neither as a Governor nor as a cabinet officer nor as a general.

(2) He also lacks any serious experience dealing with issues of national importance, as a distinguished junior senator for a mere four years.

(3) Beginning in 1964, senators are just 0-5 at winning the Presidency when they manage to get a major partisan nomination.

(4) Americans never have held a particularly favorable opinion of Congress, and they rightfully hold this particular deeply corrupted, bickering, odious class of clowns in particularly low esteem and even more loathe the Democrats among them. The American people simply see a group of odious obese obstructionists oblivious to national security but bereft of the leadership skills to do anything meaningful besides transferring tax dollars as kickbacks to bribing lobbyists.

It's historically even more ludicrous to assume that a Republican Senator (who never served as Governor) will ascend to the Presidency. No Party ever has nominated a Senator to succeed a two-term president. They always choose a senior administration official (vice-president, secretary of state, or another cabinet officer) or occasionally a Governor.


39 posted on 10/05/2006 7:13:47 PM PDT by dufekin (The New York Times: an enemy espionage agency with a newsletter of enemy propaganda)
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To: outdriving
Why are the Dems all creaming in their jeans over this guy?

Cause the mainstream media said he was a star.

40 posted on 10/05/2006 7:22:30 PM PDT by reaganandme (You don't beat a liberal by becoming one.)
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