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Obama: 'Lack of Experience My Greatest Asset,' and Other Whoppers WASHINGTON, D.C. — Just 45 years old and two years into his first term in the U.S. Senate, Barack Obama brings to the 2008 Presidential campaign the prospect of a new generation and style of leadership, with less experience in Washington and far fewer ties to the political polarization of the past two decades there. “My lack of experience is my greatest asset,” said Obama. “So is my ability to tell that whopper with a straight face!” Not to be outdone, and already feeling off balance by the freshness of...

A very interesting piece by Louis Chude-Sokei is featured in the L.A.Times today, titled Redefining 'Black' and centered upon the question of Barack Obama's relative "blackness". Some of you may have noticed that Barack is not getting the automatic support from African American leaders that many assumed he would get since throwing his hat into the ring for the Democratic nomination for the presidency and Mr. Chude-Sokei makes an effort to inform us as to why this might be true. Unfortunately, while it has a few good points it misses the mark in too many ways. The main point, according...

I've caught Obama fever! Obamamania, Obamarama, Obama, Obama, Obama. (I just pray to God this is clean, renewable electricity I'm feeling.) Only white guilt could explain the insanely hyperbolic descriptions of Obama's "eloquence." His speeches are a run-on string of embarrassing, sophomoric Hallmark bromides. In announcing his candidacy last week, Obama confirmed that he believes in "the basic decency of the American people." And let the chips fall where they may! Obama forthrightly decried "a smallness of our politics" — deftly slipping a sword into the sides of the smallness-in-politics advocates. (To his credit, he somehow avoided saying, "My fellow...

Barack Obama looked as if he needed a smoke and he needed it bad. So there he was, trying to meet the deep, inexhaustible needs of both Iowa activists and the global press behemoth on his first swing across the state, while giving up cigarettes. He was a tad testy. “I’ve been chewing Nicorette all day long,” he told reporters at a press conference in Ames on Sunday, where he was getting irritated at suggestions that he lacked substance and at the specter of his vanishing privacy. The Illinois senator didn’t have on an implacable mask of amiability, as Hillary...

Barack Obama visited New Hampshire, wowed the Democrats there and jumped up more than 20 points in the polls to a tie with Hillary Clinton, all of which means he could be in for it. “Where’s the beef?” more and more people will ask and already are asking, even including Gary Hart, the most famous political target of that withering inquiry. In 1984, when he was trying to wrest the Democratic nomination for president away from Walter Mondale, Hart talked endlessly about the need for new ideas, even though it was not apparent he had any. Mondale noticed as much,...

The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama By Reviewed by Yuval Levin From issue: December 2006 Off and RunningThe Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream by Barack Obama Crown. 364 pp. $25.00 Barack Obama, the Democratic star of the moment in American politics, is the junior Senator from Illinois, and for the past two years has been the only black member of the U.S. Senate. Elected after seven years in the Illinois state legislature and a short career as a lawyer and community activist in Chicago, he first came to national prominence when John F. Kerry...

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...

This public relations plant is Rodham's opening salvo to destroy Obama.

Mayor Daley has decided to abandon his long-standing tradition of remaining neutral in Democratic primaries and endorse Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton in the 2008 presidential race, City Hall sources said Tuesday. "Here you have not only an Illinoisan, but a Chicagoan who is a major contender for the highest office in the land. . . . When in our history have we ever had a favorite son this close to [the White House]? Why not get on board early?" said a Daley confidant, who asked to remain unnamed. "Hillary Clinton has been a great senator, a wonderful civic leader....

THE hottest potential contender for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, Barack Obama, has come under scrutiny for his links to a shady businessman over the purchase of his $1.65m (now £845,000) family home in Chicago. After winning extraordinary adulation, the honeymoon period of the senator for Illinois is coming to an end. Obama, a relative political novice, is being mocked for his middle name, Hussein — “like the dictator” as a member of his staff helpfully put it — and pilloried as Odumbo the elephant because of his jug ears. The public is beginning to learn that the charismatic senator...

Peggy cites the pop-culture glitterai who are ga-ga over Obama; opines on his book; and concludes he's a narcissist. Caveat Emptor.

Rising black star of Democrats connects with evangelicals IN THE latest sign that the “God gap” between Republicans and Democrats is narrowing, one of America’s biggest evangelical churches will this week welcome Senator Barack Obama, the rising African-American star of the Democratic party who has become a leading contender for the 2008 presidential elections. Obama will appear on Friday at the Saddleback church in Lake Forest, California, where at least 20,000 conservative Christians gather each week for services led by Pastor Rick Warren, the evangelical author of the bestselling inspirational book The Purpose Driven Life. At first glance Warren and...

This sets up a wonderful scenario where a clearly left-leaning, attractive black candidate attempts to take the front-runner position as Hillary waits in the wings, deflecting media scrutiny away from her. At the same time, Bill and Hill keep their profiles high by aggressively campaigning for this relatively unknown minority candidate who likely fares poorly in early public opinion polls compared to folks like Gore, Kerry, and Edwards whom the Clintons know don’t have a prayer. As the primaries draw near, and the Democrats seem doomed to repeat past mistakes by nominating past failures, a groundswell emerges for Hillary to...

WATERVLIET, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday that it was great her fellow Democrat, Sen. Barack Obama, is thinking about running for president. Polls show Clinton is the front-runner among potential 2008 Democratic presidential contenders and she said Friday during a debate that she has also been thinking about running. "I think it's great that anybody thinks about whatever they want to do in the future," she said when asked about Obama during a campaign stop at a senior citizens' center just north of Albany. "I'm focused on my campaign" for re-election to the U.S. Senate, she said....

Yes, Big Mama Obama has just left Baghdad. And he has a solution to our problems in that country: "more minorities." It is often said that if you only have a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. Increasingly, Obama is a hammer hitting on minority nails. He doesn’t represent the people of Illinois. He represents "minorities" in the U. S. Senate. Of course, Republicans elected Obama, so maybe we have no right to complain. Maybe. Still. I can criticize President Bush and his policies in Iraq on many grounds. But not doing enough to include "minorities" is not one...

If the Democratic National Convention failed to produce a bounce for John Kerry, the same cannot be said of Illinois State Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic Party’s candidate for United States Senator from Illinois. While this rising star in the Democratic Party spouted some conservative themes during his speech, the rhetoric may be deceptive. While Obama spoke of individual responsibility – such as stating that the government cannot teach kids to read, parents must – his ideology and voting record is quite different. Obama is very liberal. Among his campaign contributors are George Soros, People for the American Way, pro-abortion...

WASHINGTON - Sen. Barack Obama acknowledged Sunday he was considering a run for president in 2008, backing off previous statements that he would not do so. The Illinois Democrat said he could no longer stand by the statements he made after his 2004 election and earlier this year that he would serve a full six-year term in Congress. He said he would not make a decision until after the Nov. 7 elections. "That was how I was thinking at that time," said Obama, when asked on NBC's "Meet the Press" about his previous statements. "Given the response I've been getting...