I also am at least neutral on Obama as a possible major party candidate -- he's a lot better than Kerry, he has real charisma and although he has been cautious and even mildly conservative in the Senate, as you'd expect from someone with presidential ambitions, he had a solidly liberal record here in the Illinois legislature.
It is absurd to make fun of Obama for coming from a relatively privileged background and following a moderately conventional career path. If he'd he's joined the International Socialists, he wouldn't be in the running. Interestingly in his autobiography, he admits to talking with and learning from Marxists, which is way more than any other major party candidate had ever said. Clinton (Bill) came from real hardscrabble, and what did that get us? Reaganism lite.
Long and short: the Dems suck, all the usual reasons. Obama is a somewhat better than usual Dem who is mainstream enough to possibily win. That alone will disqualify him from anything but opprobrium from many here, but given that some major party candidate is going to win, we could do a lot worse than Obama. Any Republican, for example. Hilary Clinton.
--- Mike Ballard <swillsqueal at yahoo.com.au> wrote:
>
> Mike Larkin posted:
> http://powerlineblog.com/archives/015633.php
>
> Yesterday, Fox News contributor Mara Liasson
> described Barack Obama's
> "life story" as "compelling. Believe me, she doesn't
> know the half.
> Check out Big Lizards and learn about Obama's
> boyhood in war-ravaged
> Hawaii; his daring double major in political science
> and international
> relations at Columbia; his tragic and devastating
> defeat in a 2000
> congressional primary; and his heroic comeback in
> which he avenged not only his
> own defeat but also that of the great Carol Mosley
> Braun, so shamefully
> stripped of her Senate seat in an election where the
> Chicago dead were
> deliberately disenfranchised.
> *******************************
> So far, it looks to me like a Clinton/Obama ticket
> for 2008
>
> Best,
> Mike B)
>
>
> Watch the communist manifestoon!
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1oGIffyVVk
>
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