January 16, 200719 yr Democrat Obama enters 2008 White House race WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois jumped into the 2008 White House race on Tuesday, promising to bring Americans together and "change our politics" with a campaign that could make him the first black president in U.S. history. Obama, a freshman senator and rising party star, formed a committee to begin raising money and hiring staff to campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination to succeed Republican President George W. Bush. He plans a formal campaign announcement in his hometown of Chicago on February 10. Does his sudden surge in popularity remind anyone of Bush circa 1999? Relatively inexperienced guy who the people can relate to. Despite the fact that the Democrats seem to be doing everything in their power to f*** up the Iraq situation (with the exception, strangely enough, of Ted Kennedy, who seems to be the only one with an idea of what to do), Obama is still by far their best shot at winning. Reminds alot of Bush in the run-up to the 2000 election, in that he didn't have much experience, but he really connected with the people.
January 16, 200719 yr I don't think Bush connected as much with the people as much as Obama does. But this is awesome.
January 16, 200719 yr Rightly or wrongly, hell will freeze over before the American population elects a black man with such an ethnic name to the office of president.
January 17, 200719 yr As of right now, he is the candidate I support. Obama is great. He really is the antithesis of the out of touch career politician that we see so much of. And yeah, he has that nack for connecting with people. If he wins, the "have a beer with the guy" factor will win again. Plus he is extremely intelligent. I really think his lack of experience will work in his favor. So will his long standing emphasis on bipartisanship. Tswift is right to a degree though. He is going to be getting some extremely racist ads against him. We will see how much this country has moved past its bigotted history. The other big negative about him is that he has never ever had to prove his toughness. The voters hate a sissy and Obama is going to have to prove at some point that he is not a sissy. On an interesting note, this might be the strongest link we have ever seen between Osama and Hussein. :mischief he wont carry a single southern state not that the democrats do anyways He would have a shot at Virginia. Plus the dems want the west now. They are eyeing Colorado.
January 17, 200719 yr I don't know what to think. The guy came out of nowhere and I don't know where he stands on anything. I just want to know if he's more than a flavor of the month, etc.
January 17, 200719 yr Like Buckeye, I really don't know where this guy stands on anything, but he seems like an open and charismatic guy who could have the makings of a president. I look forward to hearing his plans for the country so I know if I should ever consider voting for the guy if he makes it out of the Democratic primary(he should since Hillary doesn't seem to have a chance and another John Kerryesque candidate would just be stupid for Dems).
January 17, 200719 yr Here's my reasonable conservative criticism of Obama. He's yet to face reelection in his home-state. He's yet to take a massive stand on anything substantive, at least individually. To my knowledge, he only sits on the ethics, foreign relations and homeland security committees. He's really done nothing but join the tide of Iraq criticism and it seems the only issue he has somewhat individually championed is that of seniors rights, which could still be viewed as coattailing the imminent social security crisis. He hasn't established himself as anything, really. Sure he's the hot-shot former civil rights lawyer who became the party's resident rock-star, but is he really the guy you want running the country?
January 17, 200719 yr is he really the guy you want running the country? Hint to everyone else: no It's the same problem with Edwards. He has no stances to speak of and in a time of war inexperience is NOT a plus, especially with the inexperience in foreign affairs that he has. I don't even think the name or race will matter that much. I hate to be stereotyping, but if you're not going to vote for a black man, you're probably not voting Democrat anyway. Unfortunately the Dems' best non-polarizing candidate in Evan Bayh already pulled out of the race.
January 17, 200719 yr he wont carry a single southern state not that the democrats do anyways Correction: Democrats don't carry the South when they lose. The South is the key to victory.
January 17, 200719 yr I heard that he isn't very good in a press conference and will have trouble answering questions because of his lack of experience. Anyway, I see a Hillary/Obama ticket vs. Giuliani/Condi Rice Giuliani gets my vote no matter what......we would go from the worst public speaking President of all time to the best.
January 17, 200719 yr obama is all sizzle no substance realclearpolitics.com had a brief article about him and the excerpts from his speeches that have won some democrats over " there is no red america , no blue america , only one america!!!" wow great stuff pretty bold statement . It is funny because the starter of this topic tapped into the same feeling i have on obama reminds of Bush on a lot of levels inexperienced , lacks substance etc . For those interestd in Obama's voting record it would fall way to the left. I personally think it is imperative that we as Americans whether a D or R wins in 08 elect a President with experience and a President who is a centrist but that is just my opinion
January 17, 200719 yr obama is all sizzle no substance realclearpolitics.com had a brief article about him and the excerpts from his speeches that have won some democrats over " there is no red america , no blue america , only one america!!!" wow great stuff pretty bold statement . It is funny because the starter of this topic tapped into the same feeling i have on obama reminds of Bush on a lot of levels inexperienced , lacks substance etc . For those interestd in Obama's voting record it would fall way to the left. I personally think it is imperative that we as Americans whether a D or R wins in 08 elect a President with experience and a President who is a centrist but that is just my opinion yah it will be interesting to see what Obama acctually states as the platform he runs upon, everyone knows who he is, young, good speaker, opposite of W, but no one knows his politics. Will face bitter primary against hillary, dont see him running on the democratic ticket this time.
January 17, 200719 yr I would not have a problem with Giuliani as President. However, let's face it, Giuliani is way too far to the left to get anywhere in the Republican Primaries. His past would also hurt him badly in a Presidential race (multiple divorces). I'm still mixed on Obama at this point. If I was his campaign manager, I would urge him to wait to make a serious run at the White House until 2012, when he will have 5 more years of political experience. However, if Presidents like our current one and JFK have shown anything, it is that the public will elect politically inexperienced politicians to the nation's highest office in some cases (although Bush is still a question mark). The candidate that I wanted to run the most, Mark Warner, dropped out of consideration a few months back, much to my (and Dodge's) disappointment.
January 17, 200719 yr he wont carry a single southern state not that the democrats do anyways If the Democrats cannot crack the South, they will never win another Presidential election. The last Democrat to lose an election with a Southern State on his side was Carter. Dukakus 1988: Nada Clinton 1992: KY, TN, GA, LA, AR Clinton 1996: KY, TN, FL, LA, AR Gore 2000: Nada Kerry 2004: Nada I'd want to see if Obama is all sizzle and no steak. But I diagree with ethnic comment made regarding his viability.
January 17, 200719 yr I would not have a problem with Giuliani as President. However, let's face it, Giuliani is way too far to the left to get anywhere in the Republican Primaries. His past would also hurt him badly in a Presidential race (multiple divorces). I'm still mixed on Obama at this point. If I was his campaign manager, I would urge him to wait to make a serious run at the White House until 2012, when he will have 5 more years of political experience. However, if Presidents like our current one and JFK have shown anything, it is that the public will elect politically inexperienced politicians to the nation's highest office in some cases (although Bush is still a question mark). The candidate that I wanted to run the most, Mark Warner, dropped out of consideration a few months back, much to my (and Dodge's) disappointment. Guiliani's only hope is as VP. He's too far left, as you said, to make it out of the primaries. I definitely see a McCain/Guiliani ticket. If Obama runs this year and loses (in the general election) he kills the possibility of a 2012 election and would have to wait until 2016 at least. He should definitely wait into 2012. And yes, the public will elect inexperienced politicians, but not during war time.
January 17, 200719 yr He's a useless media concoction. He reminds me of John Edwards in terms of fluffiness, though he's not the scoundrel that Edwards is, and he's genuinely devoted to liberal ideals.
January 17, 200719 yr I'll be honest, I'd much prefer Hillary get the nod. He can be Vice President and establish his personality through that, but I don't want him being the main guy just because he has charisma.
January 17, 200719 yr The biggest pipe dream would be to hope for a ticket that has BOTH Clinton and Obama. I think Dems would prefer Obama, but Hilary might do better in general elections. But if it's Hilary vs Rudy somehow, that's a no brainer (in my mind).
January 17, 200719 yr Personally I love to see this. Obama is a strong, charismic candidate who already has a fairly strong following and definetly has the potential to swing some typically right-leaning voters, particularly evangelical Christians. Although I forget who said it, yes, I believe the democrats would take Colorado with Obama on the ballot.
January 17, 200719 yr Based on what I've seen, Obana is an interesting candidate. I look forward to listening to his ideas and views. I can see myself voting for him. Inexperience and no record to speak of is probably his biggest asset at this point. Most of America doesn't vote with their head, is all about who they relate with.
January 17, 200719 yr I would not have a problem with Giuliani as President. However, let's face it, Giuliani is way too far to the left to get anywhere in the Republican Primaries. His past would also hurt him badly in a Presidential race (multiple divorces). I'm still mixed on Obama at this point. If I was his campaign manager, I would urge him to wait to make a serious run at the White House until 2012, when he will have 5 more years of political experience. However, if Presidents like our current one and JFK have shown anything, it is that the public will elect politically inexperienced politicians to the nation's highest office in some cases (although Bush is still a question mark). The candidate that I wanted to run the most, Mark Warner, dropped out of consideration a few months back, much to my (and Dodge's) disappointment. Guiliani's only hope is as VP. He's too far left, as you said, to make it out of the primaries. I definitely see a McCain/Guiliani ticket. If Obama runs this year and loses (in the general election) he kills the possibility of a 2012 election and would have to wait until 2016 at least. He should definitely wait into 2012. And yes, the public will elect inexperienced politicians, but not during war time. I disagree....I think many voters trust Giuliani over McCain. McCain is a flip flopper like Kerry. Giuliani is loved everywhere, would be great on terrorists, is a great public speaker, and is an excellent leader. I think those attributes get him past his personal life. I will vote for him.
January 17, 200719 yr Rightly or wrongly, hell will freeze over before the American population elects a black man with such an ethnic name to the office of president. So true. I would describe myself as a Democrat who is very pro-death penalty/abortion rights and I would be very open minded to voting for a black president but does anyone on here really believe that he has ANY shot of getting elected?
January 17, 200719 yr Why should Obama have experience? So people can take anything he did and massively distort it like they did with Kerry, Dukakis, and others? How did Kerry's experience help him? How did Bush's total lack of experience hurt him? I'd say this is the perfect time for him to run. Obama has the same experience that JFK had when he ran. Face it. America loves people who can speak to them and relate to them. They love charisma. They prefer ideas and vision to substance. I think he will be great at giving them the ideas and vision of bi-partisanship and cooperation in a very effective manner. And the day the Republican party nominates a pro-choice, pro-gay, anti-gun candidate like Guliani is the day accord comes back from Iraq and proclaims that Saddam and Osama are really good guys.
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