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Edited on Fri Dec-01-06 06:28 PM by Pirate Smile
Obama's Secret Strategy SessionThe Hotline: "Sen. Barack Obama's (D-IL) senior political and personal advisers held a summit this week to map out a presidential campaign. Chief among those attending: Michelle Obama, who has in the past expressed reservations about her husband's beginning a presidential bid. Her presence suggests either that reports of her objections were oversold or that she has become much more comfortable about a presidential race." http://politicalwire.com/archives/2006/12/01/obamas_secret_strategy_session.htmlhttp://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/archives/2006/12/the_daily_troik_24.htmledit to add a post on the Political Insider that I saw right after I posted this re the empty suit issue. The Empty Suit Myth
Unlike Tom Vilsack, who November 30 launched a presidential bid highlighted with talk of oil dependency and national security, among other topics, Barack Obama is miles away from Mount Pleasant, IA. Today, he is addressing a crowd in California at Saddleback Church, along with Republican Sen. Sam Brownback.
There, he will take his second HIV test in less than six months, meant to highlight the AIDS epidemic. His first, of course, was during his much-covered trip to Africa in early August. While on his trip to Africa, his third in total, he spoke of the genocide in the Sudan and forming "international communities."
As Hillary tries to get around her Iraq war vote, the Illinois senator spoke to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and was praised for the consistency of beliefs (he favors a gradual draw-down of troops). Despite John McCain's recent plea to send more troops to the country, Obama is not in his corner. Nor does he support the idea furthered by Democrat Joe Biden to slice Iraq in to three different nations.
The difference between Obama and other possible 2008 contenders is stark, and not limited to Iraq policy positions. He continues to speak on a more grand scale, a style highlighted, or perhaps started, at the Democratic Convention in 2004. There, he spoke of the "true genius of America" and a country with "faith in the simple dreams of its people, the insistence on small miracles."
Overall, his speech and many thereafter seem apolitical. While the senator is able to talk at length about standard political issues, he often talks as a cultural leader in speeches, which bring crowds full of voters out in herds.
On his trip to Africa, when referencing government, he remarked, "Good government is not getting shaken down by a bureaucrat if you want to start a business, not being pulled over by police to pay a bribe, being able to get a business license in a few days instead of a few years." Hard to imagine Giuliani delivering that line.
Likewise, a Chicago Tribune article about his speech on Iraq contained a quote by Dick Longworth, a senior fellow at the council, who said, "If we'd put this thing on for another senator, we could have held it in a phone booth." It's hard to imagine John Edwards drawing such a crowd.
Put simply, Obama's grandiose vision of America and the masses that react to it are the problems other Republican and Democrats will have if the senator from Illinois enters the race. To many, he is not an empty-suited young politician, as his challengers will say. He is a figure that directs the soul of the nation.
-- Jeff Gohringer http://politicalinsider.com/2006/12/the_empty_suit_myth.html
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