Obama - perspectives

[chuck]

Superb article written about Obama - back in 2004, when he was just becoming noticed in Illinois.

The Candidate

A couple of choice quotes:

Kirk Dillard, a leading Republican senator from the Chicago suburbs, looked chagrined when I asked him about Obama. “I knew from the day he walked into this chamber that he was destined for great things,” he said. “In Republican circles, we’ve always feared that Barack would become a rock star of American politics.” Still, Dillard was gracious. “Obama is an extraordinary man,” he said. “His intellect, his charisma. He’s to the left of me on gun control, abortion. But he can really work with Republicans.” Dillard and Obama have co-sponsored many bills.

People are whupped,” Obama told me. “I’m whupped. My wife is whupped. Unless it’s your job to be curious, who really has the time to sit and ask questions and explore issues?”

He didn’t look whupped. Still loose and alert after a long day, Obama was sipping iced tea in a busy, Caribbean-themed restaurant in a small shopping center in Hyde Park. But he had already spent sixteen months running for the Senate—and seven years as a state senator—and he could ruefully sympathize with the political apathy of the average beleaguered citizen. Tonight, he had turned his cell phone off and dismissed his aides; he just wanted to get home for the bedtimes of his daughters, who are two and five. His wife, Michelle, is also a lawyer, and their daily lives are the familiar three-ring American family circus—even without the steroidal additive of Barack’s political career. Yet Barack had been reluctant to take even a semester off from teaching while campaigning, partly because he needs the income. To survive this campaign financially, the Obamas will take out a second mortgage on their apartment.


“Teaching keeps you sharp,” Obama said. “The great thing about teaching constitutional law”—his subject—“is that all the tough questions land in your lap: abortion, gay rights, affirmative action. And you need to be able to argue both sides. I have to be able to argue the other side as well as Scalia does. I think that’s good for one’s politics.”

Jan Schakowsky told me about a recent visit she had made to the White House with a congressional delegation. On her way out, she said, President Bush noticed her “obama” button. “He jumped back, almost literally,” she said. “And I knew what he was thinking. So I reassured him it was Obama, with a ‘b.’ And I explained who he was. The President said, ‘Well, I don’t know him.’ So I just said, ‘You will.’ ”

Pretty sure he does now.

[Troy McClure]

I feel compelled to add, since my background is half Caucasian / half Mexican descent. My initial support for Obama was that he felt the same way about Iraq War 2.0 as I did. I also liked how he portrayed himself and his upbringing as not really being any different than what's normally considered the 'American Dream™'. Yes his skin color was different, but he didn't use it to his advantage or as an excuse. That's how I was raised by my white mom (my parents divorced, but I was still close to my Mexican dad). When I got to college in 1995, it was hard to relate to my non-white friends who used their skin color as an excuse / advantage. I know they had different experiences than I did, with name-calling and stuff like that. But as they became close friends, we all realized you make your own path, and if something is blocking, you either quit, or bulldoze through it.

Also, my neighbor came over to celebrate with my mom and I. She is turning 80 in January and she is black. I had never seen her that joyful since her grandkids were born. She told us of growing up during segregation, and now this is the best 80th birthday present she could hope for.

Obama winning should be the example of kids anywhere in America. You don’t need that traditional family crap that the GOP trots out. Kids just need someone who believes in them.

-Jason

[jOHN rODRIGUEZ]

Obama got in trouuuble, Obama got in trouuuble:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/...nce/index.html

[Sean]

Originally Posted by jOHN rODRIGUEZ

Obama got in trouuuble, Obama got in trouuuble:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/...nce/index.html

So glad to see that the country is maintaining it's laser-like focus on the important issues we're up against - like Obama telling a bad joke. Whoop-de-do.

[Sean]

Originally Posted by Troy McClure

I feel compelled to add, since my background is half Caucasian / half Mexican descent. My initial support for Obama was that he felt the same way about Iraq War 2.0 as I did. I also liked how he portrayed himself and his upbringing as not really being any different than what's normally considered the 'American Dream™'. Yes his skin color was different, but he didn't use it to his advantage or as an excuse. That's how I was raised by my white mom (my parents divorced, but I was still close to my Mexican dad). When I got to college in 1995, it was hard to relate to my non-white friends who used their skin color as an excuse / advantage. I know they had different experiences than I did, with name-calling and stuff like that. But as they became close friends, we all realized you make your own path, and if something is blocking, you either quit, or bulldoze through it.

Also, my neighbor came over to celebrate with my mom and I. She is turning 80 in January and she is black. I had never seen her that joyful since her grandkids were born. She told us of growing up during segregation, and now this is the best 80th birthday present she could hope for.

Obama winning should be the example of kids anywhere in America. You don’t need that traditional family crap that the GOP trots out. Kids just need someone who believes in them.

-Jason

Thanks for sharing the perspective.

[BeautifulBurnout]

This just in!

Obama's Use of Complete
Sentences Stirs Controversy

Stunning Break with Last Eight Years

In the first two weeks since the election, President-elect Barack Obama has broken with a tradition established over the past eight years through his controversial use of complete sentences, political observers say.

Millions of Americans who watched Mr. Obama's appearance on CBS' "Sixty Minutes" on Sunday witnessed the president-elect's unorthodox verbal tick, which had Mr. Obama employing grammatically correct sentences virtually every time he opened his mouth. But Mr. Obama's decision to use complete sentences in his public pronouncements carries with it certain risks, since after the last eight years many Americans may find his odd speaking style jarring.

According to presidential historian Davis Logsdon of the University of Minnesota, some Americans might find it "alienating" to have a President who speaks English as if it were his first language.

"Every time Obama opens his mouth, his subjects and verbs are in agreement," says Mr. Logsdon. "If he keeps it up, he is running the risk of sounding like an elitist."

The historian said that if Mr. Obama insists on using complete sentences in his speeches, the public may find itself saying, "Okay, subject, predicate, subject predicate - we get it, stop showing off."

The President-elect's stubborn insistence on using complete sentences has
already attracted a rebuke from one of his harshest critics, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska.

"Talking with complete sentences there and also too talking in a way that ordinary Americans like Joe the Plumber and Tito the Builder can't really do there, I think needing to do that isn't tapping into what Americans are needing also," she said.