I agree. I think it would be great if we had at least one woman or at least one black or at least one latino as a serious candidate for their party's nomination.

People other than white males have been getting involved in politics - and getting elected - on almost every level for years. They are gaining the experience and building the reputations needed for national campaigns.

Will it happen in '08? Two prominent Democratic not-yet-official candidates, Clinton and Obama, would seem to suggest that '08 may be the year.

Is color or gender or ethnic background a reason to vote for someone? No, not for most of us. But is it a factor? Yeah, I think it is. Should it be a factor? No. But look at the portraits of US Presidents past and present. It would seem - de facto - that a qualification to be President is to be a white male, primarily because white males have had a long history of being able to gain the experience necessary - in public service, in the military, in private industry - to be a serious contender.

Hell, if the face of the President looked like the face of the United States, over half of our Presidents would be women, and one President in four would be of color.

I'm glad Obama is thinking about a run. I'd like a chance to vote for him, not because he's black, but because he is inspiring, and I haven't been truly inspired by a President in many, many years.

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Curly

The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country.

- Hermann Goering

Ah, the race / gender based vote. How would this be different from Bubba saying "I am a God-fearing white man. This country don't need none of them people of color or womenfolk running for the white house."

We need good candidates, regardless of race or gender.

Matt

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De duobus malis, minus est semper eligendum

Dick Morris is something of a hack.......but he makes some points here...imho..


By Dick Morris and Eileen McGann

In reading Senator Barack Obama’s #1 bestseller, The Audacity of Hope, one begins to wonder whether he is another cynical politician or just a helplessly naïve neophyte.

After a few chapters, one actually has the audacity to hope that it is his inexperience — and nothing sinister — that accounts for his sometimes silly and often misleading narrative. Anyone who is that naive should not be a U.S. Senator, much less the president.

Obama is a uniquely charismatic candidate who has catapulted into second place among democratic primary voters, forcing Hillary Clinton to hastily abandon her coy pretense that she hasn’t made a decision about whether to run. He inspires people by his story, his demeanor and his message.

But if his book offers a window into the real Barack Obama, one thing is certain: He has a long way to go before he is ready for the presidency. He’s only been in the U.S. Senate for two years and before that, he was a state senator and a professor of constitutional law. He’s never been an administrator, met a payroll, developed a budget, or solved a crisis. It’s not only his greenness that sends out warnings; at times, he doesn’t seem to grasp the implications of all that he writes. At other times, his words have a distinct disconnect with his actions and legislative record.

Sometimes he sounds downright juvenile. Consider this missive, which opens chapter five: “One thing about being a U.S. Senator - you fly a lot.” Brilliant! It gets worse: “Most of the time I fly … in coach, hoping for an aisle or window seat” (But not always.) “ … there are times when … I fly on a private jet.” Then, “the flying experience is a good deal different.” Wow. Obama then describes the experience: “lounges that feature big soft couches and big screen TVs.” Hog heaven. “Restrooms are generally empty and spotless, and have those mechanical shoe-shine machines and mouthwash and mints in a bowl.” The planes? “Well, they’re nice.” The purpose of the trip was “fund raising” but the senator was thrilled when his staff “explained to him” that he could travel on “someone else’s jet” and only have to pay the comparatively minor cost of first class airfare.

There’s no mention of the special interests that pay for those corporate jets for senators or about the lobbyists that usually accompany them, using the down time to fill their heads with information and arguments for their client’s legislative priorities. All we learn from Obama is how la dolce vita prevails at private airports.

Obama actually took 23 separate trips on corporate jets during his first year in the Senate, until he was appointed as the democratic point man on ethics legislation last year, following the Jack Abramoff scandal involving lobbyists paying for Congressional travel. Given the political atmosphere and the intense probe of Congressional travel, it would not have been good politics for him to continue to avail himself of the lobbyist largesse. So, that’s when he stopped taking the free rides. Cushy sofas or not.

Obama is a political infant, a babe in the woods. He’s a Jimmy Carter, running for president based on his personal moral outlook, his background and history, and making a virtue out of his limited knowledge of how American government works. One thing is sure - in the age of terrorism, we don’t need a president who can’t find the men’s room.

Obama’s book is replete with paeans to non-partisanship and rising above the bitterness of the blue/red divide. He sees the virtues in his political opponents. “I find it possible,” he declares, “to understand their motives, and to recognize in them the values I share.”

But, in reality, Obama is no "third way” politician. He is a party line Democrat, according to the National Journal, the 18th most liberal member of the Senate, which puts him ahead of (or behind) 60% of his fellow Democrats in the Senate. The gospel according to Planned Parenthood? He gets 100%. Right to life? Zero. The AFL-CIO celebrates his vote with them on nine out of ten issues and the ACLU agrees.

He talks like a moderate, but he votes like a liberal.

This deception, which he shares in common with Hillary, would be par for the Washington course. But it is the sound bites that festoon his book that lead one to suspect that he really doesn’t understand the facts or the issues.

For example, he writes, “we say we value the legacy we leave the next generation and then saddle that generation with mountains of debt.” Really? Has the senator noticed that the deficit is now down to only a bit more than 2% of our GDP, or is that sound bite too precious to lose in the face of the facts?

Or - he accuses us of tolerating “schools that don’t teach, that are chronically underfunded and understaffed and underinspired.” We hate to get in the way of his speechwriter’s momentum, but how about the central issues: teacher incompetence, the need for merit pay and the importance of waiving tenure to get rid of bad instructors?

He speaks of an increasingly wealthy “knowledge class” of Americans able to purchase “whatever they want on the marketplace — private schools, private health care, private security and private jets.” But then he opposes the voucher system designed to give the poor parity in purchasing power for private education.

And then he says that voters are tired of “sound bite solutions to complicated problems.” So are his readers.

Senator Barack Obama could indeed represent something new in our politics instead of something old and simply repackaged. He could step up and truly develop a third way, carrying on where Bill Clinton left off on issues of poverty, race, standards, education and global competitiveness. But Bill Clinton worked hard at grappling with our problems and designing real solutions. He immersed himself in the data and worked hard to learn how to be president.

But Obama is taking the easy way out - skimming the surface, sloganeering and hiding behind Democratic orthodoxy while pretending to be something else.

The saving grace is that he is young and just starting out. If he pays the same attention to substance that he appears to have spent acquiring a profound understanding of constitutional law — which he used to teach — then he has the potential to be a great figure.

But he’s not there yet.

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Obama-e fungis nati homines....

Ah yes the neocon attack machine has begun its scrounging for dirt on Obama and the above article is a perfect example. So far inexperienced and naive are the best they've come up with. Naive is usually a substitute for someone who has a great vision for the country. And the notion of mentioning Obama's few trips on private Jets while the corruption in the Republican-led congress and adminsitration is bursting at the seams seems laughable.

I thought we were supposed to be a color blind society.

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"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."

President George W. Bush, 8-5-2004

Carolina Politics Online

THIS IS REAL HOPE AND CHANGE!

How is the truth scrounging for dirt? How is pointing out the truth attacking? Regarding those who are naive, it is hardly a substitute for a great vision, but rather a characteristic of someone with no clue how the real world works. As for corruption, corruption is corruption regardless of who is committing it. I think it is your logic and partisanship that is laughable.

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"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."

President George W. Bush, 8-5-2004

Carolina Politics Online

THIS IS REAL HOPE AND CHANGE!

Originally Posted by indygirl
Why is race and gender only thing that matters to some people?

Would indygirl vote for China Arnold?

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Is our children learning? -George W. Bush

"I think—tide turning—see, as I remember—I was raised in the desert, but tides kind of—it's easy to see a tide turn—did I say those words?"—Washington, D.C., June 14, 2006

"[T]he illiteracy level of our children are appalling."—Washington, D.C., Jan. 23, 2004

well aside from Obamas lack of experience Morris is a snide guy…but as I said that does not mean what says is not at times without merit…..and if took thse trips he took them…..period.



Sam you know as well as I do; republicans + media spotlight= s"peaking truth to power”, journalism doing what is supposed to do report out to the people….etc…Democrat + spotlight= it’s a conspiracy and a no no…


Oh, and here’s another Low water mark for our politicians…..

CNN.com - CNN Political Ticker

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Obama-e fungis nati homines....

So you're OK with him buying a house for 300k below market value thanks to his relationship with a man who's been indicted for some very serious felonies?

If so, you're really not anyone to be complaining about Republican bias.

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Who does vote for these dishonest shitheads? Who among us can be happy and proud of having all this innocent blood on our hands? Who are these swine? These flag-sucking half-wits who get fleeced and fooled by stupid little rich kids like George Bush?

--Hunter S. Thompson

Less corruption than the other guys doesn't really sound like a great campaign slogan.

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"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Do you have a link for this?
EDIT-never mind here's one and another here and here and here and here ...looks like the media's 'golden boy' is just another fucking no good scummy crook, jeez.

I loved this line from the Chicago Tribune editorial page on Friday, Nov. 3 "the senator's real estate tie to Rezko threatens to leave Obama hoisted by his ethics petard".

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"My friends, we live in the greatest nation in the history of the world. I hope you'll join with me as we try to
change it." -- Barack Obama

No, but the people who vote for somebody just because he/she isn't a Republican will eat him up like he's manna from heaven.

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Who does vote for these dishonest shitheads? Who among us can be happy and proud of having all this innocent blood on our hands? Who are these swine? These flag-sucking half-wits who get fleeced and fooled by stupid little rich kids like George Bush?

--Hunter S. Thompson

What's so special about Barack Obama?

He seems to be your basic liberal, and he's black, and only has a few years on the job. Pretty articulate. He recites the standard liberal bromides pretty well: Increasing minumum wage will help, raising taxes will help, something's wrong with the gap between rich and poor, Republicans are racists, etc., the usual tripe. He is rated as the 18th most liberal member of the Senate, which puts him slightly ahead of the middle of the pack of Democrats. In other words, he's pretty much a cookie-cutter standard liberal politician. Nothing particularly worse than any other liberal, nothing particularly better.

So why is the media going ga-ga over him, but not over any of the other liberals newly elected in 2004 or 2006?

What position of Obama's is different from any of the other liberals?

--------------------------

The Messiah Cometh to New Hampshire - Yahoo! News

Susan Milligan of the Boston Globe described Obama as delivering "an uncomplicated message" of hope and promise, which I assume she meant as a compliment. Ditto Seth Gitell in the New York Sun, who writes that Obama's candidacy is "is shaping up as the perfected form of the campaign Senator Bradley of New Jersey attempted to run in 2000 and Governor Dean attempted with more success in 2004."

Here's more flavor of the coverage from Adam Nagourney of the New York Times:

"I've never seen anything like this before this early," said Mike Ballantine, a computer programmer from Nashua, as across the room Mr. Obama was surrounded by more than 100 people, many holding up his book and hoping for an autograph. "I mean it's amazing. Really amazing."

And the reality of Mr. Obama -- as opposed to what people had read or seen in weeks of extraordinarily favorable coverage -- struck a chord with some. "I was very impressed with the fact that he wants to bring people together," said Betsy Shultis, a former state representative. "I was very taken with him."

Elizabeth Fairchild, 37, of Rye, N.H., said: "I thought he was fantastic. He exceeded my expectations."

Another swooning Democrat told Dan Balz of the Washington Post , "I do hope he runs. I haven't been so excited by someone since JFK, when he was campaigning when I was 10 years old."

And if likening Obama to Dem icon JFK isn't high enough praise, a 64 year-old artist in Portsmouth went a step further, saying of Obama to reporter Paul West of the Baltimore Sun, "I see him as very messianic."

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The Constitution isn't perfect, but it's better than the system we're using now.

He does have charisma but I think he needs to prove himself much more. The sad thing is that charisma tends to get you further than leadership with the general public.

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"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

In light of the recent revelations about Saint Obama's shady real estate transactions, methinks his tenure as 'flavor of the month' will be very short.

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"My friends, we live in the greatest nation in the history of the world. I hope you'll join with me as we try to
change it." -- Barack Obama