I might be a bit biased, as I worked on Barak Obama’s primary campaign, but I think this guy has enough charisma, intelligence, charm, and political know-how to someday make it to the White House-- if voters can get over his very ethnic name.
Obama’s speech tonight was absolutely on the mark…too bad no one saw it. Stupid networks.
Happy
Oops.
Barak Obama: Illinois state senator, candidate for U.S. Senate, and keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention tonight. In case anyone had no idea what the hell I was talking about in the OP.
Hell, I could get excited about voting for him, and the last person I could have gotten excited about voting for was Jimmy Cater. Unfortunately, I was quite a bit too young to vote then. (I know, Í’m funny that way - I want to respect mypoliticians as complete human beings before I can get enthusiastic about voting for them.)
Obama kicked butt tonight. I could totally see him in the White House someday.
Unfortunately, I have this odd and inexplicable sense of foreboding that he won’t live that long. I don’t know why, and I hope I’m wrong. But every time his left temple pulsed when he was speaking tonight, I visualized a bullet hole. I wish I could stop doing it; it’s going to give me nightmares.
Wow. I knew his name (mostly from the Illinois election saga) but I had no idea how impressive this guy was. I have a feeling Senator Obama is going to The Man in the DNC in a few years. This guy is a star.
He was absolutely brilliant and on fire tonight. Obama’s got the passion of his convictions, a magnetic oratory style, ability to connect with the audience, a message that unites rather than divides, and intelligence that practically radiates off him in waves. That roaring sound we heard upon his speech’s conclusion was Illinois choosing its next Senator, and – God willing – a future presidential candidate.
And is it wrong to say he’s hot? Well, he is.
(Frankly, Chris Heinz ain’t so bad either.)
I wouldn’t vote for the guy for dog catcher, but that’s because I’m an ideologue.
No question, he’s impressive. Smart, charismatic, a captivating speaker. Looks to me like Jack Ryan was toast even if he’d been a totally faithful husband. And Mike DItka was smart not to get into the race.
Okay, I’m ready to concede one Senate seat. I just hope we still have enough safe ones.
He seems to be an across the board liberal Democrat, which doesn’t show a lot of imagination to me. And when I went to the issues page of his campaign website, there was no mention of the war or national security. That’s not the sign of someone committed to meeting the real challenges facing us, IMHO.
He’s a smart guy. He needs to highlight these smarts more, and stake out his own turf. I probably still wouldn’t vote for him, but I might be more impressed.
It is incredible how many places I’ve seen this. CNN, BBC, here, various other newspaper’s websites. This is a huge amount of pressure. I can hope he can stand it all and not burn out longing for days of quiet as a dean at some school.
So is he!
I think he’s great. I’d like to see him go for it in 2012 or 2016. I really think he’d have a chance, too.
And yes, he’s quite hot.
Wow. Just, wow. On a night filled with some of the most sleep-inducing speeches (who the hell is the moron writing for Teresa?!?), Obama was a breath of fresh air with enough strength to sustain me for the next 98 days. I stayed up to watch the rebroadcast on C-Span, and I frantically tried to get my old, tired VCR to work (it didn’t). While I’m not ready to pave his walk to the steps of the Capital building for his 2020 inauguration just yet, he’s going to draw a very bright spotlight for the next six years, and I’m going to be eagerly watching.
Just watch it here.
rtsp://cspanrm.fplive.net/cspan/project/c04/c04_dnc072704_obama.rm?mode=compact
FWIW I was talking about Obama with a co-worker this morning - apparently she worked with him at a different law firm when he was fresh out of school, and says he is a real stand-up, genuinely nice guy. (Unlike Gerry Chico, one of his opponents in the Senate primary and another former co-worker of hers, who she says would backstab anyone who got in his way.)
I just kept seeing Letterman trying to do another Oscar joke saying, “Obama, Osama…Osama, Obama”…
But yes, he was VERY impressive and I think he did a fantastic job.
Obama does Illinois proud, he does the Democrats proud, and I would not at all be surprised to see his name mentioned for a future run at the office of President!
The first I’d heard of Obama was last week, and I was instantly impressed. Frankly, I’m way more excited about him than I am about Kerry or Edwards … though I guess it wouldn’t take much!
My daughter is 21, she’s smart and she’s cynical. I keep telling her that all politicians are not necessarily soulless, focus-group driven, venal idiots. She never really believed me until she watched Obama last night. I couldn’t believe her response to him. If we lived in Illinois she’d probably be volunteering for his campaign right now.
Oh, by the way, I was pretty damn impressed myself.
Keep an eye on this guy. If he can have that kind of effect on my daughter, he’s going places.
Yes, an impressive speech and an even more impressive delivery. This guy is inspiring. I hope he gets more airtime over the course of his (and Kerry’s) campaign.
As my friend Tim put it, “he obviously asserted himself as a national political leader, primarily on the basis of his ability to transcend politics through his ideas.”
Indeed.
A State Senator of Illinois? Since was does the ability to read a ghost-written speech make one qualified to be President of the USA? Both Bush 1 and 2 have proven it’s not a prerequisite to getting elected.
It’s been pointed out in the GD thread that Obama wrote his own speech. And I see no one here making a claim that he is currently qualified to be President.
You should get that knee checked out - it could be chronic.
JohnBckWLD -
I would do some research about how ghost-written the speech was. Lots of pols do a lot of the writing themselves - it is my understanding the Clinton writes a lot of his major speeches. Yes, they have to be vetted, but I would check it out before just claiming lack of authorship, especially for so important a speech.
Frankly, being able to present a speech IS a key skill of a great political leader, from Caesar to the great Kings, on down. It is through speeches that leaders clarify, focus and inspire. So even if they didn’t write the speech - like 99% of Reagan’s speeches AFAIK - effective delivery is a key skill. Again, look at Reagan.
And I definitely look at politicians like the Bushes as exceptions, which is why they are always threatened losing the national trust when times get tough - they can’t speech-ify to generate more confidence. Clinton, for all of his foibles, has this skill and could keep the public majority in his corner while also doing his internal fighting and horse-trading…