# Obama forms committee to explore presidential bid **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 16, 2007, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-forms-committee-to-explore-presidential-bid/388233 "2007-01-16T19:28:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2007, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-forms-committee-to-explore-presidential-bid/388233/61 "2007-01-17T23:30:09Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] 'Fraid not, **Marley.** Not to whites, not to blacks, and not to Obama himself, I’m sure. [/QUOTE] I’m not saying race is a non-issue, I’m saying his mom’s race doesn’t relate to the subject of the piece. The gist of the article, clearly, is that we can’t trust Obama because his dad was a Muslim and he was educated for some years in a Wahabbist school. [The mother’s atheism, I guess, might score some bonus points.] Her race is irrelevant to that point. That’s why I’m saying the author threw it in to bother people who would be uneasy with such things, or to express that he doesn’t like white women marrying Africans. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2007, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-forms-committee-to-explore-presidential-bid/388233/62 "2007-01-18T12:57:18Z")
[QUOTE=Eve] . What are his views on foreign relations? National security? Immigration? Healthcare? Abortion? Gay rights? I’m sure all this will come out eventually, but I don’t want to even think about voting for him w/o knowing at least some of this. [/QUOTE] [http://obama.senate.gov/issues/](http://obama.senate.gov/issues/) Specifically, [http://obama.senate.gov/issues/iraq/index.html](http://obama.senate.gov/issues/iraq/index.html) [http://obama.senate.gov/issues/seniors/index.html](http://obama.senate.gov/issues/seniors/index.html) [http://obama.senate.gov/issues/immigration/index.html](http://obama.senate.gov/issues/immigration/index.html) [http://obama.senate.gov/issues/health\_care/index.html](http://obama.senate.gov/issues/health_care/index.html) Gay Rights. Hm. Good question. Abortion, too. Let’s see. [http://obama.senate.gov/news/050208-obama\_touches\_on\_variety\_of\_issues/index.html](http://obama.senate.gov/news/050208-obama_touches_on_variety_of_issues/index.html) > [@Obama](#): > > In answer to another question, Obama said he opposed an amendment to ban gay marriage because the Constitution historically has expanded, rather than taken away, people’s rights. > > He commended state lawmakers on passing a human rights act - of which he was a chief sponsor - that prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation. > > Obama also said the divisive debate over gay marriage as been framed in the wrong way, pegging people with “moral values or no values.” > > Instead, he said, there should be a focus on where values such as tradition, family and faith overlap with tolerance and diversity and “can move the conversation forward.” Could be worse. Also, [http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0409250111sep25,1,7098310.story?coll=chi-news-hed](http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0409250111sep25,1,7098310.story?coll=chi-news-hed) Abortion > **[Barack Obama on Abortion](https://www.ontheissues.org/Social/Barack_Obama_Abortion.htm)** Extend presumption of good faith to abortion protesters, Pass the Stem Cell Research Bill Protect a woman’s right to choose Supports Roe v. Wade Well, I think abortion protesters are scum, generally, but I’ve never been comfortable with the laws banning them. I’m sorry, but it’s like letting Nazis march. Got to do it. In his own words: [http://obama.senate.gov/podcast/](http://obama.senate.gov/podcast/) This is what made me a supporter, listening to him talk intelligently about the gas issues over the summer. Generally, he seems to be my kind of guy. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2007, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-forms-committee-to-explore-presidential-bid/388233/63 "2007-01-18T13:00:22Z")
On further reading: Looks like it’s not as ‘sanitized’ as you expected, Eve. Gay rights are on his webpage, just a little hidden. ---
**Author:** ![lee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lee/32/7455_2.png) [@lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lee)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2007, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-forms-committee-to-explore-presidential-bid/388233/64 "2007-01-18T13:18:41Z")
Another thing about Obama is his cool. He never seems to really lose it, and he has been provoked and put in situations that many other would. During his senate campaign, he was followed, without relent, by a guy with a video camera and tape recorder. He never lost it, managed to never look like a ninny, and yet coherently expressed why he did not like it, why it was not politics as usual, and in general just put up with it until general disapproval made the campaign who was doing that stop. When he was detained in Russia with Dick Luger, he handled that well. He made the best out of that, and again, never lost his cool. When McCain blew up at him tried to to make him look like an ass after they had talked and apparently agreed to work together, Obama responded in a respectful, clear way, and reached out again to McCain. I really recommend reading that exchange of letters. He is sometimes quite passionate, but appears never to be a hot head. I would be a nice change from both the clammy democrats we have seen of late and the hothead who is our current POTUS. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2007, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-forms-committee-to-explore-presidential-bid/388233/65 "2007-01-18T22:16:08Z")
Well, I disagree with him severely on gun control, but most of the rest of the things I disagree with him on, are things that have been spiked so far to the right during Bush’s term that a little chokehold couldn’t hurt. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2007, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-forms-committee-to-explore-presidential-bid/388233/66 "2007-01-19T02:57:00Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] No matter how things go in Iraq, McCain will not get the Pub nomination in 2008. He’s too old, and the religious right hates him too much (he has been trying to mend fences there, but I doubt it will be enough). [/QUOTE] Not to mention that lately he’s looking like a chipmunk with the mumps. I’ve heard broadcasts of Obama speak and he’s always impressed me – not just that he’s well-spoken, but that he’s clearly thought through the positions he takes. He also had the guts recently to go before an Evangelical Christian audience, say straightforwardly that he disagrees with them on certain social issues, yet win a large portion of that audience over with what he said about shared values. I can’t think of another Democratic candidate who could pull that off. I can see him winning votes from thoughtful Evangelicals who are sufficiently distressed by what the Republicans have wrought to want an alternative they can live with. ---
**Author:** ![Frostillicus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Frostillicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frostillicus)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2007, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-forms-committee-to-explore-presidential-bid/388233/67 "2007-01-19T02:59:17Z")
[QUOTE=Marley23] My use of that word was sarcastic. Obama mama’s race is irrelevant, as is her atheism, since the thing is supposedly about his fundy stepdaddy and the anti-American terrorist beliefs he must’ve instilled in young Barack. In reality I think both items were included because they shocked the author and/or were expected to bother the readers, if only on a subconscious level. If everybody knows his dad was black and his mom was white, why is it in that message at all? [/QUOTE] Rush Limbaugh (R - Drug-Addled) has taken to calling Obama a “half-minority”. The man’s lack of wit is truly mind-numbing. ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2007, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-forms-committee-to-explore-presidential-bid/388233/68 "2007-01-19T07:15:07Z")
> [@](#): > > The whole process is silly. Just what do these exploratory committees do, anyway? Dick all. A candidate’s exploratory committee often doesn’t meet, and sometimes doesn’t even have any members. The whole point is to get the candidate’s name in another news cycle. (This gets nuts when they announce that they intend to announce the formation of the exploratory committee.) Also, if the buzz is really bad and the candidate decides to pull out before a formal decision is made, it isn’t a “failed campaign”. Instead, they were exploring it and they decided against it. There are also reasons for doing it that way for purposes of election financing laws, but it doesn’t have to be done like that. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2007, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-forms-committee-to-explore-presidential-bid/388233/69 "2007-01-19T07:42:36Z")
[QUOTE=Frostillicus] Why would that possibly matter? 😕 [/QUOTE] Because Obama practices Christianity which for a Muslim is apostasy (pretty much the worst crime under Islamic law) the penalty for which is death. However most Islamic (or any) nations will regard the President of the USA first and formost _as_ the President of the USA, not as a Muslim, apostate, woman, Jew, etc. I think it helps that Obama has never actually practiced Islam (which could also harm his chance among American voters). ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2007, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-forms-committee-to-explore-presidential-bid/388233/70 "2007-01-19T18:26:33Z")
[QUOTE=Frostillicus] Rush Limbaugh (R - Drug-Addled) has taken to calling Obama a “half-minority”. The man’s lack of wit is truly mind-numbing. [/QUOTE] Rush obviously thinks this will hurt Obama’s chances with some portion of his listening audience, but I can’t think of what portion he has in mind. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2007, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-forms-committee-to-explore-presidential-bid/388233/71 "2007-01-19T20:25:55Z")
[QUOTE=alphaboi867] Because Obama practices Christianity which for a Muslim is apostasy (pretty much the worst crime under Islamic law) the penalty for which is death. [/QUOTE] Surely that only applies if he used to be a practicing Muslim? Is this the case? Was he at one time a practicing Muslim? And doesn’t the Koran preach tolerance for Christianity and Judaism? (Even if its adherents don’t). Paging **Angua** and **Tamerlane**. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2007, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-forms-committee-to-explore-presidential-bid/388233/72 "2007-01-19T20:38:28Z")
[QUOTE=Quartz] Surely that only applies if he used to be a practicing Muslim? Is this the case? Was he at one time a practicing Muslim? And doesn’t the Koran preach tolerance for Christianity and Judaism? (Even if its adherents don’t). Paging **Angua** and **Tamerlane**. [/QUOTE] All this is true. It’s only apostacy if you’ve ever been a Muslim and Obama has never been a Muslim. Otherwise you’re a “Person of the Book,” and not considered to be an infidel (You’re only an infidel if you’ve rejected Islam after having a full understanding of it). ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2007, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-forms-committee-to-explore-presidential-bid/388233/73 "2007-01-31T01:26:28Z")
Obama can win because Americans, when it comes to the Presidency, are stupid. I don’t mean he’s stupid. I mean, _we_ are. We romanticized Kennedy & Reagan. We elected Nixon. We elected Carter _because he was a nice guy._ We elected Poppy Bush to try to keep a piece of Reagan around :rolleyes: . We voted for Bubba because he was “the Man from Hope,” & W. because he was Bush’s son. Obama is pretty, & he’s colored. We’ve _killed and died_ for men for less. I’m still predicting Bill Richardson for the win, though. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2007, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-forms-committee-to-explore-presidential-bid/388233/74 "2007-01-31T01:34:48Z")
Obama [stole a march on his rivals today](http://obama.senate.gov/press/070130-obama_offers_plan_to_stop_escalation_of_iraq_war_begin_phased_redeployment_of_troops/index.html) by introducing legislation mandating a complete withdrawal from Iraq over the next 14 months. I can still remember watching him on TV as he gave the keynote speech at the Democratic Convention in 2004, and saying to my wife, “that man’s going to be President someday.” I’m still leaning towards Edwards, but I’m starting to think my prediction might come true much earlier than I had expected. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2007, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-forms-committee-to-explore-presidential-bid/388233/75 "2007-01-31T02:16:58Z")
Video of Obama’s speech introducing the bill [here](http://electioncentral.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2007/jan/30/obama_the_need_to_bring_this_war_to_an_end_is_here). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-forms-committee-to-explore-presidential-bid/388233.md?page=3)