Senator Barack Obama has announced that he may run for America’s next 
presidential election. Could he be their first black president?
Obama, 45, has had an astounding and meteoric rise in politics, having spent only two years in the Senate. He is now travelling around the country and listening to people and will announce his decision in three weeks. This news has “sent a jolt of electricity through a field that is likely to include New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton”.
Unlike Mrs Clinton who voted for the Iraq war, Obama opposed it from the outset. He is said to be hugely charismatic and is hoping that his inexperience and freshness will work in his favour. It is also thought that his colour – his mother was white, his father a black Kenyan — will attract African-Americans votes.
But he wouldn’t have got this far without any talent. His website reports that he has dedicated his life to public service as a community organizer, civil rights attorney and leader in the Illinois state Senate, that Obama now continues his fight for working families.
He is a strong contender, currently running second to Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination. What do you think his chances are?
He could do better than Hilary Clinton – yet another New England liberal isn’t going to make the breakthrough in regional polaristion that the Democrats need to make to win the White House. But does Obama really have what it takes to appeal to somewhere in the South, the Mountains and the Great Plains to win over the states needed?
I can’t find the link anywhere, sorr, but his opening speech for the campaign was an abysmal mash of meaningless phrases.
The Democrats are very unlikely to be able to beat Guliani or McCain in the next race, no matter how it looks now. I for one am pleased, as their protectionist agenda is the last thing a faltering economy will need.
“but his opening speech for the campaign was an abysmal mash of meaningless phrases.”
That style didn’t seem to hurt the incumbent, did it? 😉
From this distance, it looks like Obama could well be the Vice Presidential candidate of choice for the winner of the Democratic primaries. So his chances of becoming the VP are probably contingent on how successfully Rudi and/or McCain distance themselves from the present administration (which, in the case of McCain right now, is ‘not very’ successfully).
Cityunslicker, the link for his opening speech was under the word presidential in the first line where I have just accessed it from. But especially for you, try this:
http://www.barackobama.com/video/from_barack_transcript/index.php
Obama is the 25th candidate to express an interest in running for president, his ranking for the Democratic nomination is certainly encouraging for him. How much of that was based on his view about the Iraq war? Will that help him even further with more than 3,000 American troops killed over there?
The answer will be obvious to West Wing fans!
Ellee – thanks!
here is what I was alluding to:
“it’s not the magnitude of our problems that concerns me the most. It’s the smallness of our politics.”
“Politics has become so bitter and partisan, so gummed up by money and influence, that we can’t tackle the big problems that demand solutions.”
wow – that solved Iraq, Social Security, the economy and Healthcare all at once…
Obama is a media creation, portrayed as the second coming of Lincoln and John F Kennedy. He does not exist. He is a one term senator with no accomplishments to speak of.
He has established himself as a left of centre politician in a country which isn’t left of centre. Anyone who thinks Obama would be able to win a presidential election is living in a politically correct fantasyland. Hopefully the Dems will pick a contender (even Hilary the Ice-Woman) and not a light-weight media celebrity.Even a wooden eco-warrior like Al Gore would be preferable to a man who hasn’t got a clue…Britain has learned to its cost what happens when you get the latter as leader.
All in all, Obama has the tone and substance of a Blair…the prosecution rests
I’d not heard of him before so thanks, Ellee. I can’t see them voting for this man but it will be interesting, that’s for sure! I think it’s time for a woman president but I can’t bear the thought of the smug smirk on Bill’s face if he gets back into the White House as consort or whatever the term is.
Obama is a Chicago guy. Hillary grew up in Park Ridge, just outside Chicago. Right now, Obamamania is sweeping the City and the media here has practically acclaimed him the winner without any need for an election.
He’ll certainly be the darling of the ABC crowd (Anybody But Clinton) when he does go national — but can he survive the scrutiny? The mud-slinging? Hillary believes it’s her turn.
And I know the media is ga-ga over the idea of a “black” president. Let me ask you a different question: Can America elect a president from the North?
Think on it: Although the Bush family hails from Connecticut (and still summers in Maine), Bush pater et fils are Texans. Clinton — Arkansas. Carter — Georgia.
You have to go back to Ronald Reagan of California to find a candidate from a state that stayed loyal to the Union in the Civil War beating a southerner. But Southern California is hardly the frozen North (the present frost damage to the citrus crops notwithstanding).
Before Reagan, there was Richard Nixon — who was practicing law in New York after losing the gubernatorial race in California in 1962. But he scampered back to sunny California as the nominee — and his opponent in 1968 was Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota. In 1972 it was George McGovern of South Dakota. And of course there was Nixon’s (pretty overtly racist) “Southern Strategy).
Before Nixon — LBJ of Texas.
You have to go back to John Fitzgerald Kennedy of Massachusetts to find our last truly ‘Northern’ president. (Gerald Ford doesn’t count; although from Michigan, he was never elected.)
I met Obama once; I have nothing bad to say about him — although there is the Tony Rezko angle still to be fully explored. My wife thinks he sounds too good to be true. But when was the last time we could say that with a straight face about anyone?
If the Democrats want to win, they should pick a moderate from the South, probably someone with a military background. Not Hilary not Obama. Despite his age, I think John Mccain will be elected president in 2008. Personally, I would prefer to see Rudy Giuliani in the Oval Office…but the republican base and party grass roots are not keen on him. Alas.
Istanbul Tory seems to be promoting General Wes Clark. Don’t worry, he’s still suffering from Potomac Fever and hoping to run again. Send money soon, though — Hillary and Obama are tying up most of it already.
(And Clark was born in Chicago, too — we have a connection to everybody! — but lives in Little Rock, Arkansas.)
He must be in with a chance if he opposed the war from the outset, unless there are some dramatic improvements in the Iraq situation.
Unless the electors confuse his name with Osama.
Actually, I am not promoting General Wes Clarke. He has never held any elected office. But it has got to be a southerner. Mr Curmudgeon, what do you think of a Gore candidacy? He hasn’t completely and definitively ruled it out….
Ellee, finally David Miliband has published one of my comments on his blog. At long last.
The Sun has set on Al Gore. Thankfully. Even if he did invent the Internet (*cough*).
He’s a one note samba now, and he’s waaaaaaay off key. (Not wrong that there’s global climate change — the earth’s climate has changed dramatically over the eons — only that humans are entirely responsible for it and that we could stop it if we wanted to. Really? How did the Ice Ages happen without you, Professor Gore?)
If I write on an American issue, I always appreciate getting The Curmudgeon’s comment because he lives over there and knows how people feel, he doesn’t just read the headlines. As his wife says, maybe Obama is too good to be true. But then maybe he really is the next American leader, he is certainly making people sit up and take notice.
sadly I note in our discussion that many of our criticisms of Obama are equally applicable to DC.
Depends if condi stands…
I doubt very much that Obama will make it to the White House…this time around, anyway. I also doubt Hillary Clinton will be setting up home there again, either. I don’t believe the American people want another Clinton in the White House…and, what would she do with Bill, if this did occur?
Im not so sure Ellee. Im currently studying in america at the moment, and majority of people claim there will be a female president before a black president. Will be interesting to see the results though.
Yet I wonder.. Is Mr.Obama popular for the deeds he has accomplished or is it merely that he happens to be of African American Descent and in this politically correct day and age that seems to be a qualification by itself.. but again I am not familiar with Mr. Obama or his politics entirely..
Thanks for the link Ellee, he sounds quite good, lets face, he can’t do any worse than GW.
[…] American politicians have fully embraced the social media in the nomination contest for the next presidential election, they realise the importance of winning over sceptics, that they need to engage in open interaction to prove politicians are listening to the electorate and showing their “true” face. […]
[…] That is the claim made in today’s Times by Joe Trippi, the strategic guru who helped to drive Howard Dean to the brink of the Democratic nomination in 2004. He predicts that Barack Obama or another candidate will ride an even bigger wave across cyberspace and, perhaps, into the White House. […]
hey people… as a foreigner who feels (like 95% of foreigners) that the US is making the world a racist and money-minded (oil minded) and dangerous world I would love to see Obama in the white house… not only does he represents the best option for the US but also the best possible american president for the rest of the world… ask anyone outside the US and NO… no one wants the world to be trethened by another Republican president.. we really wish you americans to embrace peace and idealism not war and racism…
I just pray Good helps the rest of the world by bringing Obama to the white house
[…] believe I was the first political blogger in the UK to write about Barack Obama back in January 2007. Who could have guessed then that he would sensationally snatch the Democrat presidential […]