Category: Barack Obama

A reader writes:

Your article on Barack Obama helped crystallized so much of my current thoughts (and fears) around this election. I live in an exceedingly liberal place (Seattle) where stark bumper stickers with the message "01/20/09" are common.  The message implies, Just Hang On. But what are we hanging on for? 

A Hillary Clinton presidency would certainly moderate the policy platform in Washington.  But as you point out, it would wildly inflame the so-called "Culture Wars".  And then there is the horrible thought … what could be worse than another four years of George Bush? It might very well be Rudy Giuliani.  And, how do we get religious conservatives to vote for a Giuliani? Run him against Hillary.

Like most people, my concerns about Barack Obama stemmed primarily from his relatively junior standing as a national political leader. After reading your article and looking at the logic and timing of his candidacy, I’m more than swayed.  I now have a new bumper sticker.  Obama ’08.

She pulls them in:

"It may be the biggest crowd for a political candidate in South Carolina’s history," said Jack Bass, a political scientist at College of Charleston.

Eisenhower was close in 1952.

The new Obama ad in Iowa. He’s pulling even with Clinton in South Carolina. The reason? African-Americans are switching – perhaps because they sense that he is indeed electable:

Obama’s showing has improved significantly among black voters. He now attracts 51% of the African-American vote in South Carolina while Clinton picks up just 27%. A month ago, the candidates were even in this important constituency (Obama 46%, Clinton 45%). There is virtually no movement among white voters in the state–Clinton now earns 43% of the white vote, Edwards 22%, and Obama 17%.

ABC says her 35 percent is more solid than Obama’s 29 – but the movement is all in his direction.

A Clinton campaign county chair in Iowa is booted after he/she sent out the notorious email saying Obama is a Muslim. A Kosser blew the whistle:

Over the past week or so, I have received two of the most hateful hit pieces on Obama parroting right wing talking points. One was forwarded to me from a Clinton county chair. The other was from a person who claimed to be a former Obama supporter, but a little work with Google revealed she had been posting pro-Clinton comments for several months on websites covering the campaign.

They both repeat the Obama/Osama crap, andand the "madrassa" charges. And there is the conclusion that Obama is a mole whose intention is to make a Muslim revolution in the US.

This is getting uglier. This kind of Rovian slime should hurt those who throw it around. Especially in Iowa.

You know Clinton’s campaign is in trouble when the Des Moines Register is running a cartoon like this from Brian Duffy:

As Mickey notes:

Hillary in fightback mode is, so far, not a pleasant sight …

A spirited and largely persuasive defense of his proposal against the Clinton-Krugman assault.

A reader writes:

Barack Obama was writing essays in kindergarten? Heck, I am not sure I could even write in kindergarten, let alone an essay. My support of him is only increased by this revelation.

Andrew: I was one of the ones who made fun of your obsession with HRC (you looked insane on Bill Maher) so let me be the first to say it: uh, ok, you were right.

Questions Bruce doesn’t quite answer:

What does it say about the young Obama that he was well-nigh obsessed with his vain braggart of an absentee father but trivialized his mother’s accomplishments? What does it mean that he himself plainly can’t see that his father comes off in these pages as a world-class jerk and his mother as a woman of admirable self-discipline and quiet achievement? What does it mean that throughout his account of his work as a community organizer in Chicago, Obama himself is in sharp focus while the underprivileged folks he’s supposedly trying to help are hazy figures in the distant background?

When Clintons attack, it’s time to take notes. David Corn has some Clinton favor here:

"They really, really hate Obama," one Democratic operative unaffiliated with any campaign, tells me. "They can’t stand him. They talk about him as if he’s worse than Bush." What do they hate about him? After all, there aren’t a lot of deep policy differences between the two, and he hasn’t gone for the jugular during the campaign. "It’s his presumptuousness," this operative says. "That he thinks he can deny her the nomination. Who is he to try to do that?" You mean, he’s, uh, uppity? "Yes." A senior House Democratic aide notes, "The Clinton people are going nuts in how much they hate him. But the problem is their narrative has gone beyond the plausible."

How dare anyone deny the Queen Consort her coronation? I guess Mrs Nice Guy is now retiring.