Everyone's talking about Sen. Barack Obama. There's not enough time in the day to post all the articles written about Obama, but here's a few stories for your Sunday reading...
The Obama revolution - The Observer
He is charismatic, confident and and is starting to change the face of American politics by reaching out across party lines to Democrats and Republicans. But can the Illinois senator, who is set to announce his presidential candidacy this week, go the distance?
The Obama revolution is sweeping through the Democratic party. It
has transformed the competition for the 2008 nomination, which had
previously been seen as a race between Clinton and the rest. And no
candidate has been rocked as much as Clinton, now struggling to
readjust her tactics. 'He's the golden boy. He's a rock star of
politics. That has changed the Democratic race,' said Shaun Bowler, a
political scientist at the University of California Riverside.
But
Obama clearly wants to change, not just his party but his country too.
He wants to spread the Obama revolution out across America, to appeal
in the manner of a John F Kennedy or Franklin D Roosevelt. 'Our fight
is not with each other,' he said 'I would assert it is not even with
the other party. It is cynicism that we fight against.' And Obama might
just have brought optimism back to American politics.
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by Josh Rosenau - Thoughts from Kansas
Will Barack Obama be the next President? Maybe. Not only could we do
worse, we already have. He has the rare ability to do the right thing
in the right way, and to show people that there is a better path on
many issues. I'm not yet sold on his energy plan, which I think lacks
the zest that this Iraq plan shows. But the Obama-McCain plan seems to
be the front-runner in the Senate, leaving open the possibility that
the two Presidential nominees will be working to advance their
co-sponsored legislation even as they fight each other on the campaign
trail. It should be interesting.
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Gay politicos impressed by Edwards, Obama - Washington Blade
Just weeks into their presidential campaigns, former Sen. John
Edwards (D-N.C.) and Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) are impressing some
political observers for their handling of gay rights issues.
Democratic National Committee GLBT Caucus Chair Rick Stafford and
other politicos said Edwards and Obama have quickly outshined a crowded
field of other White House hopefuls because they’re prepared to
sincerely discuss gay issues.
Stafford said such genuineness is a key quality that many other
candidates — including top Democratic contender Sen. Hillary Clinton
(D-N.Y.) — have yet to demonstrate.
Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese noted that Republican
contender Sen. John McCain has alternately been quoted as saying he
supports and opposes gay marriage.
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Obama stands in mainstream, as Biden trips - Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Joe Biden, veteran senator from Delaware, had hoped for a big splash when he rolled out his campaign for the Democratic nomination for the presidency. He got one, and he's still drying himself off. Biden has spent the last several days paying penance for remarks he made about another Democratic contender, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois.
You've probably heard something of the controversy by now. Asked about Obama, Biden praised him as "the first mainstream African-American" seeking the presidency. He also described Obama as "articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy." Biden's not an idiot — or patently inarticulate, like President Bush — so he must have known he'd just said something dumb.
So Obama has the Jack
Kennedy problem — in blackface. (To be elected the first Catholic
president in 1960, Kennedy had first to reassure American voters he
would not take orders from the pope.) I'm confident Obama can handle
it. As can we.
In 1972, Shirley Chisholm, a Democratic congresswoman from New York,
became the first black person to make a bid for the presidency from a
major party. In 1984, Jesse Jackson drew ecstatic support from black
voters in the Democratic primaries when he sought the nomination. (Some
of my older relatives, knowing he could not win the primary, pledged to
vote for him anyway, fearing they might never again get the chance to
vote for a black candidate for the presidency.)
We've come a long way since then. Obama's campaign will show us just how far.
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Sharpton not letting Biden off hook for Obama remark - Associated Press
Civil rights activist Al Sharpton took Sen. Joe Biden to task Thursday for calling Democratic Sen. Barack Obama "articulate" and "clean," questioning how the description reflects on other blacks.
Mr. Biden, still trying to deal with the fallout from his remarks, spoke by telephone on Mr. Sharpton's radio show. The Delaware lawmaker spent his first day as an official presidential candidate Wednesday explaining his statement that Mr. Obama is "the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean."
Mr. Biden told Mr. Sharpton he regretted the comments and said he hadn't meant to disparage other blacks who had run for president in the past, including Mr. Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and the late Shirley Chisholm, a New York representative who sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 1972.
But Mr. Sharpton told Mr. Biden: "A lot of people took it from you that because [Mr. Obama] is Harvard-trained, that people don't see someone as good and clean unless they are less connected to the struggle of the African-American community."
Mr. Sharpton also compared the gaffe to former Virginia Sen. George Allen's use of a racial slur against an Indian-American man last summer – a controversy that was widely believed to have cost Mr. Allen re-election.
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Barack is like Clinton; Hillary is like Gore - Wichita Eagle
“The truly Clintonian figure running for the Democratic nomination is Barack Obama,” Ruth Marcus wrote in a commentary in Friday’s Opinion pages. “The senator from Illinois, it’s struck me lately, seems in many ways more like Bill Clinton than does the senator from New York.”
Marcus noted the superficial similarities, such as their humble backgrounds and absent fathers. But Obama is most like Bill Clinton in his ability and desire to find the middle on issues and in his amazing people skills.
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Bronx politicians line up for Barack Obama - New York Business
Bronx Assemblyman Jose Rivera and Borough President Adolfo Carrion are
planning an event for presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.,
a direct slap at Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.
A source
close to Mr. Carrion says Ms. Clinton always calls to march with him in
the Puerto Rican Day parade but has never sat down to hear his thoughts
on policy, urban issues, Latino affairs and working together. By
contrast, Mr. Obama met with Mr. Carrion last February to discuss his
concerns.
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Fox News Owes Barack Obama An Apology - American Chronicle
Media critics, pundits, outraged Democrats and concerned citizens
have long argued that Fox News is the semi-official propaganda arm of
the Bush Administration. Conservatives respond that liberals are just
jealous, because Fox News is the most popular cable news outlet.
But now Fox News has done something so egregious that they should change their motto to: We distort, you decide.
Insight, an insignificant publication, reported that as a youngster,
Barack Obama, attended a madrassah. Fox News ran with the story; the
media giant was more than eager to derail the presidential ambitions of
Obama.
The evocative word “madrassah” conjures up images of a young Obama
mindlessly reciting verses from the Koran and pledging jihad against
the United States.
Obama is an avowed Christian and the story about him attending a
madrassah is patently false. The school in question, was not a
madrassah, but a learning institution that accepts students of all
faiths.
The apologists for Fox News should be ashamed for propping up such a
biased media organization. If you want “fair and balanced” news, turn
on CNN or MSNBC.
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A smear with a happy ending - Philadelpia Inquirer
Consider this list: John Kerry didn't earn his Vietnam medals. He
had an affair with a young reporter. Al Gore claimed he invented the
internet. Clinton staffers "trashed" the White House and stole items
from Air Force One. Bill Clinton held up traffic at LAX airport so he
could get a haircut.
Every one of the stories on this list was proven false. Yet every
one was trumpeted in the right-wing media, then repeated by the
mainstream media until people came to believe them. Each one played on
a character attack Republicans were making on Democrats and seemed to
offer shocking proof that the character attack was true.
The news media did the right thing this time, shooting down the
slander before it spread too far. But as the 2008 campaign heats up, we
can be sure of one thing: This won't be the last time the right wing
tries to peddle a phony smear against Democratic candidates. It'll be
up to journalists to determine the truth, and call lies by their name.
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Obama confirms location of big announcement - St. Louis Post-Dispatch
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — U.S. Sen. Barack Obama's office announced Wednesday that his Feb. 10 presidential campaign announcement in Springfield will be conducted at the Old State Capitol, the building where Abraham Lincoln delivered his famous "House Divided" speech.
The Illinois Democrat last month set up an exploratory committee and said he would announce in February whether he will run for president. He had revealed the date and city of the announcement but didn't confirm before now that the event would be conducted at the limestone Greek Revival building that served as Illinois' state Capitol between 1837 and 1888.
The event will begin at 9 a.m. Feb. 10 at the building at South Sixth and East Adams streets. It will be free and open to the public.
Lincoln delivered his "House Divided" speech in the building in 1858, warning that "this government cannot endure permanently half-slave and half-free."
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Barack Obama gets Hollywood behind him - The First Post
Hollywood knows a star when it
sees one and Tinseltown's biggest liberal names seem almost speechless
with excitement as Obama begins his presidential campaign. Halle Berry
says she'll "collect paper cups off the ground to make his pathway
clear", while George Clooney's publicist says that "George is a huge
supporter and fan of Barack, as well as a friend."
Oprah
Winfrey, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Oliver Stone have also come out
for Obama. "He has achieved rock-star status quickly," says Democrat
strategist Bill Carrick.
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Obama's international background an asset, not a flaw - San Jose Mercury News
Anyone who has followed the U.S. presidential race knows that Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, if he runs and wins, will be the first African-American to live in the White House. Few know that, if that happens, he will also become the first U.S. president to have lived in Indonesia as a child and to have had an Indonesian stepfather.
Until now, this bit of biography might have mattered only to fans of political trivia. But elements of the conservative press have made an issue of Obama's links to Indonesia by insinuating that during his time there he might have absorbed radical Islamist ideas at a Muslim school.
Official representatives for Obama and Clinton, respectively, quickly denied the allegation as ``completely false'' and ``an obvious right-wing hit job.'' But not before the charge had been repeated by Fox News and debated in the blogosphere.
Should we be glad that this smear has been so quickly put to rest, and move on? Yes. But not before noting -- and regretting -- an irony: Precisely when tides of disregard for the United States and its policies are sweeping the world, when Americans more than ever before need to understand Muslim societies, American fears of Islam are being evoked and stoked.
Far from being seen as a detriment to his presidential candidacy, Obama's prior exposure to a foreign culture should be counted as an asset.
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Obama Steps Up on Iraq - The Nation
"[N]o amount of American soldiers can solve the political differences at the heart of somebody else's civil war," Barack Obama said yesterday.
With his latest announcement on Iraq, Obama can now be considered the major anti-war candidate.
Obama's move could be devastating to John Edwards. Edwards has enjoyed greater netroots and (arguably) overall grassroots left support than Obama due to his economic populism and call for 40,000 to 50,000 troops to come home. But now Obama has become the first top-tier candidate to set a definite timeline for the withdrawal of the troops. And let's not forget this not-so-small fact-- he's also the only major candidate who opposed the war from the get-go.
Kos is impressed:
This isn't a wussy "stop the escalation" measure, nor some half-measure like "withdraw some troops but not all" (which appears to be the Edwards position).
Even Sirota is pleased, and that's saying something:
The fact that he's doing this is a big deal, and he should be congratulated.
Some pundits will call Obama's move a "gamble," but it seems like common sense to me. After all, American voters made it clear in 2006 that they wanted a real change in Iraq, not Stay-the-Course Lite and certainly not Stay-the-Course On Steroids.
