<p>And Golani, what DON’T you like…besides that he is a Democrat?</p>
<p>He hasnt done anything. He is a nice charasmatic guy, great! But what does he do? Nothing. So back to my question what do you like about him as a lawmaker. What piece of legislation did he introduce that u really liked, and why? I am just curious how people feel about his actual job part of being a senator</p>
<p>He is bringing apathetic voters back to involvement in the political process & raising the standards for politicians- how can you argue with that?</p>
<p>On Larry King’s post-game wrap, even crotchety Bob Dole smiled his lopsided smile. “I gave him an A,” Dole said, looking positively giddy. Obama had managed to exceed even the supremely high expectations for his speech with the most deft use of his race that any politician has managed in a long time. Masterfully, Obama had used race to unite.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0411.wallace-wells.html[/url]”>http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0411.wallace-wells.html</a></p>
<p>Where…who are these apathetic votes, what standards has he raised for politicans. What politicals have had their standards raised? foley, clintons, delay?</p>
<p>golani,
It doesn’t matter what piece of legislation he has supported. In fact that is the very trouble that most Senators have when running for President. Everyone looks at their capacity to initiate legislation as if that is the sole arbiter of their ability to lead - far from it in my book. I believe the more important point is that he has the intellectual and emotional capacity to actually bring both parties together and think about the problems that are facing us as a nation in a different light.</p>
<p>Good so we have established Barack Obama is charasmatic, so is Forrest Gump, that would not neccesarily make him a great president. A president should have the capacity to lead and to think right and to have good ideas. So again i am curious, does no one like barack obama’s ideas because there opportunity has been there for someone to tell me a certain policy idea of his they like or some piece of legislation he introduced that they think is right? anyone?</p>
<p>This is an excerpt from Frank Rich in the NYtimes:
</p>
<p>So thats what you like about him? his stance on iraq? thats good thats a good start u are the first person who has mentioned something “real and substantial” they like about obama</p>
<p>I like Obama a lot, but the US Senate is a tough platform on which to run for President. A sitting senator successfully getting elected president has happened only twice in the entire history of the republic: Warren Harding and John Kennedy. </p>
<p>It’s much better to be a governor if you want to run for president. Governors have an administrative record they can brag about, and they don’t have all those hundreds and hundreds legislative votes that can come back to haunt them. Among recent presidents: GW Bush, Clinton, Reagan, Carter: governors all.</p>
<p>Fine, either way, my point is Obama has done nothing to qualify himself as president either than being very charismatic and likeable</p>
<p>And what had Bush done to qualify himself, besides ruin everything he ever touched (businesses, etc)?</p>
<p>Obama is bright, he is driven, and a go getter. He is a junior senator, and has plenty of time.</p>
<p>good, look i am not comparing barack obama to anyone. Obama is obv a very smart person. And you are right he has plenty of time. Lets wait and see and then make judgements. You have done nothing to defend Obama. You essentially are afraid to admit the truth that Obama simply hasnt accomplished anything yet. When he does we will discuss him again. And so he is driven and go getter, where has he driven to and what has he gotten?</p>
<p>I am in the “wait and see” category.</p>
<p>I like how he is trying to bridge the large divides, trying to include people of faith, moderates, those who care about core ideas of education and health care. He is sincere and certainly seems honest (which will probably be corrupted in Washington, as they all are).</p>
<p>Let’s see what happens with Obama. I am not on his campaign committee for 2008, so have no horse in this race either. I am just watching and waiting to see how he unfolds, since he has great promise as a leader.</p>
<p>As a speaker and as a persona he has great promise as a leader, but we dont no if he has what it takes to be leader in what counts yet</p>
<p>FDR smoked, fercrissakes.</p>
<p>^^Yeah, and so did a large majority of adults back then. Those were different times. Today smoking has a much different significance, both socially and medically, from what it did then.</p>
<p>I was impressed by his grassroots efforts to organize the poor in Chicago public housing (to improve their living conditions) back before he went to Harvard Law. He had a passion for them – and a belief that through their own efforts their future could be better – that seemed not only genuine, but selfless and stubborn and Don Quixotesque. (at least that’s what I picked up from his memoir, which doesn’t really hold back things that might portray him in a somewhat negative light). I like the fact that he has raised himself up from nothing much, based on his intelligence and talent and hard work, which reminds me of what is possible in this country and in this time. I like also that he chose an African-American woman as his mate. It just makes me happy, don’t know why. (She is incredibly gorgeous and intelligent in her own right, so he’s lucky to have her!) He seems sincere, not calculating. He is a wonderful writer and speaker, resonating optimism and, yeah, hope. He’s also intelligent and good-looking and self-effacing. And he has a sense of humor.</p>
<p>The man cannot even give up cigarettes, which will probably kill him, and his plan to fix Iraq is to announce a “date certain” by next year with redeployment into surrounding middle east bases - I’m sure that will cool tensions down</p>
<p>In the Land of Oz no doubt.</p>
<p>To the OP: you try quitting when you’ve got one of the most stressful jobs around!</p>
<p>I agree, it’s always best not to start, but seriously: campaign schedule, then legislative duties. He basically hasn’t taken it easy for the last decade or so.</p>
<p>I would add (re another thread):</p>
<p>You know you are a complete and total idiot–if to your uppity credit not a redneck–if…</p>
<p>You believe it is OK for the leader of the free-world to encourage his interns to bow and perform oral-sex on his scepter, but that it would be beyond the pale for you to endorse a candidate that satisfies his untoward sense of oral gratification through smoking cigarettes…that is, without coercing others to smoke it for him…it is simply too much for the moral-constitution of the PC bloviater to take and you are, therefore, admittedly an idiot (if perhaps not a complete idiotic hypocrite). </p>
<p>To wit:
I remember hearing Shawn Colvin (a female folkish-singer) being interviewed on Public Radio. She confessed that she grew up idolizing the grand dame of folk/jazz, Joni Mitchell. She was asked by the female interviewer if she ever had the opportunity to go on stage with Joni and she said she had not, but that she had the incredible opportunity to record her first album in Joni Mitchell’s home studio: living with her in her home for two weeks!</p>
<p>The public radio interviewer, an otherwise moral-libertine-liberal, replied, “you must have been very torn!”
The folk singer, Colvin, was clearly dumbfounded by her remark and asked, “…what do you mean by ‘torn’, it was like a dream come true”</p>
<p>The interviewer interjected:
“but…Joni Mitchell smokes cigarettes!!”</p>
<p>…ah, the high-minded tolerance of the morals-police.</p>