Now is the time for Obama

by Nick Clooney - Cincinnati Post

In this holiday season, Democrats are trying to decide if Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois is the gift their party has been waiting for, or just another sack of sticks and ashes.

One thing is certain: He has presidential hopefuls on both sides of the aisle checking their hole cards.

Obama is a genuine, up-from-the-grassroots phenomenon. On the wings of one spectacular speech, he has ignited the hopes of disillusioned voters from coast to coast. We haven't seen his like in a generation or more.

Whether that star-power can withstand the withering fire that will be directed at him from both political parties is a question still to be answered. But, for the moment, some tough old ward-heelers, veterans of Democratic defeats, are letting visions of sugar plums dance in their weary heads.

"We don't have red states, we don't have blue states, we just have red, white and blue states." Music. The kind we haven't heard in half a century.

Democrat hopefuls who have been waiting their turn and Republican stalwarts who are sure they have earned their chance are already lobbing grenades at this dangerous upstart.

"Nice fellow, but he has no experience."

Irrefutable. It was exactly the same charge leveled against the last senator to win the presidency, John F. Kennedy. It almost worked. Sen. Kennedy won one of the closest races in presidential history against a man who had a great deal of experience at many levels of government. Richard Nixon. Perhaps the memory of Mr. Nixon leaves voters no longer convinced that a lack of experience in Washington should be the deal breaker.