Texans for Obama

Texas turnout increases with Obama

The most widely read blog in Texas, the Burnt Orange Report, claims that down ballot Democrats will benefit with Sen. Obama creating excitement at the top of the ticket. 

Well that's cute. Then again, Gerald Daugherty should be watching out for himself here too as he's the next target for Travis Democrats. His district represents most all of Donna Howard and Valinda Bolton's districts.

Travis Democrats will turn out like crazy in 2008, especially if the nominee is someone like Obama. It's one of the reasons why we'll be targeting Mike McCaul in TX-10 as well because of increased turnout from this half of that district.

Run, Barack, Run

by Jack Beatty - Atlantic Monthly

In late September former Virginia Governor Mark Warner, billed as the "Un-Hillary" in a New York Times Magazine profile, was among the putative Democratic candidates to speak at Senator Tom Harkin’s annual "Steak Fry" held on the Warren County Fairgrounds in Indianola, Iowa. In October, Warner withdrew from the race. Two weekends ago Indiana Senator Evan Bayh, another likely Democratic contender for 2008, was one of two Democrats campaigning in New Hampshire. He nearly filled a living room in the small Upper Connecticut valley town of Cornish. On Saturday Bayh announced that he would not be running for president in ’08.

Warner said he was withdrawing from contention because he did not want his three young children to grow up in the White House nor be known for the rest of their lives as the "president’s daughters." No doubt he was being sincere. But his decision must also have been influenced by what he saw at the steak fry: Barack Obama in action, addressing a rapturous crowd to tumultuous applause, and then plunging into a sea of Iowans to shake hands, sign books, notebooks, and shirt-cuffs, pose in family pictures, and listen to the voices urging, "Run, Barack, run." Warner could not compete with that.

As for Evan Bayh, he was glimpsed Sunday morning sitting with two people in a Manchester coffee shop while Obama was drawing 900 to a book signing in Portsmouth. That afternoon, Obama spoke to 1,500 cheering Democrats in a Manchester hotel.Introducing the tall, lithe, handsome, deep-voiced, 45-year-old Obama to a crowd that had paid $25 a head to celebrate the party’s victories in the November elections, New Hampshire Governor John Lynch joked that the state Democratic committee had originally invited the Rolling Stones—but at the last minute decided that Obama would sell more tickets. "I have never seen anything like this in my 40 years of being active in politics," Jack Buckley, former mayor of Dover, gushed to the Boston Globe’s Scott Lehigh. "If I were Hillary, I would be more than a little concerned." Bayh was so concerned he quit the race.

Along with my wife, son, and some friends, I was part of that Manchester crowd. What we saw was political talent of a rare order. Presidential politics turn on personality, not "issues." Like an actor, a candidate must display qualities admired by the voters. The hardest quality to put across—and the most important—is authenticity. It’s impossible to define a priori, but you know authenticity when you see it. We saw it in Obama.

Obama–the Generational Challenger

by Gloria Borger - US News & World Report

There's an interesting race shaping up in 2008, and it's not just between a bunch of candidates. It's going to be a generational race–between someone who is probably too young to be considered a baby boomer, Barack Obama, and the rest of the field. While he may technically be considered of that generation, at 45, he really is too young. And in his book, he makes a point of saying that the old arguments–like Vietnam–are just old, and we need need to get beyond that. He does have a point.

So watch for Obama to run against Hillary not as a woman but as someone who is, well, old. Part of a generation that had its chance and, well, blew it. Someone who is smart and qualified but needs to move over. And should he get the nomination–and run against Republican John McCain–the argument will be even stronger. McCain, if he were to become president, would be 72 when taking office–older than Ronald Reagan was when he was first sworn in.

If the country is in the mood for change, the argument just might work. There is, however, that little question about experience in a post-9/11 world. As in, two years ago, Obama was an Illinois state senator–and now he thinks he's ready to be president? Ask his allies and they will tell you that the experienced guys–like Cheney and Rumsfeld–didn't exactly cover themselves in glory. So why not try a new guy with a fresh approach?

It's a game plan.  Passing the torch does have a certain ring to it.

Letters to the editor supporting Sen. Obama

Apparently, the Wisconsin State Journal is out of touch with its readers.  These letters to the editor all dispute the editorial's claim that Sen. Obama lacks the necessary experience for the White House.

Little experience, but good leadership skills

I was surprised at your position in the State Journal's Dec. 14 editorial that Barack Obama didn't have the experience to be president. Compared to whom?

Remember, George W. Bush was a one-term governor of a state with a weak executive. President Bush had hardly traveled outside of the country before becoming president.

To quote what others have said about Obama, he's an inspiring speaker, intelligent, and a hard worker. These three traits can go a long way toward making someone a strong leader. Also, when was the last time a really experienced U.S. senator won the presidency?

- Derek Popp, Mount Horeb

Inexperience won't hold Obama back   

Those who think that U.S. Sen. Barack Obama's political inexperience will preclude him from having a viable chance of becoming president should take a closer look at history.

Presidents Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush each were thought to lack the foreign policy credentials necessary for the job when they sought the presidency. Each ran during times of relative calm in our nation's history: 1976, 1980, 1992 and 2000. And despite running against more experienced opponents in their respective primaries and general elections, each won the presidency.

History has shown that inexperienced candidates can, and often do, make successful campaigns for the nation's highest office. In fact, it has been quite some time since the less politically experienced candidate has lost a presidential election in relatively stable election years.

If history is any guide, political inexperience will not prove to be a limitation to Obama's political ambitions.

- Ryan Farrell, Middleton

Obama the anti-Bush

By Michael Tomasky - LA Times

Candidates in 2008 will trumpet their differences with the president, but no one is more different than Barack Obama.

SHOULD HE or shouldn't he? Everyone, it seems, has an opinion about whether 2008 is the right time for Barack Obama to throw his Bears cap (famously donned during that "Monday Night Football" set piece) into the ring. Even in the unscientific realm of political punditry, rarely have assertions so plainly unprovable been delivered with such unyielding certitude.

He's too young; no, quite the contrary, he'll be too old if he waits. He needs more Senate experience, some legislation to his name; nonsense — years of service in the Senate are a negative, not a positive (just ask John Kerry). He doesn't stand for anything; pshaw — he stands for a great deal simply by being who he is.

All these claims have to do with Obama himself. But there is another factor, one that argues for an Obama candidacy that has nothing to do with Obama and everything to do with George W. Bush. I call it the Attraction of the Opposite.

The most reliable guide to presidential winners over the last quarter of a century is not ideology or charisma or any of the other established factors. It is instead what we might call character typology. That is, after four (or especially eight) years of one type of person, American voters tend to turn their affections toward someone who is that person's   opposite — someone whose personality and affect provide a direct contrast to the fellow who's leaving office, who has something the other guy lacked.

Obama plays golf on Waimanalo course

As a patriotic, sports-loving American, I'm proud that I learned the sport of golf from my father and grandfather.  Apparently, Sen. Obama loves the sport too.  Thus, despite the silly right-wing attacks on Sen. Obama's unique name, it turns out that he is a real sports-loving American after all. 

Maybe someday Sen. Obama will create a raffle in which his supporters can play a round of golf with him.  That would be awesome!

From the Associated Press:

Democratic U-S Senator Barack Obama, who's mulling a presidential bid, played golf with friends at an Oahu golf course this afternoon.
 
Honolulu television station K-I-T-V reported that Obama visited the Olomana Golf Links in Waimanalo for at least the second time in four days.
 
He wore a gray polo shirt, white shorts, sunglasses and a white baseball hat.

Swift-Boating Obama: Right-Wing Pundit Questions Senator's "Loyalty" to America

from Media Matters:

Washington, D.C. -- Taking the current media focus on Sen. Barack Obama's (D-IL) middle name a step further, right-wing pundit and regular MSNBC guest, Debbie Schlussel argued that because Obama's middle name is Hussein and the fact that his late father was of Muslim descent, Obama's "loyalties" must be called into question. In her December 18 column headlined "Barack Hussein Obama: Once a Muslim, Always A Muslim," Schlussel asked: Is this "a man we want as President when we are fighting the war of our lives against Islam? Where will his loyalties be?" She ended her column by asking if Obama becoming vice president instead would be acceptable. Answering her own question, she wrote: "NO WAY, JOSE ... Or, is that, HUSSEIN?"

Schlussel's column fits into a larger pattern in the recent media coverage and commentary regarding Obama. Indeed, like Schlussel -- who has repeatedly appeared on MSNBC in the past -- numerous media figures have gone out of their way to highlight Obama's middle name in recent weeks.

by John Whiteside - Houston Chronicle blogs:

For those of us who cling to the belief that one of our nation's great strengths is that our identity is based on our shared belief in liberty, opportunity, and the importance of an individual's personal qualities over the blood that runs through his or her veins, Schlussel's column is nothing more than a stomach-wrenching bit of trash.

It's interesting, though; Obama and Schlussel have some things in common. They are both Americans. They both are members of minority groups in the United States. And both of them belong to groups that have, in fairly recent history, suffered discrimination and worse both here and abroad.

The difference, of course, is that Obama seems to understand what it means to be an American, and why living up to the ideals of that heritage can help us prevent some of the horrors of the past. Schlussel, on the other hand, seems more interested in recreating them - as long as she's on the side running things.

How sad that someone could grow up in this country and understand so little about its promise to its people. 

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.

Obama's Secret Weapon

From the New York Observer:

Alright, this is admittedly slightly off-topic, but I wanted to return to something I read not long ago, during Barack Obama's triumphant "book tour" through the vital publishing state of New Hampshire. In John Dickerson's Slate dispatch from the trail, he writes that:

It's easy to see why New Hampshire Democrats were in a frenzy over Obama. He is a winning presence in a room. He is stylish in his uniform of white shirt, no tie, and dark blazer. He carries himself with the weightless self-possession men's magazines achieve only by employing a team of stylists and wardrobe artists. Even his left-handed signature is elegant--a B and an O connected by confident slashes. If he really were a rock star, he'd have it etched into the side of his private plane.

Did you catch the key phrase in that paragraph? No, it wasn't "New Hampshire" or "frenzy" of "confident." It was left-handed.

Hear me out on this one. I admit to being a little biased, being of inclined to the sinister side myself. But here are the facts: In my lifetime (that is, since the advent of Gerald Ford), there have been six United States presidents. According to various lefty advocacy sites--there are a surprisingly large number of them--four of those six presidents have been southpaws. In the 1992 election, in fact, all three candidates were left handed. I'm not sure about the cognitive science, but I have to say, it sounds like a trend--maybe even a cabal. (And who knows how many other of our presidents were born lefty-inclined, back in the days when parents used to cruelly "cure" their children of the outre tendency?)

Much has been written about whether Obama's status as a member of minority ethnic group could keep him from the presidency. But could it be that his status as another minority--a small but influential society of like-handed individuals, living almost unnoticed among you--could cancel out the disadvantage?

Then again, maybe Republicans will attack him as just another left-winger.

--Andrew Rice

                           

Rare Daley move: Endorses Obama for primary

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

December 20, 2006 - By Fran Spielman

Mayor Daley has decided to abandon his long-standing tradition of remaining neutral in Democratic primaries and endorse Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton in the 2008 presidential race, City Hall sources said Tuesday.

"Here you have not only an Illinoisan, but a Chicagoan who is a major contender for the highest office in the land. . . . When in our history have we ever had a favorite son this close to [the White House]? Why not get on board early?" said a Daley confidant, who asked to remain unnamed. "Hillary Clinton has been a great senator, a wonderful civic leader. But logic dictates that a Chicago mayor would be behind the Chicagoan who has taken the world by storm. Beyond that, this man has tremendous potential. The world sees that. It stands to reason that the mayor sees it."

Daley's early endorsement will mark the second time in 17 years he has taken such a stand before Democratic primary voters have made their choice.

In January 1998, he endorsed Vice President Al Gore with the presidential vote nearly two years away. Daley's brother Bill Daley, then U.S. Commerce secretary, later became Gore campaign chairman.