Reply #40: He was extremely junior to be considered for President,

[karynnj]

but I would assume that this took place in 2006. (I did not see a time frame in the excerpts). The first bill that passed the Senate in 2006 was the ethics bill. Obama was involved with some of the amendments that added some teeth with regards to lobbyists. He was able to get agreement on this OVER Chuck Schumer's adamant objections. This is really a pretty amazing thing for a freshman Senator to have done - and the fact that it was a high road effort appealing to Senators better angels, not their campaign financing accounts is remarkable.

I would assume that that in conjunction with the fact that the speech made him a star fast track Senator were reasons he was considered. It might also have been the fact that they had decided that they did not want Hillary. Given the Hillary machine, they needed a candidate, who had enough teflon to deflect the attacks that would come fast and furious once the candidate was seen as a threat and who might, while building support, almost be under the radar. We all looked at the possibilities in 2005 and 2006 here. Many of us, who did not want Hillary could not find a candidate they could get excited about.

Dodd, Richardson and Biden, all men with excellent resumes did not engender any real enthusiasm. Clark was pretty much a small internet favorite, who had imploded very quickly in 2004. The Senators knew how Edwards was in the general election in 2004 and likely were not amused by his polemics against the Congress in 2005. That leaves Gore and Kerry, both incredibly accomplished men with proven integrity and character.

Gore actually won 2000 and he had returned to warn the country of the wrong path they had taken. Gore, who was 100% right, was smeared. He had been Clinton's VP and a race between him and Clinton would likely have been incredibly nasty and might have damaged the party. It also would have been nasty from the minute he showed interest to the election. From various comments, there was no way Gore wanted to put his family through that again.

Kerry, nearly won in 2004, acted as if he wanted to run again and he had by 2006 positioned himself perfectly on the issues. As a someone who thinks Kerry could have been our best leader, he could not either gain support under the radar (as he did in 2004) and he was not one of the Teflon people and there was no one the media was less friendly to. Even if Kerry did Clinton, he would bear the scars of the Rove campaign against him in 2004 AND everything the Clintons would hit him with. Although his family supported him running if he wanted to, it would have been very hard for them to endure what likely would have been another one and a half to two years as bad as the worst of the swiftboating in 2004. (Note that HRC's stab in the back comment on the "joke" took the Republican line ignoring Kerry's more than 3 decades of helping vets and soldiers.)

If what Reid and others were looking for was someone who was a new face, who had leadership skills, integrity, personality and charisma, there really was not a long list of people available.