Barack Obama in this week's Rolling Stone - GOOD Article

[Laurab]

Sorry if this is a dupe - I did a search and didn't see it:

"No candidate since Robert F. Kennedy has sparked as much campaign-trail heat as Barack Obama. But can the one-term senator craft a platform to match his charisma?"


http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/13390609/campaign_08_the_radical_roots_of_barack_obama/

Edited to add my favorite line:

" Listening to a bloviating colleague at his first meeting of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Obama slipped a three-word note to a member of his staff: "Shoot. Me. Now."

[Laurab]

1. I was laughing trying to figure out which "bloviating colleague"

there are so many....

[BeyondGeography]

2. My money is on Biden

[Laurab]

3. He was my first thought, too

I'm ashamed to say - but then the repukes do bloviate quite well, too!

[Eurobabe]

16. Bloviating seems to be the word of the Month

:hi:

[Laurab]

4. Shameless kick .....n/t

[flpoljunkie]

5. A very well written and moving profile--particularly the last paragraphs on Obama's Africa visit

I also found this part about what he accomplished in the Illinois Senate most interesting...

"But the bottom line is pretty much everybody I know had a high opinion of him, Republican or Democrat. In this state it's hard for anyone to get along, and even though he was very liberal, he was able to pass a hell of a lot of bills."

Many of the stands Obama took were pretty radical for a candidate who would end up aiming for national office. He led an ambitious but failed effort to provide health care for every citizen of Illinois, fought against predatory lending practices and wrote a bill making Illinois the first state to require police to tape their interrogations of murder suspects. But in 2003, when Obama began to run for the U.S. Senate, his legislative track record wasn't enough to get him elected. He was one of seven Democrats in the field, third or fourth on name recognition and even farther behind in funds. He barely stood a chance.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/13390609/campaign_08_the_radical_roots_of_barack_obama/6

[DeepModem Mom]

6. A great article -- thanks! nt

[beaconess]

7. Great story - it has many interesting insights I haven't seen before

One of my favorites:

In other politicians, charisma often seems like compensation for some deeper, irreducible need: Bill Clinton comes so close, and listens so closely, because he wants to be hugged; George Bush slaps backs and gives his best friends nicknames because he, the draft-dodging son of a fighter pilot, needs to be the manliest creature in the room. With Obama, the charisma seems to stem from a remarkable ease with himself. When Frank Luntz, the conservative political consultant, walked into the young senator's office for the first time, Obama sat on the couch and gestured for Luntz to take the big, formal chair behind the desk. "I've been in many, many senators' offices, and never once have I been offered the senator's chair," Luntz says. "I asked him what he was doing, and he said, 'If I knew you any better, I'd be lying down.' What he was saying was that he was so comfortable with who he was, there was no need for any pretense or power trips."

:-)

[Laurab]

8. Thanks - I actually had a lot of favorites

I read it last night, and was really quite impressed with the man. I know little about him (this helped quite a bit), but anyone who turns down big money to do good things scores quite a few points with me.

It's really far too early to make a choice, and I'm still hoping a couple of others enter the race, but I know who I DON'T want to vote for thus far....Obama is the only one I can see voting for in a primary at this point in time. And if they keep moving the primaries up, we may have to decide sooner than we think...

[City Lights]

9. K&R eom

[never cry wolf]

10. K&R, thanks for posting...... n/t

[pnorman]

11. I'm reading it this very minute.

I didn't realize it was already on-line.

I'd vote for him if necessary, but I'd far prefer an avowedly populist candidate. But the trouble is that Bush has come pretty close to DESTROYING the Presidency, and for a long time to come. It isn't all that important now to me. I have my eyes on Congress to straighten things out. (And the people in the street)

pnorman

[PATRICK]

12. Kennedy had his problems

which he over compensated for with a relentless exhausting and brilliant tactical campaign utilizing his talented clan. What JFK did to poor Humphrey won't likely happen this time. Some parity of traditional campaign structures has leveled that advantage. Big money TV is the key, however, and Barack can swamp Hillary with image alone. Too easy in a way. Leviathans based on TV commercials as a substitute for getting one's hands in the political soil.

I think unease will grow, not make Obama look great by comparison, as each media clash contrasts these two images. Any unease, any recognition of negatives of weakness, of writing off negative impacts and surrendering percentages to the salmonella ham sandwich GOP will madden a twice betrayed democratic primary electorate. Though each of our candidates in and of themselves and in their values and promise is messianic compared to any conceivable GOP ringwraith, the support of the primary voter is nervous and demanding. Very. LAST time they bluntly wanted a solid winner. This time they want to add on, not subtract, charisma, and regional hopes, and coattails, and populism and boldness.

If Obama floats above this and balloons his charisma and youth at the expense of the range of basic voter desires he will have sold his possibilities short and neglected his weaknesses. It is the voter who has the coldest desire, the most burning passion to win and win big and win with the truth. Compared to the miasma and frustration of the Eisenhower years this season will produce voters with vastly more fire and savvy than the most ambitious candidates. Even JFK would have gotten a stern eye this time around and for all the right reasons.

People who start glomming on to the mantles of past, fondly remembered legends, reduce their connection to the present and will receive very little from the heritage of the past. The people, not the laughably disgusting mainstream opinion brokers will shape their candidate or have to prop up one who is not up to their real desire. The mandate could be shoved aside as it is for reforms the people naturally want and the news that by and large they are denied. Strange that in this fertile political field no one has the eye of political opportunity in all its depth and possibility?

[Laurab]

13. The Kennedy comparison was Rolling Stone's not Obama's

I think time will tell if there is substance behind the image - to me, it looks as though there is, but who knows.

Hopefully he will take away Hillary's "coronation" at the very least - I am surrounded by Democrats, and have yet to find one person who thinks Hillary is the one. People think DU is the "far left", but in the case of Hillary, I think their opinions are somewhat in line with that of the general populace. In fact, I would go so far as to say she is the repuke's choice for us.

It's far too early for me to choose a candidate - in fact there are two people I am hoping will decide to enter the fray. Of the candidates that have announced, I am most interested in Obama at this time. He should indeed be watched carefully, as should all of the candidates. Right now, I personally am more aware of who I DON'T want than who I do, but I am watching Obama with interest, mostly because I don't care for the other choices.

[PATRICK]

15. Hillary is the one everyone

knows and is either resigned to, opposed, or deeply unenthusiastic about. unlike lieberman's DOA candidacy, Hillary has a broad and fixed shallow national judgment on her. Other top candidates have yet to receive this complete national judgment and that gives her fixed position the temporary dull edge.

If she was up against the likes of Vilsack she would continue to be the head of her class. The real rationale for the future erosion of her candidacy is that it will be strongly challenged, impossible to defend and a visceral no go for an angry, disappointed Dem electorate that has not been addressed in the media's mirror gazing in which common sense and common people are not allowed to intrude except to provide supportive commentary for pundit "wisdom".

That is, her predictable crash and burn is very different from Lieberman, a delusion built up by Wall Street and name recognition alone. Hillary probably wishes she was starting out with such a blank slate. Her muscle now is her doom later. No Dean controversy will likely come to her rescue. The best of the rest will take the prize by the will of the voters to jettison all liability anchors and lukewarm candidacies.But it is likely to get nastier in the struggle. The front-loading of primaries this time will make things compactly traumatic and easier for unpopular rich candidates to bull through hurdles that sometimes rightly, sometimes wrongly, weed out the second best choices.

In the early date rush, the possibility or the form of a brokered cnandidacy introduces- stupidly- a chaos that the undemocratic manipulators who regulated the present system purported to eliminate.

[Laurab]

17. I THINK I know what you're saying

you write very well, btw. I do hope you're right about the crash and burn of our "frontrunner" - but that's simply a personal preference. IMO the early date rush is ridiculous, and it will be difficult for ANY candidate to get through such a long period of time without creating some type of gaffe that will be exploited by the others.

I'm just hopeful there will be someone standing when it's all over who can inspire and lead. There is a vast emptiness waiting to be filled.

[bling bling]

14. Excellent article. Thank you for the link. n/t

[bcoylepa]

18. Samantha Powers

is a friend and advisor to Obama according to the article
very good news - she is an expert on Dafur and genocide - very good indeed
if he listens and consults people of her caliber

[Vidar]

19. Good article. Thanks.

[GreenTea]

20. Also in that issue is an excellent BradBlog.com piece..Look for it.