Barack Obama, Please Hold Your Ambitions Until After Nov. 8

[David Zephyr]

Last week here at the DU, I chided John Kerry and John Edwards for wading into the 2008 presidential campaign when we are up to our collective asses in a swamp fight with alligators and need to be soley focused on taking back the Senate and the House of Representatives. This weekend, Barack Obama has joined the club and the intended or unintended result is that the corporate news media is covering that side-story instead of the individual races where all of our hard work and hopes hang.

I admire Obama and wish him well if he seeks the nomination of our party in 2008, but that's two years away and we are just two weeks away from perhaps the most important election in our nation's history.

Our constitutional government, our civil liberties, our civil rights and our national security are all on the line in two weeks.

Barack Obama gets a big thumbs down from me today. His "news" could have waited 15 days. It should have waited.

[Kashka-Kat]

1. Oh I dunno... did you hear what he said in his interview ? The man is so

well spoken it makes the whole Dem party look better, I think. Why not be proud to show him off as one of "us"?

[Donnachaidh]

2. I agree - we need to stay focused on taking back the House and Senate

I want the issues that are hapening NOW to be out front. I could care less about someone *toying* with the possibility of running in 2008 to deflect from what we need to do NOW.

[longship]

3. No, Barack. Hold them until after November 5, 2008.

nt

[blm]

4. It's the media INTERVIEWERS who are pushing the 2008 speculation. The anger

is misdirected. You blame them for answering the questions and then turning the questioner BACK to discussing 2006. You should be applauding them for doing that instead of cherrypicking their words as the corpmedia did.

Either you read the answers in their ENTIRETY or continue to promote the corpmedia spin exactly as intended.

[David Zephyr]

11. "The media made me say it"

Come on, blm. I saw the "ENTIRETY" of his interview with Russert. Russert ran a flag up the pole and Obama saluted.

I will continue to criticize any Democrat who gets off message in the next two weeks. And maybe, your guy, Kerry might indeed "deserve a second chance" but saying so now is not helpful.

As one of Hillary's biggest critics here, I have to give her a lot of credit for not playing into the 2008 speculation game when she's questioned by the media. She gets an A+ from me on this. Everyone else could learn something from her.

[blm]

14. He DIDN'T SAY THAT, DZ.

Yes, you are repeating the spin.

He was asked about 2008 after a negative statement by Chris Wallace that claimed people won't let a candidate run again - Kerry said AMERICANS believe in giving people second chances.

That was all. The report SPUN it into that headline.

And Hillary has Bill, Carville, Begala and McAuliffe all pushing her for 2008 a HELL of a lot more than Hillary who hasn't exactly been as available to the press.

Di you even realize that Kerry went on Wallace to counter Bush on North Korea - and went on This Week to counter Bush's interview on Iraq?

THAT was the driving point of his appearances - but somehow YOU only absorbed the media spin meant to make hay over 2008.

[Imagevision]

5. Obama will make the right moves, he's needs a house & senate also!!

[Norquist Nemesis]

6. In an attempt to be fair

I think a lot of this 'hype' got a big push when Oprah asked him to consider running for President. It shot off from that point, IMO.

[Imagevision]

8. Guess Oprah carry's some clout? -- ya think?!!!

[Norquist Nemesis]

9. Just a tad

You know, those Hollywood circles and all that! LOL!

[KoKo]

12. CNN is running a piece on him called Fact Check. It's like an infommercial

with a voice over that doesn't sound like any CNN person that I've ever heard on air there. It's packaged like it made ahead of time to run. It's very creepy. I'm sure they will run it again since it's a long piece. Seemed to be fairly written even "fact checking" the large amount of lobby money he gets.

I have no idea who packaged that infommercial...that it was ready to roll and sounded so odd for CNN. Maybe it's a new feature where they will do this for all candidates...but who is doing that announcing?

(I hesitated to post this seperately because Obama supporters think I don't like him because I keep posting about the hype...but since the OP already posted...thought I alert on the CNN piece in case others see it.)

[David Zephyr]

13. You are correct.

Actually, you picked up on the media distraction with him before anyone else. I like the guy. I hope he runs. He will bring a lot to the debates. A lot.

But he fell into their lair and should have known better.

It's a distraction.

[KharmaTrain]

7. If It Brings Out Local Cameras...Why Not?

CNN just showed Barak campaigning with Nick Lampson....there's the TV cameras and local media. Ya think they'd come out if Lampson had any other Democrat with him? (other than Hillary...). This week Obama's going to appear on commercials for Tammy Duckworth...his visibility is going to help her campaign and to Barak's credit, he's been able to generate lots of good PR in his short tenure in Washington. He's getting camera time and for any Democrat to be able to have that affect...especially during a campaign season, is a good thing.

That said, I'm from Illinois and am proud of my Junior Senator but he's not "ready for prime time" IMHO. Being a defender for minority rights in the Senate is a far more important job at this point than trying to "make history" or whatever it is that the corporate media sees in him.

Personally I don't see this as a distraction as it's induced by a third party on a third party...as opposed to the open campaigning one sees here on DU for this candidate or another (usually disguised in a poll). Let the corporate media fawn over Senator Obama...it takes away air time from doing a similar bit on a Repugnican or allowing one of booosh's spinmeisters babble on.

Cheers...

[bigtree]

10. takes a long time to mount a presidential campaign

for Obama or anyone else.

More than 2 years prep these days

[SlipperySlope]

15. K&R

I'm not sure. I think that the more Democrats are in the public eye, the better for all of us. I kind of think of it as "Brand Promotion".

Case in point; a co-worker brought up Obama being in the news. It gave me a smooth seque into telling her about how the Democrats are set to take the House and perhaps the Senate, and how important this election is.

I wouldn't have had that opportunity if she hadn't brought up Obama (and no, I don't pull my coworkers into political talks unless they bring it up).