Obama takes the big leap

The best thing about the guy is his "let's move on from the 1960s" mentality. His demeanor and political platform is a lot more about getting down to work, instead of saving the world. Honestly, our country could use a little of that right now.

I think many of the failures in America - especially Katrina - is our inability to stop figuring out who fucked up and just fix the fuckup. We're more wrapped up in how we should live instead of actually living, how we should think instead of thinking, how we should fight a war instead of actually fighting it. We're turning, frankly, a little European - and I include myself in this. Obama's never been a screw-around kind of guy, and while I think Edwards has some terrific ideas, and Clinton is only politician who might really secure us national health care, it's Obama and McCain who strike me as the hardest workers. After, think about it, 30-some years personas like Carter, Reagan, Clinton and W. Bush, it might be time. Not for a face or a political ideal. But a work ethic.

 

Do you all think the average voter is that worried about Obama's election experience? Serious question, non-rhetorical...

Personally, I think what Obama does in the set-up and running of this campaign trumps everything he's done in the past, at least with the average voter.

Another question I have: How big of an issue do you think Obama's race will play in this election? In states like California, it's not an issue. But does he have any chance of carrying any of the southern states? I'm in KY, and while I realize we're somewhat insignificant to the Presidential election, I see no way Obama carries this state, simply because there are plenty of people who won't want a black guy running America.

Great post, by the way, Alma.

 

How Obama fares in the South....I don't know. There are a lot of black voters in the South (think 30% of the registered voters in Mississippi are black). And there are a lot of white folks who will vote for a black candidate. Let's not forget, the first state to elect a black governor since Reconstruction was Virginia. The problem for Obama is that the majority of Southern whites are pretty conservative...if he can steer clear of hot-button social issues that get those white voters (gays, gun control, abortion), he might be able to pick up a Southern state or two. Put it this way, he has a hell of a lot better chance of carrying Georgia or Tennessee or Virginia than Hillary Clinton does.

 

^^Which is another reason I don't buy the "Obama's better off waiting" argument. He's running against a Mormon and a woman in the primaries. As a black dude, that sets up perfect, at least with the more conservative Dems, though I'm not too familiar with Romney.

 

Not sure if you're miss-phrasing things, or miss-understanding things, CollegeJourno, but Romney is a Republican.

 

Not so sure about that, concerning Kansas.

Kansas has a Democrat as its governor, who just happened to be re-elected months ago, and people there -- my family included -- have begun to turn against the GOP. Add in that Obama's family has ties to there (Wichita) and I don't think Kansas is totally out of play, should he earn the Democratic bid.

Maybe a reach, sure, but I wouldn't put it past Obama there.

 

Don't be so sure about the Dakotas, either.

First person to go there and talk serious drought relief is going to do well, even if they're purple.

 

(text not directed at zeke -- it was the only pic of the count i could find)

 

So if a senator can't win, who will?

Vilsack? Huckabee?

 

The problem, Alma, is that if you don't hold people accountable, through vigorous investigation, prosecution and oversight, nobody ever gets held responsible for the fuck-ups and they come back to make worse ones. Look at all the Iran-Contra goons who got back into the limelight since 2000 largely because nobody made them pay for their crimes in the 1980s.
I like Obama fine. I think this election starts out sui generis and just gets weirder from there. The war is the only issue. And that issue can't just be, "what do we do now?" It has to include political consequences for everyone who has/had a hand in it. (Sorry, Hillary.) And McCain is now linked alone to a strategy that seems doomed to fail and, please, if you will, provide one concrete legislative example of something John McCain has done that has had lasting effect. McCain-Feingold doesn't count, because it did nothing of what it was intended to do. The president used a signing statement to obviate McCain's anti-torture "compromise bill, and the line-item veto was so unconstitutional that even Rehnquist noticed. Show pony for the Beltway press who wants to be president FAR too much..

 

Montana is not so much Republican as it is Libertarian. The snooping into phone records, etc. goes against everything they stand for.

 

I know, but two D senators, a superstar D governor and (I believe) a majority D state legislature is something out there.