Continuing the Obama Conversation
Don raises an interesting point in comments to my Obama post from the other night. He was reading some different sources than I was when he posted about electoral momentum yesterday at Article 19, and they weren’t so complimentary about our man Barack. SusanG from Daily Kos critiqued his Harkin steak fry address, and Matt Stoller at MyDD quoted the Sun-Times’s Lynn Sweet on Obama’s new book (here’s her original column from Friday’s paper). Although Democrats could certainly use some constructive criticism, Obama's starting to get complaints about the way he's offering it. I think Don's got a point that Obama's rhetoric plays into the hands of Repubs and could have the effect of undermining Dems coming up to the November elections. Could this be the beginning of an Obama backlash?
For some more Obama reading, check out what appears to be his campaign Website (it’s identified as "paid for by Obama 2010, Inc."). And expect the coverage to ramp up even further in the coming weeks as his new book, The Audacity of Hope, approaches its release date in October.
posted by Doug @ 12:53 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Correct me if I'm wrong but haven't the folks over at Daily Kos "said" repeatedly that Mark Warner is their guy? Which reminds me ...Can you think of a democrat who'd have less of chance against MCain than Warner? Meaning: I'm unprepared to trust their political instincts.
Here's an Obama thought: Isn't all of the chatter you cite an afterthought compared to his rather substantial fundraising capacity? I seem to recall reading that Obama comes in right behind Clinton among the elected dems on that score.
Which would you rather have, enough money, college campuses and the SC Primary in your back pocket or the Daily Kos?
No I don't think that's true that Warner is the choice of Kos readers. In the last straw poll of readers 2 months ago (I think they didn't run one last month), Feingold was the leading choice and Warner was 4th behind Clark and Edwards. Obama would clearly run well (and I would guess first) in a Kos poll, but he's not included because he says he's not running. Same with Gore, who is the only one who would likely come ahead of Obama in a Kos poll I believe.
That being said, I agree with you about political instincts. And negative things aside, I feel confident I'd support him if he ran. But I think the only reason you raise money behind the scenes with one hand and criticize Dems with the other is because of a level of ambition that's a bit selfish and that misses an important point: he *IS* a Democrat and an elected official. He would do better in my eyes to spend his time demonstrating Democratic values than playing the easy role of the outsider.
"He would do better in my eyes to spend his time demonstrating Democratic values than playing the easy role of the outsider."
But, doesn't that presume that there aren't rather serious problems with the democratic party that really do need to be critiqued and worked out?
I have been impressed at every turn Obama has made away from party norms, especially with regard to the two areas he mentioned. His determination to adress church audiences (along with his ability to do so well) would give B. Clinton chills and his FP/Security advisors (Powers/Allison/Galbraith et al)are basically the only FP thinkers with an ounce of credibility. I mean, the Chomsky-ites clearly can't cope with any issue that involves necessary violence (read: Rwanda or Kosovo and now Darfur, Somalia, the Congo etc.)realpolitik (Kissinger's and Zbrinski's alike) got us into the mess we're in, and neo-conservatism has made it worse the interventionalists (like Obi Wan before them) are our only hope.
The thougght of a Warren Christopher clone inheriting what Bush and co. will leave behind fills me with dread.
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O' I'm not sure about Kos readers, but Markos talks up Warner on a regular basis in interviews, and Feingold while a better man, is no match for MCain either -- which was the point I was going for.
Your point is well taken though.
In the New Republic's "straw polls" Clinton, Gore and Obama (in that order) recieved the largest response by a wide margin.
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