The New Republic

The Oprah factor is huge -- she's a way bigger asset than Bill ever will be because she reaches tons of people who are politically neutral. Now, if Obama could get the Lovie Smith endorsement...

- schooley

January 23, 2007 at 10:51am

What I find amusing (besides a bunch of white staffers and writers deciding that Obama isn't black) is the idea that NOT running a campaign like Jesse Jackson is a liability. Really? In exactly which state is this going to matter during the primary season?

- jmurph79

January 23, 2007 at 11:21am

Isn't it bizarre that a presumably sophisticated black political operative would use a phrase--"a very well-spoken young man"--that is almost a parody of the classic example of damning-with-faint-praise that whites have so often used to denigrate blacks? These tone-deaf clintonistas will surely sink their own ship.

- mpaisner

January 23, 2007 at 11:40am

he's the young whippersnapper who didn't pay his due Exactly. Hell, even that "sharp-elbowed" (Adlai's bitter description for JFK) young rich boy from Brookline by 1956 had paid more dues than Obama has. And re. the patronizing stuff about being "well-spoken", look in the mirror, oh ye Obama-philes. You're the ones who keep puffing up the guy's eloquence. He's no more eloquent than Hillary or Edwards or Giuliani. It's only because of his melanin that white people keep insisting he's got other-worldly rhetorical skills.

- teplukhin

January 23, 2007 at 12:41pm

The spontaneous, grass-roots buzz surrounding Jesse J's 1988 campaign offers a revealing comparison. In 1988, nearly every black person in this country was excited about Jesse's candidate. "Run, Jesse, Run!" was heard and seen everywhere-- in black neighborhoods, on the black airwaves, in casual conversation and in the comments of prominent black leaders and celebrities. Where is the buzz in the african-american community for Obama? Either the man is an african-american candidate, or he's not. If not-- as the underwhelming response from the afr-am community would suggest-- then let's stop treating him as somehow in a different category from any other newbie candidate with a thin, nearly non-existent track record.

- teplukhin

January 23, 2007 at 12:46pm

Pick up a copy of Ebony with Michele and Barack Obama on the cover.

- mclaree1

January 23, 2007 at 2:14pm

Sorry but an Ebony cover shoot doth not a buzz make. I think that afr-amer radio show host in NYC's description of afr-amers' reactions to B.O. is apt: "lukewarm."

- teplukhin

January 23, 2007 at 2:48pm

and exactly where does Tep("Stokely Carmichael")Lukhin get off setting himself up as the gatekeeper at the Black Man's Club? When was the last time you were in a black community Tep? I'm a Home Visit Medicaid Worker in one of the largest cities in the Midwest, and I go into the community every day and talk to people. I also work and interact with lots of middle class folks as friends and co-workers. I find nothing but love for Barack Obama among the folks I meet and know. If there is any reserve, it is a more from a fear for his life (and that is the unspoken assumption regarding any black candidate with the charisma and potential of Barack Obama...that somebody will try to take him out...) than any doubts about his "authentictiy" as a black man. So if you want to diss Obama, Tep....do so from a moral and poltical postition you have earned the right to speak from. Or leave that kind of criticism to people who actually have some "credentials" in that area.

- vanwurs

January 23, 2007 at 4:03pm

Teppy is a obama-hater because he has no experience and he doesn't want him to lead us to another electoral defeat. I think Obama is really running for the VP slot, for which he is a shoe in if it is anyone but Hillary. He has to knock her out to get the VP slot because he is going to split the unorthodox vote. Face it, Joe and Jane sixpack in Pa. aren't going to vote for either, the student activist on the other hand will split, or go more to Obama.

- blackton

January 23, 2007 at 4:42pm

Oh, I think he's running for the Presidency. I think he would probably take a VP nomination if it were offered, just like John Edwards took one when it was offered to him. But he had to run real hard for President and come in a solid second before it came his way. But make no mistake, Barack Obama is running for President (of ALL the people, not just the black folks....) and I think he has a pretty decent chance in a process that is so frontloaded that (i.e. 2004) whoever wins Iowa and New Hampshire has nomination locked up by the time South Carlolina even shows up. Now, given Hillary Clinton's deep pockets, infrastructure and organizational strength, she could conceivably lose the first couple primaries and caucuses (presuming Obama and Edwards split them...) and extend the process long enough for her strengths to kick in....but I don't know if Joe and Jane sixpack in Pa will ever get a sayso if the nomination gets wrapped up in February. I'm not endorsing a front loaded process, quite the contrary, but I suspect that it favors a charasmatic and personable candidate like Obama, who can appeal on that retail level to party activists. And if it does get to South Carolina and is still undecided....the "buzz" may not be exactly like Jesse Jackson's back in '88, but given their druthers, I suspect a whole lot of black voters would love to vote for the first black candidate who might actually become the President of the United States. That would be hard to resist.

- vanwurs

January 23, 2007 at 6:00pm

is getting a little ugly and, from where I sit, gratuituous. If he has legitimate political reservations and honest philosophical differences...then fine....speak from those. But this constant questioning of Barack's racial credentials by somebody who has no standing in that particular argument, is getting on my nerves.

- vanwurs

January 23, 2007 at 6:04pm

I don't want to engage in an ugly and pointless pissing contest here....I'm just sayin' (hopefully for the last time...) that Tep is talking through his hat when he speculates on Barack's racial authenticity, and it isn't a very pretty hat.

- vanwurs

January 23, 2007 at 6:15pm

To me the man's race is entirely, 100% irrelevant. I couldn't care less about it; neither do a care about a candidate's gender. And note that I didn't raise the racial issue: it's Obama's supporters who, obnoxiously and unceasingly, remind us of it. So we have a man who is not seen as african-american by most african-americans being promoted by white americans who are excited about him, in very large measure, because he's african-american. Didn't follow that? Me neither. Could we please knock off the patronizing?

- teplukhin

January 23, 2007 at 6:38pm

I don't disagree that he is running and will run hard. I believe for all practical intents it will end up being for the VP slot since I think Hillary and Obama cancel each other out. Hillary via organization and money, Obama by presence and charisma, but when I said Joe and Jane in Pa. I basically mean middle america. You might be right that momentum from Iowa or NH can carry one. I just don't see either playing well in either place. Edwards might steal one or both unless he selfdestructs, or it could be Richardson. In any case, neither Hillary or Obama can do worse than second, and I don't see it being them one two.

- blackton

January 23, 2007 at 6:42pm

is part if what makes him interesting and appealing and gets him in the top tier in the first place. What democrats have lacked for some time in their Presidential contenders is just the kind of "story" that McCain brings to the other side, or Gulliani, in his way, also does. Candidacies for the the Presidency are about more than resume's and policy positions. When was the last time we elected a ten point plan? And Barack's story is entwined with culture, race and ethnicity in ways that represent America's past, America's present and, hopefully, America's future. His "race" is at once absolutely essential and utterly insignigant. (Tep, you just have to learn to hold two diametically opposed ideas in your mind at the same time. You'll get the hang.) So yeah, race is fair game, I suppose, since his supporters raise it (as I just did) as part of the essense of his power and hope. But he is exactly as white as he is black, and his capacity to talk to white folks in rural areas may be underappreciated by people who have never heard him and seen him do it. He was raised, for most of his childhood and adolesence, by his white Grandparents from Kansas in an apartment in Honolulu, after all, so the idioms and cadences of Salina or Topeka are second nature to him. Anyway, the process will clarify these questions of "electibiity", but beware the self fullfilling prophecy. If enough people vote for Barack, he's electable. Same with Hillary.

- vanwurs

January 23, 2007 at 7:08pm

I see. "Essential" when it helps him with some voters and "utterly insignificant" when it helps him with other voters. You're helping confirm my suspicion that Obama the candidate is largely a creature of people's imagination, a vessel into which you can pour whatever hopes, wishes, preconceptions etc you wish. Me, I'd rather look at his record and achievements than play this little game. The man seems like a good guy but there's not much in the way of record or achievements at this point. btw, I'm not concerned about his electability; I'm more worried about the prospect of our nation yet again choosing a genial, nicely-nicely outsider who promises to be the opposite of a disgraced and divisive predecessor. We did that in 1976 and got the newbie Jimmy Carter, who royally f***ed up our foreign policy and made our allies loathe us, and we did it again in 2000 and got Dubya, who royally f***ed up, etc etc. Let's not do that again. This time let's elect someone who knows foreign policy, knows foreign leaders, knows her or his way around the White House and DoD, State, CIA the Beltway generally. Obama's not there yet, and no, his schooling in Indonesia or the odd jaunt to Africa don't count for much.

- teplukhin

January 23, 2007 at 8:33pm

I haven't thought this out, so feel free to pick holes in it in a contemptuous and dismissive tone: but if California moves its primary up to 2/5 then people are actually going to have to campaign here, and not just wave from across the Rockies. Who's likely to pick up a substantial portion of the large Latino vote here? Richardson, that's who. I wouldn't discount the possibility of an Edwards-Richardson ticket at the end of the game if Obama's star fades (or if he doesn't want VP). If Kerry had picked Richardson for VP, he'd be president now.

- ironyroad

January 23, 2007 at 10:23pm

During his "odd jaunt" to Africa, Barack Obama ducked inside a trailer in Nairobi and sat and took an AIDS test. He then walked outside and raised the hand that had just given blood for that test and told the throngs of young men and women who had followed him around for days, chanting his name like a mantra, "If a United States Senator and his wife can take an AIDS test, YOU can all take AIDS tests. You can have the power of knowing your status." He may, at that moment, have saved thousands of lives with that one simple, but sublime, gesture. Show me another candidate with that on his or her resume. I still contend that the primary qualifications for the Presidency are temperment, judgement, intelligence, character, and the ability to communicate and lead. Which of those qualities was absent in that one moment in Kenya? And if the defining historical reality of our time is the struggle between an implacable and hostile jihadist islamic fundamentalism and the democratic, pluralistic and politically secular values that our history represents in it's best moments.....then there is a kid in Gaza, or Jakarta, or Nairobi who is thinking about strapping explosives on his body and blowing himself up in a coffee shop, and only Barack Obama, alone among all the good and talented folks who aspire to lead us at this time, has anything to say to that kid. Only he can speak to him, as he spoke to those kids in Kenya, as a brother. What is that about Tep? Is that about "race"? Is that about "ethnicity"? Is that not "absolutely essential", that quality he brings to that conversation, but is it not utterly insignifigant in our judgement of his character and temperment and intelligence? Cheney knew his way around the White House and DoD, State, CIA and the Beltway generally. So did Rumsfeld. "Experience" devoid of good judgement and sound policy and the intelligence and subtlety to apply those qualities to public policy is maybe worse than no experience at all. They were good enough to impose their ideas on the country, just not good enough to have any good ideas. The process will give Obama the oppurtunity to elaborate his ideas. If you remain open to what he says, I still say you may be pleasantly surprised.

- vanwurs

January 23, 2007 at 10:52pm

I didn't say knowing one's way around DoD etc was sufficient, just that it's necessary. That was a nice gesture by B.O., you're right. He means well, seems like a nice man. I'm sure that your young would-be jihadists who alternate between thoughts of martyrdom and surfing for porn in internet cafes in Gaza, Jakarta etc would be thrilled to hear a personal appeal from B.O. For you. For me. For all of us. Maybe in arabic, on YouTube?

- teplukhin

January 24, 2007 at 1:49am

Please, the reality is most (98%) of Black Americans would vote for Obama, as happened in Illinois, but also many White folks, including White women, would vote for him as well. That's one voting bloc Hillary can't count on. I find it fascinating that the Clintonistas trot out the name of a sellout like Bob Johnson, who's been in the Republicans' pocket and who millions of Black people consider to be a joke for what he's pawned off as the "Black" station--thank God TV One finally began broadcasting--as some sort of authority on anything except his own hanky-headed politics. Sorry, you've got to do better. Obama will get much love, despite the best interests of Jeff Greenfield, CNN, Faux News, and every other person trying his or her best to smear and destroy him.

- jrk3150

January 24, 2007 at 2:02am

Tep, is not an argument. It's just an attitude. Good night, and don't muck up the wisdom and expertise you have to contribute with gratuitous racial commentary. You don't add much to your argument and you sound like an ass.

- vanwurs

January 24, 2007 at 2:16am

Van, you're a nice guy, sorry for the snark. Obama's a nice guy too. But IMHO we need a street fighter now. jrk, not so according to the latest ABC News / WaPo poll: Obama announced the formation of his exploratory panel Tuesday but didn't get a boost in the polls. Clinton now holds a commanding 41-17 percent lead over the Illinois senator among Democrats and Democrat-leaning Independents, according to an ABC News/Washington Post poll taken before her announcement, and after Obama's Jan. 16 campaign kickoff. Strikingly, Clinton did even better among black Democratic voters, amassing a 26-point lead over Obama. No info on the male/female breakout but I'd wager that Hillary does still better, ie, trounces B.O., among afr-amer women Democrats. Fair or not, the Jesse/Belafonte rap is sticking. B.O. has not paid any dues. Hillary has. I'm willing to bet that Obama will crash and burn before Feb 5.

- teplukhin

January 24, 2007 at 3:12am

Funny, but in the few state polls of Dem activists I've seen, Sen. J. Crew does best in states that have very few african-americans, such as Arizona and Iowa. Which suggests Hillary probably trounces him in the South. Whatever you want to say in favor of B.O., he's not the african-american candidate. He's another John Anderson, maybe a kind of eastern Gary Hart. Neolib, the college crowd and NPR candidate.

- teplukhin

January 25, 2007 at 1:29pm

Johnson was part of the despicable attempt by the GOP to persuade blacks that Social Security treats blacks unfairly. What are the Clintons thinking of?

- nancyirving

January 31, 2007 at 12:59am