The Washington Post is front-paging a profile of Barack Obama entitled Obama’s Profile Has Democrats Taking Notice: Popular Senator Is Mentioned as 2008 Contender. Charles Babington, who wrote the piece, obtained some glowing praise of Obama from a variety of Democratic Senators. It’s a definite puff piece. But, it’s a puff piece of the type Democrats rarely receive. The question I have is, how many Democratic Senators intend to run for President in 2008. Right now we have John Kerry, Christopher Dodd, Russ Feingold, Evan Bayh, Joseph Biden, and Hillary Clinton all talking about running (am I forgetting anyone?) Add Obama into the mix and 16% of the current Democratic caucus is thinking about getting in the race. And this is in spite of the historic futility of Senatorial campaigns for the top job.
There are several reasons why Senators have difficulty winning on the national stage. Perhaps the biggest problem is a general lack of executive experience. While some Senators have prior experience as CEO’s or partners in large law firms, they generally lack experience overseeing large governmental departments. Governors have an obvious advantage in administrating. Another problem is in the nature of Congressional voting, where a Senator may be forced to vote against his own bill when an unattractive amendment is attached to it. It’s easy to run misleading campaign commercials that mischaracterize a Senator’s record. Another problem is with communication. A few years in the Senate tends to turn the most eloquent speaker into an empty gasbag (see John Kerry).
But, none of these problems represent a good reason to reject a Senator as a candidate. Some politicians have a certain magic that can defy conventional wisdom. Sometimes, a person is just the right person at the right time to do the job.
Schumer and Durbin think Obama might have the right stuff.
“I haven’t seen a phenomenon like this, where someone comes in so new and is so dazzling,” said Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), a 25-year veteran of Congress.
…”I think he is unique,” said Illinois’s senior senator, Richard J. Durbin (D). “I don’t believe there is another candidate I’ve seen, or an elected official, who really has the appeal that he does.” As for the 2008 presidential race, “I said to him, ‘Why don’t you just kind of move around Iowa and watch what happens?’ I know what’s going to happen. And I think it’s going to rewrite the game plans in a lot of presidential candidates if he makes that decision.”
Maybe so. Personally, I think this is wishful thinking. Or, maybe it is crackpipe thinking. And I really don’t think we can get a good performance from the Senate if 16% of them are running around the country begging for cash and votes, rather than doing the country’s and the party’s business. What say you?
You mean, from here on out we can expect an even worse performance from Senate Democrats than the one we’ve been seeing?
Shudder.
I liked Obama until you told me Schumer likes him too. Now, not so much. I wouldn’t trust Schumer’s judgement on anything.
I wouldn’t trust Schumer’s judgement on anything.
Well, Shalimar, I think that goes too far. He seems awfully skilled at maintaining Schumer.
Let me rephrase: I wouldn’t trust Schumer’s judgement on anything I care about.
That too shall pass.
AG
Also, let me say this too, I am originally from IL. My friend and family are back home in IL who think the sun rises and sets in Obama, want me to think likewise too. I have another thought about this. He is also another establishment person. Sure he can talk a good speech, but can he get the job done? This has yet to be seen in my opinion. I want to see more concrete behavior out of him instead of just mouthing the party line….after all he, as a jr senator, has Leiberman as his mentor. God help us all!!!!!
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060626/sirota I don’t know if this has been posted before but a good interview with Obama done by Sirota at the Nation. Obama’s own words give you a good idea of his ideas and positions.
My take is he can give pretty amazing speeches but he’s more or less a party line guy, liberal in some instances but not progressive by any means. He’s going to work within the parameters of the DLC pretty much and not do anything truly bold or progressive. In other words I don’t think he’s going to rock the boat much.
Like I said, CI, God help us all!!!!
I recently moved from IllinoisI watched Obama triangulate when he was in the Illinois Senate. I’ve watched him triangulate since he got to Washington. Although not a leader of the initiative, he was part of the screw the grassroots and withhold support from Cegelis crowd.
He’s smart. He has charisma. I don’t trust him.
I agree and it’s a shame really because he does has that indefinable charisma and intelligence which he could put to such an amazingly good use as a true progressive.
I remember going to both Duckworth’s homepage and Cegelis’s and there was no comparison. One had wishy-washy feel good statements and the other-Cegelis’s had real ideas for change strongly laid out.
4 years in the Senate isn’t enough to be prepared for the Presidency.
Especially if he spends 30 months of his 4 years campaigning for President. Of course, if the only standard for being ready is being a substantial improvement on the current inhabitant, I have a dozen cats who are stoked for the job and a friendly raccoon family of four who also seem to be pretty bright. The viable candidate list would be neverending.
I still like Obama better than every Democrat who might be running other than Feingold, which is about as far from a ringing endorsement as you can get. His stature is tarnished by the bankruptcy bill, the Lieberman endorsement, and hundreds of smaller cuts, but there are only a few Senators you can’t say something similarly bad about. Our current national field of political leaders is embarrassingly pathetic.
Wasn’t Obama insisting that the DLC remove his name form their list of congressmembers they claimed an affiliation with a while back? and didn’t he have to demand they remove his name from their list a couple of times?
Now, if Schumer likes him, does this mean he, (Obama), has capitulated to the DLC influence and revenue stream? and if he has does this mean that he’s basically not a real Democrat anymore, after so short a time in office?
And why would the WaPo be doing this sort of piece on a Democrat? does anyone else besides mesuspect some trickery afoot?
I think if Obama is going to run for prez, it’ll have to be soon, even 2008 – before the luster wears off. He’ll always be able to wow people with speeches and so on, but the longer he is in the Senate, the more people will (hopefully) dig behind the speeches.
I don’t yet have a sense of who he is. It seems that he is not on par with say, Feingold, in the ‘stand up’ arena… but then he is younger, greener in experience and in back scratching and has a bit more to lose. So, who knows.
since his powerful, promising speech at the convention, obama has stained his image by repeatedly endorsing the spittle of the clinton/lieberman/schumer/corporate interest cabal.
i will vote for a yalie neocon power-broker thug, no matter how artful the trojan horse that bears him.
obama is a shill for business and maintenace of the losing status quo.
No thanks – Russ is my man.
I am very sorry but aside from Feingold, and this does include Obama, I would not piss on any of these ‘candidates’ if they were on fire.
None of them have the spine of flatworm.
I doubt any of them could win against Frist.
But ya know…ya hang around D.C. eating expensive lunches with lobbyists, cruisin’ in yer armored limo, getting flattered by yer ignorant staff and ya start to think you are the almighty one’s gift to our nation.
None of these folks could lead us out of a burning building.
Whoops…another fire metaphor…Well, you get my drift.
“Schumer and Durbin think Obama might have the right stuff?”
More reason to take a VERY hard look at him.
If those hustlers like him., he’s GOT to be wrong.
AG
Obama taught constitutional law at U of Chicago – so why has hedged on Bush’s claim to constitutional powers to implement the NSA spying – saying the program may be legal? But other constitutional lawyers from the top law schools have declared the program illegal P.E.R.I.O.D. So, to me, he is just playing nice to belong to the old boys senate club – same as with his vote for the bankruptcy bill and claiming that the federal courts are better able to deal with bankruptcy claims than state courts.