Nicholas: yeah, that’s definitely a concern.

jerry 101: I think Tom B answers your question about what the mumbo jumbo means. We have big structural problems right now and tweaking things within the status quo isn’t good enough. We need someone who can change the status quo.

Soullite: I’m gonna disagree here. Of course you’re right to a point, but I think those attacks only work when they reinforce existing impressions that people have of the candidate. John Kerry didn’t get branded a flip-flopper because the oppo research team dug deep into his voting record to find contradictions. He got branded a flip-flopper because his position on the main issue of the day (the war) made him seem like a flip-flopper. Once that was the case, Bush was able to play up small inconsistencies in his voting record to reinforce the already-present negative image.

By contrast, people aren’t talking about running against John McCain (who’s been in the senate for decades) by picking apart weaknesses in his voting record. This is because, rightly or wrongly, folks are already convinced that he’s a straight shooter, and digging up esoteric votes isn’t going to change that.

This is the single best reason he should run right now. Career considerations and the like are all secondary or tertiary in importance.

Obviously other characteristics are necessary to have a successful Executive; it just so happens that Obama excels in most of those areas as well (charisma, communication skills, fundraising). The only thing he really lacks IMHO is a track record of accomplishment in an executive type job. But I think that is somewhat overrated anyway; just look at the CEO / Governor who has that job right now. Past performance does not guarantee future results.

I fully expect him to do something unique and special as you, rightly, have asked of him. To have the “audacity” to contemplate such a job simply requires you to be a big dreamer and to offer something bigger than what the usual crowd can offer.

I will also postulate that the current state of our nation and the challenges ahead have set the stage for his ascendancy more than anything else. If politics was not so poorly thought of (read in his book about how he bristled at old ladies saying, “you’re such a nice boy, why are you in politics?”), if our economy wasn’t in such a precarious position (deficits, China holding so much of our foreign currency), if our foreign policy wasn’t such a disaster, if our healthcare system wasn’t broken and if our environment was properly kept up he would not be receiving such the attention he is now.

People wouldn’t be looking for something so drastically different. They wouldn’t be looking for “change, versus more of the same” (that line’s going to come back to haunt you Mrs. Clinton).

So to that, I say thank you auto companies for fighting café standards, thank you big energy for polluting our nation, thank you PHRMA for putting profits over people, thank you Grover Norquist for valuing your tax return more than a working stiff’s family bills, thank you pundits for slicing and dicing us into red states and blue states and, most tragically, thank you Mr. Rove and Mr. Cheney for a war that has cost us so dearly in blood.

You’ve set the stage for Barack. You are the reason he is here.

I merely feel like making this observation instead of answering why I think he is extraordinary. I’ll let him prove that to you guys himself.

best,

TOM B.

I don’t think that Obama will change the world, but I do think he’ll make it significantly better. This country is in horrible shape. To fix the things that are wrong, you need someone with FDR’s vision, but there aren’t any FDR’s out there. No one who’s even close.

What Obama is…well, he’s a strong politician. He’s someone with strong beliefs. He doesn’t always say the right thing, but his intentions are right. He wants to build the Democratic Party. He wants to right America’s course.

I’ve been reading his book. The thing that bleeds through, despite Obama being politically correct in how he talks about it, is that the Republicans poisoned our political discourse. He knows they aren’t going to reverse course, but he doesn’t want to go down that road. He wants to remove the poison. He wants to set forth a vision that people can get behind, and so far, I like his vision.

When he says bi-partisan, or slams partisanship, he’s not doing it in the way Lieberman does. He slams that kind of ‘bipartisanship’ early in the book. He recognizes that it just functions to pull us further and further to the right. When he says it, he’s talking more about being above the fray. Plotting the course of what’s right, and then communicating with others, and taking their concerns into consideration, and then plowing forward.

But, he’s also a cipher. He knows that. He says as much in his book, that people are hoisting their ideals upon him, when they don’t know much about him.

I’ll check back in once I finish the book, but I like what I’ve seen so far, both in terms of his record in the Senate, and in terms of what he has to say. My biggest complaint is with the use of strawmen, but I think that he recognizes that that isn’t helping (I haven’t seen much in the way of “some democrats this or that” in his recent speeches), and is modifying his message appropriately. He’s also very bright, very careful, and very deliberate in how he crafts his message.

Anyway, this is longer than I planned. Obama’s still up in the air. We’ll see what comes. But so far, barring Gore jumping in, he’s my slight favorite (Edwards is #2)