Barack Obama, we hardly know ye

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| Friday, February 16, 2007 | (2 comment(s))

In 2004, the newly elected junior senator from Illinois told reporters he was flatly ruling out a run for the presidency in 2008.

But three years of listening to Time, Newsweek and Neil Young telling you to go for the White House can have a powerful effect on a young man, which in terms of the U.S. Senate, 45-year-old Barack Obama surely is.

Does his presidential bid make him a flip-flopper? Hardly. If he'd said it one day and changed his mind the next, yes. But three years of breathing the strange air of Washington, D.C. can make a reasonable person change his mind.

The Chicagoan will face formidable primary opposition from U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton -- and if he survives, a potential run by Rudy Guiliani, the Republican mayor of New York City who on Friday said there is a "real good chance" he will seek the GOP nomination. That $2,100-a-plate breakfast Guiliani had was a pretty good indicator. Not many people shell out that kind of money just for some sausage and eggs with a former mayor.

But Clinton and Guiliani are already known quantities. Obama's a freshman senator and had served in the Illinois Legislature only from 1997 to 2004. His views on a national and international level are still in formation.

Maybe it is that unknown quality that makes Obama appealing. He has yet to do anything to disappoint, embarrass or alienate his constituency. There's no specter of Monica Lewinsky hovering over him, no war in Iraq that will be his legacy.

His support of abortion laws -- he calls a abortion a "tragedy" but does not oppose its legality -- will cost him among single-issue, pro-life folks, but beyond that whence comes the opposition?

Is it enough not to be unpopular? Have we reached such a low point in the history of the presidency that we are willing to become excited about a guy who is not someone else? We probably have.

He can be an exciting speaker, as he demonstrated at the Democratic National Convention in 2004. His exotic resume lets everyone claim a piece of him. African American in the true sense of the word, Obama's parents were, in his words, a "pitch black" Kenyan father and a "milk white" Kansan mother who met in school in Hawaii. They later moved to Indonesia, and his Indonesian half-sister is married to a Canadian of Chinese descent.

Is it enough that he is intelligent and articulate, that he is a man from nowhere who can appeal to almost everywhere?

He thinks so. So do a lot of other people.

But I'd still like to see more evidence Obama has some there there.

The opinions are solely those of the writer. He can be reached at markk@nwitimes.com or (219) 933-4170.

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Dan Johnson-Weinberger wrote on Feb 11, 2007 1:49 PM:

" What about writing (without a ghost writer, mind you) a policy-filled book including a broad sweep of American history? What about a demonstrated record of building consensus around the type of progressive policies that most civic-minded people support (transparency and ethics in government, actually spending money on preventing future disasters such as the avian bird flu or the thousands of nuclear and chemical weapons from the former Soviet Union)? There's a great deal of "there" there to see from Senator Obama. He just hasn't been hanging around the national newspapers and TV shows for a decade and a half. He's been an excellent legislator and has all the ability to make an excellent President. "

Mike wrote on Feb 11, 2007 7:13 AM:

" So you think Obama's popularity or inspirational speeches are not going to have much of an effect? Or that his original (and correct) position on Iraq, supports the argument that what he lacks in experience he makes up for in good judgment? And on the experience issue, hasn't he had more experience in elective office than Hillary, or more national experience than Guiliani? Won't he have an advantage in terms of family values over Guiliani (twice divorced - and BTW also pro-choice) or Hillary (guess who'd be in the East Wing if she ever became president)? And who says Obama is young anyway? In 2008 Barack Obama will be 47, four years older than JFK when he became president; five years older than Teddy Roosevelt; one year older than both Bill Clinton and Ulysses S. Grant; and the same age as Grover Cleveland. Why don't you guys take a break from the cynicism for a while? Barack Obama is serious about this race. Is it too much to have the so-called journalists report it in the same way? "

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