Now that Barack Obama has all but announced his candidacy for the presidency of the United States, he is sending waves of interest, intrigue and antipathy across The Beltway and the rest of the USA.
If
you are to believe media reports, the flagmanship of the Democratic
Party is a foregone conclusion that will be decided between Hillary
Clinton
and Obama. Among supporters of the New York Senator, opposition to
Obama is tepid. Their most potent criticism is that he lacks
the experience to be in the Oval Office whereas their candidate has
earned it. We are a long way from 2008, but if this is to remain
Obama’s opponents’ fiercest assault, then Obama should have a fairly
easy time poaching from their support. Obama's oratory skills quickly
quelch any doubt the listener might have of his depth and knowledge on
American policy issues. Watch him here.
Before Obama’s meteoric rise into political superstardom, most
Democrats would probably have gingerly settled for Hillary as their
party’s candidate in 2008 – despite her criticisms. To the Democrats,
Hillary has the double edge attribute of being Mrs. Clinton. On the one
hand, she brings back nostalgic memories of the days when there wasn’t
a budget deficit, when the economy was surging and when a war with
Iraq, had a real coalition and only incurred sporadic deaths. On the
other hand, she doesn’t excite the base as her husband (or for that
matter Obama) does and has a quality that paints her oratory as stiff
and rehearsed. She also made the unfortunate choice of voting for the
War on Iraq a thing which some die-hard liberals will loathe to
forgive. From the other side of the spectrum, she lacks the ability to
be a suitable cross-over candidate (which will certainly be needed in
2008) with fierce, almost militant opposition against her from the
Republican base.
Obama on the other hand appears to be reading from a well writ, well
constructed script, taking very deliberate steps toward his candidacy.
He is assembling a campaign team of a veritable who’s who in American
politics with names like Louis Susman (the national finance director
for John Kerry's
Presidential campaign in 2004) ready at his beck and call. The
announcement that he has formed a Presidential Exploratory Committee
for 2008 was a well calculated move to squash any sentiment that he may
be propelled by media hype and make it appear to have been a long –
meditative process.
Obama’s reluctance to portray himself as the “black” candidate,
choosing instead to be seen as a representative of both his black and
white heritage, has put him at odds with some powerful black activists
like Rev. Al Sharpton and Harry Belafonte. The Rev. Jesse Jackson who
was reluctant to endorse Obama (partially due to his Clinton ties)
appears to have recanted on Monday while introducing Obama at a Martin
Luther King Day gathering. These leaders will find it difficult to go
against the tide of support that is pouring in from all angles and is
sure to keep rising as his campaign moves forward.
Obama believes that
the progressives in the secular camp who dismiss religion have to
acknowledge that religion has a legitimate place in public discourse,
but that the Christian conservative right has to honor the separation
of church and state. This will be a contentious issue among Democratic
voters who are fiercely opposed to the James Dobsons and Jerry Falwells
who suggest that Christians in the US are somehow oppressed and are not
keen on giving them audience. Obama says: “…primarily our problem is
that we feel uncomfortable engaging in a discussion of religious values
in the public square As a consequence of our belief in tolerance and
respect for religious diversity, we are much less willing to express
religious motivations in our public conversations." Ultimately, how
Obama navigates the religious issue will determine how many cross-over
votes he will garner. He will have to court people of faith,
Christians, Jews and Muslims, who may be open to the Democratic agenda
and consider their faith central to their lives.
It will be interesting to follow the twist and turns that the
Hillary-Obama rivalry will take and how long each will stick to a
positive campaign knowing very well they might need the other as a
running mate later on.
Whatever the outcome, 2008 will be a history making year.
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Really, and you say die-hard liberals like it is a bad word. People don't like Hillary because she is an insincere war-mongering cow, just a few degrees removed from the likes of Liebermann and Bush. The world seems to have been transfixed by Friends all those years as her husband's administration and its policies wrecked havoc in the Balkans, Somalia, Sudan and in Iraq by way of sanctions. Now that Joey,Rachel, Ross and Chandler and Monica have moved on, we have decided that Bush is evil, and Clinton was good!
More than anything, Obama is just a politician, often even a gutless one, consider this gem here,