Why Barack? Why Not?

[FOTD]

Op-Ed Columnist
The Obama-Clinton Issue

By DAVID BROOKS
Published: December 18, 2007
Hillary Clinton has been a much better senator than Barack Obama. She has been a serious, substantive lawmaker who has worked effectively across party lines. Obama has some accomplishments under his belt, but many of his colleagues believe that he has not bothered to master the intricacies of legislation or the maze of Senate rules. He talks about independence, but he has never quite bucked liberal orthodoxy or party discipline.

If Clinton were running against Obama for Senate, it would be easy to choose between them.

But they are running for president, and the presidency requires a different set of qualities. Presidents are buffeted by sycophancy, criticism and betrayal. They must improvise amid a thousand fluid crises. They're isolated and also exposed, puffed up on the outside and hollowed out within. With the presidency, character and self-knowledge matter more than even experience. There are reasons to think that, among Democrats, Obama is better prepared for this madness.

Many of the best presidents in U.S. history had their character forged before they entered politics and carried to it a degree of self-possession and tranquillity that was impervious to the Sturm und Drang of White House life.

Obama is an inner-directed man in a profession filled with insecure outer-directed ones. He was forged by the process of discovering his own identity from the scattered facts of his childhood, a process that is described in finely observed detail in "Dreams From My Father." Once he completed that process, he has been astonishingly constant.

Like most of the rival campaigns, I've been poring over press clippings from Obama's past, looking for inconsistencies and flip-flops. There are virtually none. The unity speech he gives on the stump today is essentially the same speech that he gave at the Democratic convention in 2004, and it's the same sort of speech he gave to Illinois legislators and Harvard Law students in the decades before that. He has a core, and was able to maintain his equipoise, for example, even as his campaign stagnated through the summer and fall.

Moreover, he has a worldview that precedes political positions. Some Americans (Republican or Democrat) believe that the country's future can only be shaped through a remorseless civil war between the children of light and the children of darkness. Though Tom DeLay couldn't deliver much for Republicans and Nancy Pelosi, so far, hasn't been able to deliver much for Democrats, these warriors believe that what's needed is more partisanship, more toughness and eventual conquest for their side.

But Obama does not ratchet up hostilities; he restrains them. He does not lash out at perceived enemies, but is aloof from them. In the course of this struggle to discover who he is, Obama clearly learned from the strain of pessimistic optimism that stretches back from Martin Luther King Jr. to Abraham Lincoln. This is a worldview that detests anger as a motivating force, that distrusts easy dichotomies between the parties of good and evil, believing instead that the crucial dichotomy runs between the good and bad within each individual.

Obama did not respond to his fatherlessness or his racial predicament with anger and rage, but as questions for investigation, conversation and synthesis. He approaches politics the same way. In her outstanding New Yorker profile, Larissa MacFarquhar notes that Obama does not perceive politics as a series of battles but as a series of systemic problems to be addressed. He pursues liberal ends in gradualist, temperamentally conservative ways.

Obama also has powers of observation that may mitigate his own inexperience and the isolating pressures of the White House. In his famous essay, "Political Judgment," Isaiah Berlin writes that wise leaders don't think abstractly. They use powers of close observation to integrate the vast shifting amalgam of data that constitute their own particular situation — their own and no other.

Obama demonstrated those powers in "Dreams From My Father" and still reveals glimpses of the ability to step outside his own ego and look at reality in uninhibited and honest ways. He still retains the capacity, also rare in presidents, of being able to sympathize with and grasp the motivations of his rivals. Even in his political memoir, "The Audacity of Hope," he astutely observes that candidates are driven less by the desire for victory than by the raw fear of loss and humiliation.

What Bill Clinton said on "The Charlie Rose Show" is right: picking Obama is a roll of the dice. Sometimes he seems more concerned with process than results. But for Democrats, there's a roll of the dice either way. The presidency is a bacterium. It finds the open wounds in the people who hold it. It infects them, and the resulting scandals infect the presidency and the country. The person with the fewest wounds usually does best in the White House, and is best for the country.

[Conan71]

I have the feeling the Clintons are getting ready to dump a big **** bomb on Obama.  They don't play very nice.

Obama is ostensibly a nice guy, but I really haven't heard much out of him that appeals to my vote.

[spoonbill]

Very well written article.  I am also very interested in how the Clinton's begin the turn.  

Bill always dams with faint praise before his machine pounces.  I am starting to see the warning signs from the beast, but I could also anticipate some foundations being put in place for a possible collaboration.  

You have to remember that the Clintons operate on opinion polls 100%.  They can bend with the wind and they're not sure which way it's blowing yet.

[TulsaFan-inTexas]

I'm a conservative, but with no real conservatives out there, or the ones that bill themselves as conservatives really being phonies I would definitely look at Barack. He's one of the few candidates of any political party that has the nerve to say what is on his mind without running it up a flagpole to see which way the wind is blowing at the time.

Who cares about "experience" in the Senate or whatever. How much experience did Hillary have when she ran for Senate?

I also CAN NOT stand Hillary Clinton, and it has nothing to do with her being a woman. In my opinion, she is a liar and more.

Barack Obama, in my opinion, is a really decent man that is no phony; it's more than I can say for 99.9 percent of the politicians these days.

[inteller]

quote:Originally posted by TulsaFan-inTexas

I'm a conservative, but with no real conservatives out there, or the ones that bill themselves as conservatives really being phonies I would definitely look at Barack. He's one of the few candidates of any political party that has the nerve to say what is on his mind without running it up a flagpole to see which way the wind is blowing at the time.

Who cares about "experience" in the Senate or whatever. How much experience did Hillary have when she ran for Senate?

I also CAN NOT stand Hillary Clinton, and it has nothing to do with her being a woman. In my opinion, she is a liar and more.

Barack Obama, in my opinion, is a really decent man that is no phony; it's more than I can say for 99.9 percent of the politicians these days.

I'm not voting for BHO because he has long spindly fingers that makes him look ghoulish and he smokes.

[sgrizzle]

I don't want any of the front runners right now. I think Obama gets a lot of support from people who are just trying to shore up the African-American democratic vote which was faltering. Even if Obama loses the primary, they will get credit for trying. Hillary is only up there because their last success was Bill, so why not just swap an organ around and go for 8 more years? If neither Hillary or Obama was running, Edwards would be President in 2009, no contest.

McCain is a joke and the republicans need to stop supporting him. He didn't get elected the last 23 times he ran, why keep trying? Pick a decent candidate and support that one instead of 27 mediocre ones. Ron Paul, whatever his views, has really shown that there are other methods to reach potential voters and it's working. Whoever run in 2012 needs Ron Paul's campaign manager. Fred Thompson is middle-of-the-road enough to win a presidential election, but I doubt he can win the primary.

[spoonbill]

quote:Originally posted by TulsaFan-inTexas

I'm a conservative, but with no real conservatives out there, or the ones that bill themselves as conservatives really being phonies I would definitely look at Barack. He's one of the few candidates of any political party that has the nerve to say what is on his mind without running it up a flagpole to see which way the wind is blowing at the time.

Who cares about "experience" in the Senate or whatever. How much experience did Hillary have when she ran for Senate?

I also CAN NOT stand Hillary Clinton, and it has nothing to do with her being a woman. In my opinion, she is a liar and more.

Barack Obama, in my opinion, is a really decent man that is no phony; it's more than I can say for 99.9 percent of the politicians these days.

I agree, he does seem to have an honesty streak and is not afraid to speak his mind.  Very fresh for a democrat.  

This however does not bode well with most of the democrat party.  By their nature they will ask him to do things and spin positions that he will not be comfortable with.  Opinion polls rule this party, that is why they seem to fall victim to the mob mentality and change positions so much.  If he speaks his mind, that means he's not worshiping the opinion polls and will not have the wiggle room necessary to bend like a Reid.  (no pun intended).

I don't however agree with his thoughts on policy.  Most of what he has proposed as part of his platform is unrealistic and half baked thought.  You see his biggest weakness when someone asks him the question "how will you accomplish that?"  

I think he knows what he wants to do, but doesn't have the ability to formulate a strategy based on solid economic theory.

He is simply Depeche Mode (Fast Fashion).  The rugged sensitive face, that the weak minds in the democrat party want to swoon over.  If he ever shows them that he's not their puppet, he will be writing his own eulogy.

It is nice though, to see a black leader that the black democratic caucus doesn't accuse of being too white.  I would like to see him succeed in obtaining the nomination.  If the Beast gets the nomination, I would like to see her choose him as a running-mate.  I however, cannot imagine either of them as an effective president.

[tulsa1603]

quote:Originally posted by inteller

[

I'm not voting for BHO because he has long spindly fingers that makes him look ghoulish and he smokes.

LMAO!

I fear having to pick between Huckabee and Obama.

[Breadburner]

Because you donated to his campaign.....

[Conan71]

quote:Originally posted by sgrizzle

I don't want any of the front runners right now. I think Obama gets a lot of support from people who are just trying to shore up the African-American democratic vote which was faltering. Even if Obama loses the primary, they will get credit for trying. Hillary is only up there because their last success was Bill, so why not just swap an organ around and go for 8 more years? If neither Hillary or Obama was running, Edwards would be President in 2009, no contest.

McCain is a joke and the republicans need to stop supporting him. He didn't get elected the last 23 times he ran, why keep trying? Pick a decent candidate and support that one instead of 27 mediocre ones. Ron Paul, whatever his views, has really shown that there are other methods to reach potential voters and it's working. Whoever run in 2012 needs Ron Paul's campaign manager. Fred Thompson is middle-of-the-road enough to win a presidential election, but I doubt he can win the primary.

Thompson is DOA.  He's running for Vice President.

There is something about McCain I've never liked, I can't say specifically what that is, he just has zero appeal with me.

I'm disappointed that Richardson has been left in the dust by the glitz and glamour of Hillary, Obama, and Pretty Boy.  He's got some serious creds and a wide variety of experience in government.  Not only that, he brings the hispanic vote.  I think he's running for VP as well.

[FOTD]

Then who? Please.....waiting with baited breath.

[Conan71]

quote:Originally posted by FOTD

Then who? Please.....waiting with baited breath.

Truth?  I'm not terribly excited about any of the front-runners from either the blue or red crop.  Huckabee apparently looks good in the polls now, but that makes the GOP even more beholden to the Christian Conservative movement.  Any more Repug sex scandals from anyone in the GOP w/ an ordained minister as president and I'll have to listen to the likes of mis-guided individuals like yourself and AA crow about it.  

I think Huckabee can win in Iowa, but when they get to New Hampshire, I Romney or Rudy will pick it up.  Folks on the coasts won't tolerate a prude like Huckabee.  I guess the biggest problem I have with Romney is the idea of a president with the name "Mitt". []  I'm shocked his wife's name isn't Buffy.

I don't like socialism or liberalism, so whomever gets the GOP nomination will get my vote in the general.  I'm still undecided who I'll vote for in the primaries.

So why are you so infatuated with Obama, or is this just a game for you?

[FOTD]

Basically, David Brooks sez it best predicting Obie-one would be better prepared for this madness....and I love a good crap shoot. Beats the shot of crap we got now. Anyone w/b better....

[inteller]

quote:Originally posted by tulsa1603

quote:Originally posted by inteller

[

I'm not voting for BHO because he has long spindly fingers that makes him look ghoulish and he smokes.

LMAO!

I fear having to pick between Huckabee and Obama.

if that ends up being our choices then this country has definitely went in the toilet.

[Conan71]

quote:Originally posted by FOTD

Basically, David Brooks sez it best predicting Obie-one would be better prepared for this madness....and I love a good crap shoot. Beats the shot of crap we got now. Anyone w/b better....

So you vote based on op-ed stories.  Nice.  You also seem to live by the headlines and first paragraph of a news story.

You should do the thinking voter a favor surrender your voting card.