So what's the dirt on Obama?

[livendive 8]

Before everyone gets more talking points than they can possibly post from the political pundits, I'm wondering what the bad points are about Mr. Obama. I've been thinking for a few years that McCain would be pretty much a slam dunk for the Republicans (if he becomes their candidate), and haven't really considered anyone else having much of a shot. Ms. Clinton is almost assuredly unelectable, so I just spent a little bit of time skimming Obama's past. I gotta admit, it's more attractive than I would have thought, but I'm sure I'm only seeing one side of the coin. Anyone got the other side?

I found the first section of the wikipedia entry on him particularly pro in the "kind of person" category, albeit with a glaring lack of military service.

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Barack Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii to Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. of Alego, a village in Nyanza Province, Kenya, and Ann Dunham of Wichita, Kansas. His parents met while both were attending the East-West Center of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where his father was enrolled as a foreign student. When Obama was two years old, his parents divorced and his father returned to Kenya. His mother married Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian foreign student, moving to Jakarta with Obama when he was six years old. Four years later, Obama returned to Hawaii to live with his maternal grandparents. He was enrolled in the fifth grade at Punahou School, where he continued studies through high school and graduated in 1979.

In his 1995 memoir, Dreams from My Father, Obama describes his experiences growing up in his mother's white American middle class family. His knowledge about his absent black Kenyan father came mainly through family stories and photographs. Of his early childhood, Obama wrote: "That my father looked nothing like the people around me—that he was black as pitch, my mother white as milk—barely registered in my mind." As a young adult, he struggled to reconcile social perceptions of his multiracial heritage. Obama writes about smoking marijuana and trying cocaine during his teenage years to "push questions of who I was out of my mind".

After high school, Obama studied for two years at Occidental College in California and then transferred to Columbia College in New York City, where he majored in political science with a specialization in international relations. After receiving his Bachelors of Arts degree in 1983, Obama worked for one year at Business International Corporation. In 1985, he moved to Chicago to direct a non-profit project assisting local churches to organize job training programs for residents of poor neighborhoods.

Obama entered Harvard Law School in 1988. In February 1990, he gained national recognition for becoming the first African American to be elected president of the Harvard Law Review. He obtained his Juris Doctor degree magna cum laude from Harvard in 1991. On returning to Chicago, Obama directed a voter registration drive, then worked for the civil rights law firm Miner, Barnhill & Galland, and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1993 until his election to the U.S. Senate in 2004.

Blues,
Dave

"I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!"
(drink Mountain Dew)

[quade 3]

The downsides to Obama are his complete and total lack of National and International experience and (I'm really sad I have to say this in 2007) there are people in this country that won't vote for him simply because he's black.

Sure, he's a charismatic guy, current darling of the Democrats and could probably run as a VP, but he simply is unelectable as President at this point.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[livendive 8]

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The downsides to Obama are his complete and total lack of National and International experience and (I'm really sad I have to say this in 2007) there are people in this country that won't vote for him simply because he's black.

Sure, he's a charismatic guy, current darling of the Democrats and could probably run as a VP, but he simply is unelectable as President at this point.

Oddly, I view the lack of political experience as a plus rather than a minus. Of the Democratic candidates names I've heard bantied about thus far, none has seemed more electable (with my limited set of information).

Blues,
Dave

"I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!"
(drink Mountain Dew)

[matthewcline 0]

Look like he had an eye for politics from the beginning. But as he is not a lifelong politician (yet) I would have to go off of his record and see if he has his OWN platform and doesn't blindly follow a party line.

I still say a McCain/Lieberman pairing would be unbeatable.

Matt

An Instructors first concern is student safety.
So, start being safe, first!!!

[dorbie 0]

Some republican spokes-holes have been slamming McCain for years as a rino on all sorts of issues, it would be entertaining to watch the volte-face. He might do it but I don't think it would be a slam dunk.

[billvon 2,434]

>But as he is not a lifelong politician (yet) . . . .

Actually to me

>I still say a McCain/Lieberman pairing would be unbeatable.

I think Lieberman is going to be saddled with being a fervent war supporter. As casualties mount and the violence increases, war supporters are going to be almost unelectable. Heck, most analysts point to the Iraq war as the reason the GOP lost both houses in the last election. Given that, support of the war is going to be a very negative point that's going to require a lot of effort to overcome.

McCain has the same problem to a lesser degree. Although he supports the war, he's seen as a moderate since he is less supportive than some of the other GOPers have been.

[matthewcline 0]

I was figuring since McCain is considered a Moderate in his party and not completely well liked by the same, it would play well with the public.

And that would play even better for Joe, hell he left his party and won!

But hey I am just your average voter.

Matt

An Instructors first concern is student safety.
So, start being safe, first!!!

[Gawain 0]

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The downsides to Obama are his complete and total lack of National and International experience and (I'm really sad I have to say this in 2007) there are people in this country that won't vote for him simply because he's black.

Sure, he's a charismatic guy, current darling of the Democrats and could probably run as a VP, but he simply is unelectable as President at this point.

I was going to mention the same thing. He also hasn't done anything as a US Senator. Political points prior to that are thin.

He was an Illinois State Senator and didn't have very many legislative initiatives for which he could take sole credit, or show real leadership for.

He's unelectable for a myriad of reasons. Even if he makes a run for it, he'll have a respectable showing, but he won't be the nominee.

So I try and I scream and I beg and I sigh
Just to prove I'm alive, and it's alright
'Cause tonight there's a way I'll make light of my treacherous life
Make light!

[kelpdiver 2]

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Oddly, I view the lack of political experience as a plus rather than a minus. Of the Democratic candidates names I've heard bantied about thus far, none has seemed more electable (with my limited set of information).

We've had a politically inexperienced leader for years - you want 4 more of that?

[livendive 8]

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He's unelectable for a myriad of reasons. Even if he makes a run for it, he'll have a respectable showing, but he won't be the nominee.

Care to expand on the "myriad of reasons"? As I said before, I think the fact that he's not politically experienced is a plus rather than a minus. It suggests he might do things based more on his brains than on his political "debts".

Blues,
Dave

"I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!"
(drink Mountain Dew)

[livendive 8]

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We've had a politically inexperienced leader for years - you want 4 more of that?

Of course I don't want 4 more years of what we have now. However, I don't confuse GWBs lack of political experience with his lack of brains.

Blues,
Dave

"I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!"
(drink Mountain Dew)

[Gawain 0]

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He's unelectable for a myriad of reasons. Even if he makes a run for it, he'll have a respectable showing, but he won't be the nominee.

Care to expand on the "myriad of reasons"? As I said before, I think the fact that he's not politically experienced is a plus rather than a minus. It suggests he might do things based more on his brains than on his political "debts".

I did list them (in not too broad a brush either) in the first portion of my post.

So I try and I scream and I beg and I sigh
Just to prove I'm alive, and it's alright
'Cause tonight there's a way I'll make light of my treacherous life
Make light!

[livendive 8]

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He's unelectable for a myriad of reasons. Even if he makes a run for it, he'll have a respectable showing, but he won't be the nominee.

Care to expand on the "myriad of reasons"? As I said before, I think the fact that he's not politically experienced is a plus rather than a minus. It suggests he might do things based more on his brains than on his political "debts".

I did list them (in not too broad a brush either) in the first portion of my post.

Gotcha...I guess I was just lumping the lack of legislative initiatives in with his lack of political inexperience.

Blues,
Dave

"I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!"
(drink Mountain Dew)

[Gawain 0]

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Gotcha...I guess I was just lumping the lack of legislative initiatives in with his lack of political inexperience.

Well, normally, I would too. However, I believe he is not politically inept, in so far that he has managed to be in the picture with several initiatives in the US Senate, by sponsoring legislation or joining pre-existing strong partnerships that were not "ground breaking" in nature.

So, I believe he is politically savvy, but I don't think he has the coat-tails to really pull a national platform together.

So I try and I scream and I beg and I sigh
Just to prove I'm alive, and it's alright
'Cause tonight there's a way I'll make light of my treacherous life
Make light!

[DaVinci 0]

Seems like a stand up guy.

I will watch his voting record over the next few years to see what I think about him as a President.

I do think that he would stand a better chance as a VP canidate due to what Quade said.

[jumpinfarmer 0]

I think he is probably the Dems. best chance for a real majority win of the White House. I know very little about what he has done or where he stands but here are some of my thoughts.

1st He is from the mid-west a place where the Dems. have lost big time the last two times.

2nd He dosn't have a big bag of political baggage comming along with him.

3rd In the media almost every week weather or not he deserves it or not, and almost always positive. The media seems to really like him.

4th He is not Ms. Clinton which is something the Dems. seem to be looking for and is there only other real big name right now.

[rehmwa 2]

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The downsides to Obama are his complete and total lack of National and International experience and (I'm really sad I have to say this in 2007) there are people in this country that won't vote for him simply because he's black.

lack of experience is a valid statement, but hopefully, as he progresses, he can develop those skills

you second comment is goofy, nonsubstantive, and just speaks to your biases and cynicisms (I do sympathize in that area) - a percentage of people will always vote unreasonably and those that vote solely against him because of race will be balanced by those that vote for him solely because of race (both I consider dumb justifications for a vote choice). Just like any demographic you'd like.

I didn't think he was black, as more like Tiger - he's a got of stuff.

So rail against uninformed voters instead instead - but then that wouldn't apply here. It would be more along the lines of BUtter's poll about educational requirements needing to be a prereq to voting rights.

...
Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

[livendive 8]

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lack of experience is a valid statement, but hopefully, as he progresses, he can develop those skills

I'm guessing he's about to get a bunch more experience. According to CNN.com, he announced today that he's forming a presidential exploratory committee.

Blues,
Dave

"I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!"
(drink Mountain Dew)

[rehmwa 2]

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I'm guessing he's about to get a bunch more experience. According to CNN.com, he announced today that he's forming a presidential exploratory committee.

It's something - he should go run for governor or something or lobby for a cabinet position next term, he won't get very good executive experience in congress just more of the same in resume fodder.

...
Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

[kallend 1,647]

His biggest weak spot right now is having accepted a campaign contribution from someone that's just been indicted for corruption. Whether it will stick or be "teflon" is yet to be determined. I'm sure the likes of Karl Rove would make something of it.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[warpedskydiver 0]

Campaign contribution, reduction of 300k dollars in the price of a home he wanted to buy, and did, got vacant lot next to that house given to him by that same person being indicted.

[DaVinci 0]

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Campaign contribution, reduction of 300k dollars in the price of a home he wanted to buy, and did, got vacant lot next to that house given to him by that same person being indicted.

Got some links?

Why do people who are in politics not do everything to avoid even the hint of wrong doing in business?

[Gravitymaster 0]

Here's his voting record.

http://vote-smart.org/issue_rating_category.php?can_id=BS030017

Note his dismal record on the 2nd amendment, border control and any kind of tax reform.

[Amazon 7]

Veterans Issues
(Back to top)


2006 In 2006 Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America gave Senator Obama a grade of B+.

2006 Senator Obama supported the interests of the Disabled American Veterans 80 percent in 2006.

2005 Senator Obama supported the interests of the Disabled American Veterans 92 percent in 2005.


Wow someone who actually puts the money where the homilies of supporting the troops

[Gravitymaster 0]

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Campaign contribution, reduction of 300k dollars in the price of a home he wanted to buy, and did, got vacant lot next to that house given to him by that same person being indicted.

Got some links?

Why do people who are in politics not do everything to avoid even the hint of wrong doing in business?

Google Obama and Rezko.