Obama files for President

Dallas Blog | Scott Bennett:

“The day after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,' birthday, Sen. Barak Obama, African American Democrat of Illinois, filed papers to become a candidate for President of the United States. While other blacks have run for President, notably Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rev. Al Sharpton, Sen. Obama becomes the first black to seek the office with serious credentials as an elected official.”

Ed Cognoski responds:

Serious credentials as an elected official? Are you serious? Barack Obama's inexperience is the first issue he has to overcome. It's no accident that he plans to announce his candidacy in Springfield, Illinois, home of Abraham Lincoln, who himself had only two years in Congress before ascending to the Presidency. That Lincoln is also the Great Emancipator and Obama an African-American allows Obama to deal with a second important issue at the same time — whether the country is ready for a black President. But make no mistake — lack of experience is a criticism Obama has to address early and often.

Experience is always an issue. George W Bush had to overcome charges that he was a foreign policy lightweight. In 1999, he famously failed a pop quiz that asked him to name the leaders of four countries in four hot spots around the world, one of them Pakistan. In contrast, his father, George HW Bush, came to the Presidency with arguably more foreign policy than any previous President. For how important that is, contrast the different results in Gulf War I and Gulf War II. Experience does matter.

Except the voters sometimes choose style over experience. Barack Obama has style coming out of his ears. The stars are aligning perfectly for an Obama run for the Presidency. In this campaign, his lack of experience won't disqualify him; the country's sad history of race relations won't doom his candidacy. In this campaign, Obama can even turn the doubts about him to his advantage:

• His rock star celebrity is perfectly timed for a country that's made American Idol the number one rated television program.
• His intelligence, his disarming forthrightness, his smooth speaking style and soothing demeanor are the perfect antidote to years of listening to George W Bush trip over his own tongue telling obvious falsehoods.
• His lack of political experience means his opponents will have little personal history of his to smear.
• His short time in Washington means he won't be tarnished by the culture of corruption, the lying, the incompetence, the breakdown of government that has infested that swamp for the last six years.
• His stand against the Iraq War has been consistent from the beginning, so he won't have to spin his way out of charges of flip-flopping.
• His groundbreaking ethnic background won't be the focus in a race where the Iraq War will suck all the air from any domestic issues, particularly race relations.
• His strongest challengers are, in the primaries, a Democratic throwback to the contentious era of Clinton and Gingrich and impeachment; and in the general election, some candidate from the Republican Party, the party that has brought the country nothing but Iraq, earmarks, Abramoff, deficits, Katrina, etc., etc.

Yes, the stars are aligned for Barack Obama in 2008. Only time will tell whether some fatal flaw will show itself and stop his ambition short of his goal.