Looking Back: Obama's Run for President
On this historic day, the inauguration of President Barack Obama, before our nation turns its attention to the future and the challenges we face, I look back at the improbable campaign of the 44th President of the United States.
Below is an excerpt from this blog the first time the name of Barack Obama was mentioned. It happened January 17, 2007, the day he announced his candidacy for President. Although I don't claim to have predicted his victory, my assessment of his candidacy looks pretty good in hindsight...
January 17, 2007
"... Lack of experience is a criticism Obama has to address early and often. Experience is always an issue. ... 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:"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."
- 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.
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