Obama is ahead of his time, and in four or eight years his moment may come. But for now, however unfortunately and unfairly, Bush has made Obama impossible. -a reader of AS"Inexperience" can have its virtues, too.
Obama was extremely impressive in opposing the Collins-Lieberman compromise for how to allocate Homeland Security Funds (as best I recall). His ideas were, in fact, I thought, better and more fair, while theirs came off looking like a restrained nod to ... wash-your-back politics or something.
INSIDE AND ACROSS THE AISLE
So, assume that kind of an honest, straightforward reckoning can quickly garner attention, the question then becomes whether Senator Obama could translate that into an effective Presidency, or whether he'd be too much opposed by his own party. I'm not sure how good he is at coalition building.
Across the aisle, in terms of something like Reagan's blue-dog democrats, which one is better, Clinton or Obama? I'm not sure, but it seems like Obama has more potential. On the other hand, some of the reason he might be powerful across the isle is that some of his policy prescriptions might be tepid (Goolsbee seems to be lacking the 'vision thing' on health care, but I'm not much familiar otherwise).
THE BIG REACH
Was Obama's recent speech for the Veterans ... superb? Compare with the content of this (quote below). Is he reaching enough?
Not every speech needs to be a homerun, but he seems to need to slow down, to cut out the crap phrases like "the lesson of 9/11" and "I take no responsibility more seriously" and hone something to capture people's imaginations.
If anyone can, he can do it.
JFK:
But if by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people -- their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties -- someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal."
