Letters to the Editor
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He lost my vote yesterday
With Salon's article re his little coal bill shenanigans. I'm not voting for a candidate who shits on the environment. Period.
Bring back Al Gore. He has experience, he called it early on both Iraq and global warming. True, he ran a crappy presidential campaign (his sighing and eye rolling during the debates were a nightmare), but I think he's learned his lesson.
He would be an effective president, and he has way more chance of winning than Clinton or Obama. Gore has no blood on his hands from the Iraq mess and he's willing to confront big issues, e.g. global warming (not make it worse like Obama).
Obama will go the way of Howard Dean, and Clinton will go the way of John Kerry.
Let someone run who actually stands a chance of winning.
Break out your suits, Al, we need you.
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Why is 'experience' merely political?
One aspect of Senator Obama's past that is being hugely overlooked here is his work in the non-for-profit and social activism field in Chicago during those days prior to his election to state senate. True, Obama's experience is questionable, after all, he never started up a failed oil drilling company or own a major league baseball team, but his work with the poor and disenfranchised- that will have to do if it must...
Maybe he is more of a Jerry Brown than a John or Robert Kennedy, but history demanded these political voices during their time just as much as our culture demands a voice like Obama's. So many years and so many lies have taught the political listener to mistrust those words that flow from a politician's mouth- and why not? After six years of vast betrayals by all levels of government, culminating in a disastrous war, the political atmosphere has become poisoned and now deadly.
As someone who was born in 1980, I never had Brown or the Kennedys to latch my hope for this country onto. What Obama represents to me, and to a number of people who have been born after those pre-Watergate days, is the fact that this broken process really does work. True, the left-wings of the Democratic Party will easily be able to dissect and destroy much of what Obama has stated in the past. Who else on this ticket so far can actually bring new voters to the polls?
Obama will pick his platform, we can be certain of that. True, it will probably be something a lot more abstract along the lines of 'keep hope alive' than the left-wings desire. One needs that when he is trying to bring a divided nation back together after years of deception and partisanship.
There is a politician from a much older era that Obama could possibly be compared to- seeking to end the divisions of a nation and the oppression of a population. The Senator will announce his candidacy on February 10, in the same state and near the birthday of the former president, Abraham Lincoln.
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Risking the Inexperienced
Obama is inarguably green. And yes, his manner and words are so refreshing. But being 'green' has disadvantages too for him and particularly for the American people.
I remember a candidate who'd been a failure at every turn. No one could believe that he'd even be a nominee. Oh and how he was mocked for his apparent stupidity particularly on SNL.
During his campaign, no one took him too seriously. We believed that Americans were too smart to fall for the mesmerizing patter of a shyster used car salesman.
Boy were we wrong!
The danger for Obama is in whom he will allow to advise him. No question though, he's heads and even tails above the current occupant of the White House.
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kistockman, what about his other half?
"Lack of Experience"
Shapiro has forgotten or simply does not realize that this argument is and has always been an argument about race.
In every industry people of color are always expected to have much more experience than anyone else.
So anyone who claims that Obama has no depth of experience (while Bush sits in the WH no less!) is adopting an historically racist argument.
Believe me, I didn't put Bush in the White House, nor am I going to claim he has the necessary experience...but I just find your logic mighty offensive. Obama seems like a swell guy with a lot of potential, but he DOES have a lack of experience in comparison with other candidates. Why is this racist? Am I supposed to vote for someone with a lack of experience simply because he's black...
or rather, HALF black? His mother was white, so he's technically also caucasian. This isn't a bad thing, so why not celebrate your Irish-French-English or whatever side too? Isn't America all about the melting pot?
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Can't wait for the primary debates
It's rare that any of us will ever agree with one candidate on all the issues. I don't agree with Obama on everything, but my current thinking is that he is the best man for the job. That could all change when the debates come around. Whatever the case, there are a lot of very intelligent people running and the debates will prove to be very interesting. The whole game changes then. Right now, it's all speculation. Dean's ideas about the war changed not only what voters thought but the platforms of other candidates. If we all get behind the same person now, we miss all the great ideas that come from all different factions in the party.
Let's stop letting Chris Matthews and other pundits tell us that we have to choose now. We don't. As somebody said earlier, Lieberman was the frontrunner in 2004 early on. Then suddenly he was "tied for third place!" And really, what are we doing tearing Obama down now about things that you don't know? Unless you're a McCain or Romney supporter, this serves no one. Believing he is all fluff may mean that you are just uninformed at this point. As one of his non farming constituents, I disagree.
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Compare him to another Illinoisan and his experience looks presidential...
I don't know why people knock Obama for lack of experience. Maybe his political experience pales in comparison to Kennedy and Clinton, but when you compare him to another politician from Illinois, he stands tall. Abraham Lincoln was never a U.S. Senator, though he tried. He had but one term as a U.S representative. He did toil for years in the Illinois legislature. When Lincoln became president, he was truly a self-made man. His brilliance was inherent, and from what I've seen so far, the same could be said for Obama.