Obama '08?

I think, I already had posted that when it was published.

But here it is, from certainly not a left or Obama-biased source, namely from the Chicago Sun-Times, December 5, 2006, page 16:

Quote:

Obama doesn't hide middle name

December 5, 2006
BY LYNN SWEET Sun-Times Columnist
Barack Hussein Obama. The blogosphere and talk radio, even C-Span, has chatter about the middle name of the Illinois Democrat.
Obama never hid the name. Never highlighted it, either. People are just starting to pay closer attention as Obama mulls a 2008 White House run. He is the son of Barack Hussein Obama Sr.

Hussein is a family name. His grandmother is Sara Hussein Obama.

At one point he was Barack H. Obama. That's how he is listed in the Harvard Law Review when he was the president of the publication. He dropped the H and dumped his nickname of Barry along the way.

It wouldn't make sense in Illinois to use Barack Hussein Obama as a ballot name when he started running for the state Senate in the late 1990s -- before 9/11 (Osama bin Laden) and the Iraq war (Saddam Hussein).

Barack Obama was enough to deal with -- not so much because of anti-Muslim prejudice, which I am sure unfortunately exists, but the irrational preference Illinois voters have had for Irish and WASPy names.


Luck of the Irish
Obama jokes that people at first thought he was O'Bama, a remark rooted in local political reality. Voters in Cook County elect judges with Irish names. In March 1986, former Sen. Adlai Stevenson's running mate George Sangmeister lost an Illinois Democratic primary for lt. governor to Lyndon LaRouche Democrat Mark Fairchild and Aurelia Pucinski was defeated in her Secretary of State primary by LaRouche Democrat unknown Janice Hart.
In March 1986, former Sen. Adlai Stevenson and running mate Aurelia Pucinski lost an Illinois Democratic primary for governor to Lyndon LaRouche Democrats Mark Fairchild and Janice Hart. Things have improved on the ethnic name front: Rod Blagojevich was twice elected governor.

The Hussein name prompted a C-Span caller last week to ask if Obama was a Muslim. Obama's father was born to the faith and fell away. Obama is a member of Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ.

Each one of the "middle name included" folks that Okie mentions arrived on the political scene out of either family or local tradition where their middle names were often or normally included. Likely, some would have encouraged it hoping to gain an upper class cachet.

And of course, none of them had a middle name which might have been used as a PR slime against them.

Rogers did this last week during a period when Hardball was being guest-hosted. Matthews, on his return last night, brought Rogers onto the show as a first item and laid into him for what he'd done. Rogers was in full squirm and deserved to be.

Look, okie...let's do this honestly. I noted in my post that brought this matter up that Rogers' attempted slime was the single instance I've seen of anyone on the right attempting an irrelevant and barrel-bottom smear of Obama in the MSM (and I noted that Just Wonders tried it here on a2k - and actually Lone Star Madam did it too which will surprise no one). But this WAS an instance and you do poor service to honesty and the truth and your own integrity to attempt an excuse of it.

And Walter, some may not wish to face the reality, but traditional America has a Judeo-Christian tendency, and has since 1776. It is that of white Europeans. You are the cause of all this controversy, Walter.

Yes, but his implication was that it is only the GOP doing it and that it is an attempt at a 'slime' etc.

Foxfyre wrote:

Yes, but his implication was that it is only the GOP doing it and that it is an attempt at a 'slime' etc.

That is your interpretation of what Blatham wrote. There's nothing wrong with interpreting texts of course, but that doesn't make your interpretation a fact about what Blatham wrote.

And this is where I get out of this particular sub-thread. It has proven a waste of electrons, photons, and brain-cycles. With hindsight, I regret I started it in the first place.

When last I saw Obama speak (C-Span - I think it was in New Hampshire), he said that the people to whom his middle name of "Hussein" made any difference probably wouldn't be offering up their votes for him for other reasons, as well.

I read it to mean, no great loss.

To refer to it's use alone as sliming is silly. That sleaze merchants will take advantage is a given, but hypersensitivity to its use only serves to legitimize an otherwise ridiculous tactic.

Foxfyre, you are exactly correct in that Obama should not become defensive with the name. He can turn it into a positive if he handles it correctly, but if not, no.

snood wrote:

When last I saw Obama speak (C-Span - I think it was in New Hampshire), he said that the people to whom his middle name of "Hussein" made any difference probably wouldn't be offering up their votes for him for other reasons, as well.

I read it to mean, no great loss.

While it's true that Blatham can't vote for him, I wouldn't agree with that assessment. Who here can't spit out the middle names of most Presidents' they can think of? To refer to it's use alone as sliming is silly. That sleaze merchants will take advantage is a given, but hypersensitivity to its use only serves to legitimize an otherwise ridiculous tactic. Colon Powell, John Doolittle and Ed Koch's names provide similar opportunities for childish ridicule, but to what effect? None, that I can discern.

Quote:

Obama on Obama

In a wide-ranging talk, the senator discusses how he stacks up against Clinton and McCain and reveals what's factoring into his decision


By Rick Pearson
Tribune political reporter

December 15, 2006

On the cusp of a historic decision over whether to run for the White House, Sen. Barack Obama said Thursday that he believed he would be a "viable candidate" for president who could move the nation beyond the generational politics that have defined the last 40 years.

"I wouldn't run if I didn't think I could win," Obama (D-Ill.) said in a wide-ranging, hour-long interview with the Tribune editorial board in which the senator articulated a rationale for his potential candidacy, confidence in his ability to win and an assessment of potential opponents--both Democratic and Republican.

Obama said he would reveal his decision in January, after a two-week family vacation that returns him to his roots in Hawaii, setting an extraordinary arc for a politician who a little more than two years ago was a state senator toiling in Springfield.

"Obviously, I find myself at an interesting moment in time," said Obama, 45, who has ignited a stunning level of excitement nationwide with the prospects of his candidacy. At the same time, Obama said he viewed hype over his potential candidacy as "transitory" and not something that would dictate his decision.

He said he had no real concerns about his ability to put together a staff and raise the tens of millions of dollars he would need to wage a campaign against his potential opponents, including Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.

But he said he would have to weigh seriously the burdens that a campaign would place on his family, with his wife and two young daughters, making sure they would not "unduly suffer" from the hothouse atmosphere a White House run would create.

"Do I have something that is sufficiently unique to offer to the country that it is worth putting my family through a presidential campaign?" he said. "Politically, I think I would be a viable candidate. So that's a threshold question and I wouldn't run if I didn't think I could win."

His best-selling book, demands for him to campaign for other Democrats during the recent midterm elections and the remarkable attention he has commanded in appearances in states with early nominating contests have combined to quickly thrust Obama into the upper tier of Democratic presidential contenders.

He conceded that he never has been through anything approaching the level of scrutiny that a presidential campaign would bring on him, his family and almost anyone who has been associated with him.

He said his two books, the first an autobiography written when he was in his late 30s and the second a more policy-oriented book, offer much detail about who he is and his views on issues.

Beyond `paper resume'

Asked how he would address the issue of his relative lack of experience, Obama said he thought that the campaign itself--how he managed it, his position on issues and his framing of a vision for the country--would answer the question. "That experience question would be answered at the end of the campaign," he said.

"The test of leadership in my mind is not going to be what's on a paper resume," Obama said. Vice President Dick Cheney, a former defense secretary, and departing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld "had the best resume on paper of any foreign policy team and the result has been what I consider to be one of the biggest foreign policy mistakes in our history," he said.

Should Obama seek the Democratic nomination, he would face a large field, many with much longer resumes than Illinois' junior senator. But in three national polls released this week, Obama has leapfrogged many of those contenders and put himself in a position to be an alternative to Clinton, who, like Obama, has not declared her candidacy.

Obama said he was not concerned about being able to compete either in fundraising or in staffing should he enter the race.

"I don't want it to sound like raising $50 million to $60 million is easy," he said. "It's hard, but I think it's something that we could do."

Though he was born in 1961, Obama cast himself as the face of a post-Baby Boomer generation not fundamentally shaped by Vietnam and the culture conflicts of the 1960s. He said he could "help turn the page in ways that other candidates can't do."

Sounding very much like a candidate, Obama called Clinton, 59, a "tough, disciplined, smart, intelligent public servant." But, compared to Clinton, he maintained he was able to look at "some issues differently as a consequence of being of a slightly different generation."

When asked his assessment of Clinton, Obama said, "I think she'd be a capable president.

"She has gone through some battles that, in some cases unfairly, have created a perception about her that is different from how I am perceived," he said.

Obama said, however, that he had no interest in being what he called "the un-Hillary"--a reference to serving as a standard-bearer for Democrats looking for an alternative to Clinton.

As for Republicans, Obama said he placed Sen. John McCain of Arizona in the same position Clinton holds among Democrats, with great name recognition and resources and the ability to sew up much of the party establishment. But he also said he considered Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney an "attractive candidate," though he said Romney was "making a mistake in trying to look more conservative than he may be" to gain core conservative support.



Run against McCain

Speaking of a potential matchup with McCain, Obama said he was under no illusions about how a GOP presidential campaign would be run against him.

"War hero against snot-nosed rookie," Obama said.

The first-term Illinois senator said he consulted earlier this week with Chicago Mayor Richard Daley on a potential presidential bid but declined to discuss specifics.

Obama acknowledged "it was stupid" of him to get involved in the purchase almost one year ago of a strip of property adjoining his $1.65 million home from Antoin "Tony" Rezko, who owned a vacant lot next door. Rezko, a political insider and fundraiser, was indicted in October on charges of trying to extort campaign donations and kickbacks from firms seeking state business. Rezko has pleaded not guilty.

"I am the first one to acknowledge that it was a boneheaded move for me to purchase this 10-foot strip from Rezko, given that he was already under a cloud of concern," Obama said. "I will also acknowledge that from his perspective, he no doubt believed that by buying the piece of property next to me that he would, if not be doing me a favor, it would help strengthen our relationship."

On the same day that Obama and his wife closed on their home, Rezko's wife, Rita, closed on the $625,000 vacant lot next door. Both lots had been part of the same estate, but the owner listed them as separate parcels.

Obama said he has known Rezko for 20 years and "he had never asked me for anything. I've never done any favors for him."

"There was no sense of betrayal of the public trust here," Obama said.

Quote:

"The test of leadership in my mind is not going to be what's on a paper resume," Obama said. Vice President Dick Cheney, a former defense secretary, and departing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld "had the best resume on paper of any foreign policy team and the result has been what I consider to be one of the biggest foreign policy mistakes in our history," he said.