If he runs, Obama is now my candidate in '08, haters go right ahead

[wndycty]

Wes is still my guy, but we don't know if he is running or not and for that matter we don't know if Obama is either, hopefully I won't have to make a choice and when it comes to the general election I would love to vote for a Clark/Obama, Obama/Clark ticket. I don't come to this decision lightly but the more I think of it I feel comfortable saying I'm supporting Obama if he decides to run. Barack has been my State Senator since the mid 90's and a neighbor as well (up until recently he lived on the same street, a block away).

I remember when I attended an anti-war rally in November of 2002 at the Federal Plaza in Chicago in which Barack spoke and everyone in attendance was blown away. My best memory of that day was watching the reaction of Rev. Jesse Jackson who had a look of absolute amazement when Obama spoke. Immediately after the speech I walked up to my State Senator and told him I could not wait to vote for him as my US Senator. This along with the speech he gave on the night he won the nomination in the Democratic primary are two moments I will forever cherish. His speech during the convention was amazing, it was his coming out party and I could not tell you proud it made me, but the other two speeches are the ones that stand out in my mind, maybe it is because unlike his convention speech these were made before he hit the national stage.

The speech and accusations of being a sell-out
It amazes me that so many on the far left, especially on the DU, call Obama a sell-out. Most of the world learned about him as a result of his convention speech. Much of the criticism is because he has not been the partisan hitman that many had hoped. Unfortunately those who criticize him for this, who have basically said that he is a sell-out because he is not the same man who gave that speech, did not listen to the speech, for if they did they would have heard him say:

-snip-
And fellow Americans — Democrats, Republicans, Independents — I say to you tonight: we have more work to do. More to do for the workers I met in Galesburg, Illinois, who are losing their union jobs at the Maytag plant that's moving to Mexico, and now are having to compete with their own children for jobs that pay seven bucks an hour. More to do for the father I met who was losing his job and choking back tears, wondering how he would pay $4,500 a month for the drugs his son needs without the health benefits he counted on. More to do for the young woman in East St. Louis, and thousands more like her, who has the grades, has the drive, has the will, but doesn't have the money to go to college.
-snip-

A belief that we are connected as one people. If there's a child on the south side of Chicago who can't read, that matters to me, even if it's not my child. If there's a senior citizen somewhere who can't pay for her prescription and has to choose between medicine and the rent, that makes my life poorer, even if it's not my grandmother. If there's an Arab American family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process, that threatens my civil liberties. It's that fundamental belief — I am my brother's keeper, I am my sister's keeper — that makes this country work. It's what allows us to pursue our individual dreams, yet still come together as a single American family. "E pluribus unum." Out of many, one.

Yet even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters and negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes. Well, I say to them tonight, there's not a liberal America and a conservative America — there's the United States of America. There's not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States of America. The pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. But I've got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don't like federal agents poking around our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and have gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and patriots who supported it. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.
-snip-

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/nation/president/2004-07-27-obama-speech-text_x.htm

On his votes/positions
There are no candidates out there that vote 100% of the way you and I want them to. Look at all the votes of Kerry, Edwards and Hillary, lets not forget that Kucinich was pro-choice. Next to Obama the other candidate that moves me is Wes, I don't agree with many of his positions. That is life. Don't hold Obama to unrealistic standard that others are not held to.

On his inexperience
I will let Michael Tacket of the Chicago Tribune speak for me:

-snip-
There's a reflexive response among many Democrats when the subject is broached. He's too young, they say, too inexperienced. He hasn't accomplished anything in the Senate. He should wait.

Let's demolish those one by one. He would be older than Bill Clinton and John Kennedy were when they ran; he would have more experience than John Edwards. And, think now, when was the last time any senator wooed voters by telling them about a bill he or she sponsored?

And just what should he wait for? In four years, he would either be challenging an incumbent president in his own party (read: political suicide) or an incumbent president in the other party. In eight years, he is likely to be facing either an incumbent from his party, or a presumptive nominee in the person of a sitting vice president.
-snip-

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0610150242oct15,0,3876743.story?coll=chi-newsopinionperspective-hed

The man simply inspires
Does Hillary inspire? Does Kerry inspire? Edwards gives me hope and Wes inspires me, but when it comes to the one candidate who touches the most people it is Barack. I think of all the people who are moved to tears when he speaks, its something special. . .the only other politician who hits that mark as much as Obama, Bill Clinton.



Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., signs copies of his new book 'The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream' at a bookstore in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2006. It was the first stop on a book tour that will take him to a dozen cities in the next two weeks. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/061017/480/c98792342478415199413b0ddba3e817

From today's Chicago Tribune coverage of this mornings book signing:

-snip-While a U.S. senator with a new book might be expected to draw a big crowd in the neighborhood where he once lived and worked, Tuesday's book-signing at 57th Street Books in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood was something else entirely. After all, Obama, a top Democratic party campaigner and fundraiser, is the hottest commodity in American politics.

If the line stretching around the block for the biggest in-store signing the store's manager has ever experienced didn't illustrate that, one look at newsstands across the country -- where Obama's face fills the cover of Time magazine next to the headline, ``Why Barack Obama Could Be The Next President'' -- does.

``For our generation he is kind of the lighthouse, the hope,'' Allison Ringhand, a 19-year-old University of Chicago student from Milwaukee. ``He's changing the face of government in America.''

One after another, college students, retirees and those in between took turns throwing around words like ``charismatic'' and ``hope'' or, if that wasn't enough, ``shining hope.'' They even tossed out the ``K'' word, as in John F. Kennedy.

"I would love to see him run for president,'' said Barbara O'Connor, 76, a few minutes before buying three copies of Obama's ``The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream.'' She said she once worked as a community organizer with Obama.
-snip-

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/chi-061017obama-book,1,4345038.story?coll=chi-news-hed

Oh he will have his critics, and some criticism is deserved, but so is criticism of others. He has a ways to go but he definately deserved serious consideration. Some will call him corporate, DLC and sellout, let them for they are on the outside looking in at what could be the next great American political leader. Their loss not mine.