My doubts on Obama

[tagryn]

written up for this thread in Elf!'s journal:

My thing with Obama is, thinking he's ready to be President seems like a hopeful projection based on...well, what? He has no executive office experience whatsoever. Obama was a state senator for 8 years, then has been a Senator for four years, neither of which involves much along the kind of work the POTUS does.

Along with that is that a President doesn't come to the White House alone; there's a whole crowd of appointees/supporters/etc. that come with them. Where's Obama's going to be coming from - Illinois cronies and hangers-on? Since he hasn't been in DC that long, that's my expectation. One of the things I don't like about Clinton is that hers would come from the same group that ran the country during Bill's time (and has been hanging around Washington for the past 8 years, waiting for 'their turn' again). That doesn't give much confidence that they'll bring any kind of fresh take when they come in, but what are we going to be getting with Obama?

The good news for Obama is that neither of his likely rivals - Clinton or McCain - have much executive experience, either. Their appeal will be on experience working with the other party: Obama talks about bringing the parties together, while Hillary and McCain have actually done the hard work of reaching the compromises across the aisle that that requires. I don't think Obama can actually deliver on his promises to put the partisan differences behind us, too often when I hear that it gets translated into "do it our way or else" action.

The presenting-a-fresh-face-to-the-world angle for Obama is probably his strongest selling point. He's also the most eloquent speaker among those left in the field.

Comments

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Nicely said. I think that those are my... unknowns, too, about Obama.

I don't know if he can or if he can't. That and that speaking charisma and intelligence is, however, what's intriguing to me. *grin*

[tagryn]

Here's something I think is hard to measure, but is real nonetheless, in terms of the intangibles that Obama brings to the table internationally:

http://ncrcafe.org/node/1576
"...Perhaps the biggest challenge in the Muslim "street," Michel said, is that many Muslims struggle to distinguish resentments directed against the American government and the foreign policy of the Bush administration from the West generally, and from Christianity.

In that context, Michel waded directly into contemporary American politics. If the Muslim world had a vote, he said, he's confident it would go overwhelmingly to Democratic candidate Barak Obama.

"I was just in Indonesia, and whenever people found out I was an American, they began shouting, 'Barak Obama! Barak Obama!'" Michel said. He compared that to his experience 40 years ago of entering Palestinian refugee camps and seeing pictures of Egyptian President Gamal Abdle Nasser on one wall and John F. Kennedy on another.

"Kennedy represented something positive to them," Michel said. "There's a longing to be able to support the American ideal of freedom and respect for the rights of persons, but that has been blasted in the last eight years. America is now seen as a global oppressor."

Whatever one makes of the merits of that perception, of course, it's still interesting as a barometer of global attitudes. In that context, Michel predicted that Obama would have a special appeal.

"Throughout the Third World, and especially in the Muslim world, there's a feeling that the world has been run so long by white males -- from their point of view, badly -- that somebody different like Obama would be welcome. My sense is that they'd bend over backwards to give him a break."

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Wow... that is just an *excellent* point... Thank you!

Caucusing tomorrow. I've never gone before, but I think I will...