Name One Accomplishment
Of Barack Obama.
Because he’s not done yet. Neither is she.
But Obama first. Must-see vid at Hannity via the late great Theo Spark.
That guy at Hannity who says “inspirational” — technically more of an adjective, and a pretty highly subjective one — offers up about the best anyone can come up with. I’ve also heard quite a few people say he’s run a great campaign. That’s usually the answer when I ask what he’s ever run. But trying to be president seems to be a bit of a tautological qualification for being president, though if your campaign’s really that great, it’s a moot point.
Went to Harvard, became a lawyer, was a community organizer. I’ve known a lot of people with one or more of those, probably some with all three. Ran for Illinois State Senate and United States Senate, where upon arrival he pretty much immediately began running for president. OK, we’re done.
No, one more thing. Talks good. Has the ability to make people like him and feel good. Take race out of the equation, and that’s what you’re left with. But he isn’t the first person, white or black, to make mileage on talking good, so there’s no reason to hold that against him.
A couple of interesting things happened last night. Massachusetts tipped for Hillary Clinton. A little over a year ago, Massachusetts voted in Obama ally Deval Patrick as governor. Another up and coming young black lawyer doing civil rights work in public and corporate service, no political experience at all, he got in on inspiration. He did not have the support of the state’s entrenched Democratic political apparatus, with which he has since been repeatedly in conflict. He’s stumbled quite a bit in his first year, due to inexperience and because he had surrounded himself with people with little political experience, and remains at odds with the Legislature on a number issues. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, except that in some cases it’s a matter simply of poor politicking. The Democratic political apparatus turned out for Hillary, along with some prominent erstwhile Deval supporters who said they were disillusioned with Deval and didn’t want to vote for another inspiring, inexperienced candidate. Not sure how that drove them into Hillary’s arms, but that’s a separate matter.
The other interesting thing that happened tonight is that the Massachusetts Democratic apparatus blew off Ted Kennedy and John Kerry, in addition to Deval Patrick. All three endorsed Obama. It was a huge event when Kennedy did. The state that has returned the icon of liberalism to Washington for four decades utterly ignored him. The Clinton camp is calling it the biggest upset of the evening, though that may be overstating the accomplishment. Whatever polls might have said, Obama never had a firm hold on this turf. A major factor that can’t be discounted is that sisterhood outweighs race. But I suspect a lot of Mass voters did it because their hack allegiances outweighed their more abstract ideological allegiances. As the great Howie Carr put it, it was Hacks over Moonbats. Don’t just take our word for it. Here’s former Boston mayor Ray Flynn, who did much to ease race relations in this town in his time. He went with Clinton for the noblest, most time-honored of hack rationales: “Her husband gave me a job.” But looking past the Hillary part for the moment, this is an extremely positive development.
Romney did better than I expected here. It will be interesting to see how the independents broke.
Because another race to watch in November is Ogonowski vs. Kerry. Ogonowoski, a retired Air Force LTC and New England farmer whose brother was killed as pilot of one of the hijacked 9/11 planes, only narrowly lost to brand-named Niki Tsongas in the 5th District congressional special election last year. The 24-year incumbent could be ripe.
Topics: pols
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 1:46 am Comments (6) on Wednesday, February 6, 2008
6 Responses to “Name One Accomplishment”
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February 6th, 2008 at 9:05 am
There is a sort of impression one easily gets about Obama, and Hillary too, that they’re both getting ahead on a sort of affirmative action platform whereby they don’t have to have any significant or relevant accomplishments, just complaints about how oppressively bad everything is under the current regime – I think that’s how affirmative action works, no? That’s one reason to consider Condi for VP. She has a lot of relevant experience and could help those people who are divided about whether to vote for a woman or an African-American.
February 6th, 2008 at 9:28 am
So the Democratic Presidential candidates are all show, with no substance.
Imagine that.
February 6th, 2008 at 9:50 am
In his defense, he is offering change. I’m not sure if he just means ’spare change’ or something else, but I could use some spare change. I hope that’s what he’s talking about.
Spare change for everyone!
February 6th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
I don’t want Obama for president in 2009, or maybe even 2013. But give him a few years to think over his policies and opinions, and a few reality-muggings to kill those socialist leanings, and he might make a viable candidate, in which case I could vote for him.
But that’s only if he can overcome the present day Kennedyesque/Democrat bullshit, and indications are that might eventually fall by the wayside. Democrats have finally awakened to the Clinton debacle. They might finally throw over Kennedyism too.
February 7th, 2008 at 12:59 am
It strikes me that Mr. Obama has already achieved enough success to secure his place in history as both the empirical definition of “empty suit” and the paradigm of all that is wrong with affirmative action. Nonetheless, there is a very good chance that this nonentity will be the next President of the United States. May God have mercy on us all!
February 8th, 2008 at 12:15 am
Reminds me of a Doonesbury cartoon from long ago, back when the strip was still funny. Mark Slackmeyer is interviewing a celebrity on the radio show. He asks him what it is he iscelebrated for. He doesn’t understand the question. Mark asks him if he is a skilled athlete, a famous musician, a writer, an actor, a politician or some other brand of celebrity. “I don’t know,” he responds. The guy is a celebrity for being celebrated.
Of course in these days, with Paris Hiltons and similar trash clogging up the airwaves, this isn’t so funny. But Obama seems to be a politician whose qualification for election to office is that he can get elected to office through vapid, feel-good rhetoric, just as Mark’s guest was a celebrity for being celebrated..