Obamarama

David Weigel | January 16, 2007

The Democratic party's superstar has beaten Hillary to the punch; he's entering the race for president. Rather cleverly, he announces in a video (perfect for 24/7 cable news!) that he'll open an exploratory committee and spend four weeks being hounded by reporters and screaming teenage girls before he makes another announcement on February 10.

Pre-emptive answer to charges of "shilling for Democrats": Obama is probably going to be the only Democratic presidential candidate who's co-sponsored a bill with Sen. Tom Coburn. Compare that to Hillary Clinton's anti-video game alliance with the Connecticut for Lieberman Party and you've got a pretty clear case of white hat versus black hat.

A couple weeks back I assessed whether Obama's campaign was a creation of "white guilt"; in 2004, in the American Spectator, I welcomed the break Obama represented for black politics.