Ohhh, But Are You Experienced? Have You Ever Been Experienced?

David Weigel | January 16, 2007

The men of Powerline serve up a perfect example of Republican opinion on Barack Obama.

Unless one counts his good looks, good speaking, and bi-racial status, it's difficult to discern Obama's qualifications for the presidency. Obama has never run anything of substance... A serious country would not take his candidacy seriously.

The last open election for the White House pitted Al Gore against George W. Bush. Gore had been in national politics for 24 years; eight years each as congressman, senator, and vice president. Bush had been the governor of Texas for six years, and before that a businessman with - let's be nice about it - a mixed record of achievements. Still, the Bush campaign tried to present their candidate as a man who'd lived in the real world and the corporate world versus this orange-colored hack who'd grown up in Washington, D.C. and never really left. Fifteen percent of voters cast their ballot based on experience. Gore won them by sixty-five points. But Bush had beaten Gore soundly on the questions of trustworthiness, likeability, and being a strong leader, which more voters cared about, so he won (despite getting fewer votes overall etc etc).

The point is that voters don't make their presidential decisions (arguably any political decisions, but especially presidential ones) based on a checklist of the factors that make a good president. The issues change every four years. And there are two possibilities for 2008. One: We learn that 21,500 extra troops were what was standing between total defeat and total victory in Iraq, and George W. Bush becomes the most beloved president since Jed Bartlet. Two: Iraq gets worse, the Bush presidency continues to crumble, and voters want to scramble away from the legacy of the last eight years faster than the audience at an Uwe Boll movie. If we find ourselves living in that second scenario, a cipher like Obama (especially if he colors in his bio by talking about cutting spending and getting out of Iraq) is exactly who Americans will want to elect. They won't necessarily be "unserious" for wanting to, either.

Republican grumbling about Obama is probably all about projection, anyway. Republicans have been gunning to elect the first black president for a while, hence the 1996 Colin Powell boomlet, the 2005 Condi Rice boomlet, and the 2006 efforts to elect a black Republican farm team to office in Pennsylvania (Swann), Maryland (Steele) and Ohio (Blackwell).

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|1.16.07 @ 4:12PM|#

"A serious country would not take his candidacy seriously."

So Obama's gonna be president.

|1.16.07 @ 4:16PM|#

He's one of the few viable candidates out there without a record of supporting or not supporting the start of the war. Lack of that baggage alone makes him look attractive to a lot of folks.

|1.16.07 @ 4:21PM|#

John Edwards and Barak Obama have a combined total of 8 or 9 years in the Senate. Haven't we learned that experience counts for something? For example, let's say you're a bit of a college flunky and you get elected president of the US. Do you go to war or does your experience tell you that things rarely work out as planned?

|1.16.07 @ 4:22PM|#

Obama is a basic liberal, no more no less. I don't find him particularly impressive. He could however do one great service for the country; provide a sane political voice for black America. Obama may not be the greatest guy or anything beyond a garden variety liberal, but he is at least a serious guy and not a race hustler. If Obama could displace people like Al Sharpton and Jesee Jackson from the national scene, he would do more good for the country than he ever could as President.

|1.16.07 @ 4:24PM|#

"It must be very strange to be President Bush. A man of extraordinary vision and brilliance approaching to genius, he can't get anyone to notice. He is like a great painter or musician who is ahead of his time, and who unveils one masterpiece after another to a reception that, when not bored, is hostile."

John Hindraker, Powerline

No real relevance, except maybe an ad homenim about his capacity to judge the capabilities of political leaders. I just really, really love that quote.

|1.16.07 @ 4:25PM|#

"let's say you're a bit of a college flunky and you get elected president of the US."

Yeah but Al Gore, who couldn't finish law school, didn't get elected President.

|1.16.07 @ 4:28PM|#

Yeah but Al Gore, who couldn't finish law school, didn't get elected President.

He was actually elected President, just not allowed to claim the office.

David Weigel|1.16.07 @ 4:30PM|#

Joe, the best part of that blog post, often left out, was the start of the next graf.

"Hyperbolic? Well, maybe."

Yeah, just maybe.

Todd Fletcher|1.16.07 @ 4:31PM|#

David's analysis may be correct, but the point holds that is "difficult to discern Obama's qualifications for the presidency". Of course, if his qualifications were obvious, he probably wouldn't want to run at all.

|1.16.07 @ 4:36PM|#

Bush had been the governor of Texas for six years, and before that a businessman with - let's be nice about it - a mixed record of achievements.

It was a mixed record? I didn't know he'd achieved anything in the field of business. Can someone enlighten me?

|1.16.07 @ 4:38PM|#

Listen, the cat's good and all, but he ain't gonna be our nation's next president...no way shape or form. Now Gore/Obama 2008--that's a different story...
www.minor-ripper.blogspot.com

Warren|1.16.07 @ 4:38PM|#

I know, you'll probably scream and cry
That your little world wont let you go
But who in your measly little world,
Are you tryin to prove to that you're
Made out of gold and, cant be sold.

So, are you experienced?
Have you ever been experienced?
Well, I have
Let me prove it to you.

|1.16.07 @ 4:39PM|#

The Wiege (sorry, I saw this as a typo the other day, but I really like it) is shocked, shocked that partisans have an Al Davis attitiude about their party's candidate? That they are willing to argue any position if it benefits their team?

A 13 year old with less than average self esteem, a poor body image, and 30 close frenemies in her buddy list has more principalled convictions than your average party hack.

Yeah but Al Gore, who couldn't finish law school...

He left law school to run for congress, John...after graduating cum laude from Harvard. Why don't you try NOT posting easily-disputed, partisan misinformation for a change.

|1.16.07 @ 4:40PM|#

Sorry, I typo'd my typo. S/B The Weige.

Warren|1.16.07 @ 4:40PM|#

Les,
As I recall, he schmoozed a pipeline of oil money into the coffers of some AAA baseball team.

|1.16.07 @ 4:41PM|#

I must have missed the Condi boomlet. Was there one?

ed|1.16.07 @ 4:41PM|#

Wow, so Hillary's presidency is over already?
Shortest one since William Henry Harrison.

wingnutx|1.16.07 @ 4:42PM|#

At a meeting of activists in New York last week, the Rev Jesse Jackson, the first black candidate to run for president, declined to endorse Obama. "Our focus right now is not on who's running, because there are a number of allies running," Jackson said.

The Rev Al Sharpton, the fiery New York preacher who joined the Democratic primary race in 2004, said he was considering another presidential run of his own. And Harry Belafonte, the calypso singer who became an influential civil rights activist, said America needed to be "careful" about Obama: "We don't know what he's truly about." . . .

When asked about Obama's likely candidacy, [Sharpton] shrugged: "Right now we're hearing a lot of media razzle-dazzle. I'm not hearing a lot of meat, or a lot of content. I think when the meat hits the fire, we'll find out if it's just fat, or if there's some real meat there." . . .

"He's a young man in many ways to be admired," Belafonte said. "Obviously very bright, speaks very well, cuts a handsome figure. But all of that is just the king's clothes. Who's the king?"

Bhh|1.16.07 @ 4:43PM|#

Failed to find oil in Texas. A few times. Got bailed out by Saudis. Got the taxpayers to build him a stadium.

|1.16.07 @ 4:45PM|#

When I was in college, I was really more of a henchman rather than a flunky.

Warren|1.16.07 @ 4:47PM|#

ed,
Not so fast. She may decide not to run, but if she runs, she wins the nomination. Nothing else will matter next to her rolodex.

|1.16.07 @ 4:49PM|#

John,

Do you know why Al Gore dropped out of law school?

I suspect it wasn't cocaine and booze. Who knows, perhaps a little blow would have helped Gore as much as it helped Bush.

|1.16.07 @ 4:52PM|#

"Do you know why Al Gore dropped out of law school?"

Yes I am fully aware of that. Did you know Bush got his MBA from Harvard and John Kerry despite going to Yale and being a decorated veteren, and being worth a gazillion dollars ended up at BC not a Ivy? Al Gore is not an intellectual giant by any stretch. Some people really are smart, Jimmmy Carter despite being a horrible human being is a nuclear engineer. But Democrats like Al Gore, whose father and privileged life got him where he was, are never called out for it. Only Republicans.

|1.16.07 @ 4:54PM|#

Although I can't wait for Obama's candidacy, so I can hear all of the Reasonites bow at the DNC alter and explain how gun control, protectionism and socialized medicine are really good things.

|1.16.07 @ 5:00PM|#

"If Obama could displace people like Al Sharpton and Jesee Jackson from the national scene, he would do more good for the country than he ever could as President."

From today's Opinion Journal:

The Associated Press reports that Barack Obama, Illinois's African-American junior senator, has established a presidential exploratory committee in preparation for a possible run next year. Meanwhile, London's Sunday Times reports that there is a distinct lack of enthusiasm among so-called civil rights leaders:

At a meeting of activists in New York last week, the Rev Jesse Jackson, the first black candidate to run for president, declined to endorse Obama. "Our focus right now is not on who's running, because there are a number of allies running," Jackson said.

The Rev Al Sharpton, the fiery New York preacher who joined the Democratic primary race in 2004, said he was considering another presidential run of his own. And Harry Belafonte, the calypso singer who became an influential civil rights activist, said America needed to be "careful" about Obama: "We don't know what he's truly about." . . .

When asked about Obama's likely candidacy, [Sharpton] shrugged: "Right now we're hearing a lot of media razzle-dazzle. I'm not hearing a lot of meat, or a lot of content. I think when the meat hits the fire, we'll find out if it's just fat, or if there's some real meat there." . . .

"He's a young man in many ways to be admired," Belafonte said. "Obviously very bright, speaks very well, cuts a handsome figure. But all of that is just the king's clothes. Who's the king?"

What's going on here? It's common enough for black "leaders" to attack black Republicans like Clarence Thomas and Michael Steele--Belafonte has even made racist remarks about Colin Powell--but Obama is a Democrat, so the hostility toward him isn't partisan in origin. Nor is it ideological, really. Obama may not be as ultraleft as Belafonte, but he is a very liberal Democrat--certainly more liberal than either of the Clintons, whom the "civil rights" crowd lionize.

Our view is that Obama threatens Jackson, Sharpton and Belafonte precisely because he has an appeal that transcends race. If Obama is able to gain widespread appeal as a national political figure, it undermines the basis of white guilt, namely the assumption that America remains a deeply racist society. Men like Jackson, Sharpton and Belafonte have made their careers on the exploitation of white guilt. Obama is a threat to their power and livelihood.

wingnutx|1.16.07 @ 5:02PM|#

"Sambo"?

What are you, some kind of Russian martial arts expert?

|1.16.07 @ 5:06PM|#

But Democrats like Al Gore, whose father and privileged life got him where he was, are never called out for it. Only Republicans.

No, not only Republicans. Just Bush. Because he stands out among middling intellects as the very, very lowest rung on the ladder. Because no other President has ever accomplished so little before taking office. Because he's never said anything unscripted that was insightful or original or interesting. Because there's a book's worth of things he's said that are grammatic and intellectual trainwrecks.

Not just Republicans. Just this "very special" Republican.

|1.16.07 @ 5:07PM|#

"But Democrats like Al Gore, whose father and privileged life got him where he was, are never called out for it."

Did you know Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA)'s husband's company is making millions and millions from the war in the middle east?

It's amaizing what the MSM won't cover...

|1.16.07 @ 5:10PM|#

""Sambo"?

What are you, some kind of Russian martial arts expert?"

huh?

Dude,

I would not be making fun of Uwe Boll. I hate to link myself, but check this out.
http://brightlightsfilm.blogspot.com/2006/12/ooowwweee-uwe-director-clocks-critics.html

KipEsquire|1.16.07 @ 5:11PM|#

Isn't the better comparison/contrast between Obama and Dan Quayle? Both were/are essentially empty, non-intellectual pretty-boy candidates.

As we all recall, Quayle had eight years in the Senate (far more than Obama), yet he was mocked as inexperienced after the infamous VP debate with Lloyd Bentsen.

So at least some veteran Democrats will be opening themselves up to accusations of hypocrisy if they say "inexperience is irrelevant" (or, worse, "inexperience is an asset").

|1.16.07 @ 5:12PM|#

"Because he's never said anything unscripted that was insightful or original or interesting."

I love it when you lie. It makes my nipples hard.

|1.16.07 @ 5:13PM|#

Obama, by his voting record, is less liberal than Hillary.

Don't be fooled by the Hill's rhetorical shift centerwise.

|1.16.07 @ 5:17PM|#

Skippy,

At the expense of your hard nipples, I would be more than pleased if you would find me an unscripted quote of W.'s that was insightful or original. I'll leave out "interesting" because he's actually said lots of things that are interesting, because they make you wonder how he ever got where he is.

|1.16.07 @ 5:18PM|#

Am I the only one here that thinks this is all a bit premature? It's still more than a year until the Iowa beauty pageant. Oops, I meant caucuses.

|1.16.07 @ 5:23PM|#

I think that the attacks of faint praise for Obama are partisan, just a partisanship within the DP. My theory that Hill moved to NYC as a way to become the NYC and Harlem "local girl" in terms of influence is sounding better (to me) all the time. Her social conservatism may also be an attractant for Jackson and Sharpton. After all, the only problem that they have with social conservatism is where it intersects with racism against blacks. They appear to find the rest of it quite compelling, including biases against other racial and social groups.

|1.16.07 @ 5:29PM|#

"I would be more than pleased if you would find me an unscripted quote of W.'s that was insightful or original"

Serching the web to disprove a negative isn't really my bag.

Nice try, though.

|1.16.07 @ 5:30PM|#

KipEsquire,

I agree about the experience factor. But I think the difference between Obama and Dan Quayle is that Obama, regardless of his politics, hasn't demonstrated a Bushesque lack of intellectual prowess. I'll think of the two as similar when Obama starts to say things like:

The Holocaust was an obscene period in our nation's history. I mean in this century's history. But we all lived in this century. I didn't live in this century.

We're going to have the best-educated American people in the world.

One word sums up probably the responsibility of any vice president, and that one word is 'to be prepared'.

And when he was the Chairman of the Nation Space Council:

Mars is essentially in the same orbit... Mars is somewhat the same distance from the Sun, which is very important. We have seen pictures where there are canals, we believe, and water. If there is water, that means there is oxygen. If oxygen, that means we can breathe.

|1.16.07 @ 5:31PM|#

John said:

If anything could make us abandon our principles for a candidate, it would be you and your "brilliant" rhetoric. (I still hate you for making joe look insightful and sensitive.)

|1.16.07 @ 5:33PM|#

Someone (I can't remember who) once claimed in connection with John Edwards that there was an old political saying (attributed to Sam Rayburn or someone like that) "Any damned fool can get elected ONCE." Bush in 2000 was not and Hillary in 2008 will not be particularly experienced in government, but they at least demonstrated by their re-elections in 1998 and 2006 that their constituents approved of what they had done in office. Edwards, in contrast, would probably have been defeated for re-election to the Senate in 2004, so no one should have been surprised that he was not able to carry North Carolina or any other Southern state for Kerry. Given Obama's popularity and Illinois's Democratic drift, an Obama re-election in 2010 seems (if he isn't President first) to be inevitable, but it hasn't happened yet. With rare exceptions, no one should be elected President without at least one re-election behind him. Otherwise we get Woodrow Wilson, Warren Harding, or Jimmy Carter (all of whom had never been re-elected).
Nonetheless, I predict that Obama will be nominated and pick the also-non-re-elected Jim Webb as his running mate. I have much less confidence in making any Republican predictions.

|1.16.07 @ 5:35PM|#

Les: This isn't Quayle-level, but Obama did say in a speech at Brown that "a house divided against itself cannot fall." (Actually, numbers 2 and 3 on your list are no worse than that, although 1 and 4 certainly are.)

|1.16.07 @ 5:36PM|#

Skippy,

That's kinda weak of you. I said the President had never said anything unscripted that was insightful or original.

You responded by calling me a liar.

I asked you not to merely to provide me with an unscripted quote from the President that was insightful or original.

If you can't find one, you should be man enough to say so. You could at least be man enough to admit that I could be mistaken about Bush's intelligence while not lying about it. I'm perfectly open to the possibility that he said something unscripted that was insightful and/or original that I'd never heard before. It would certainly help me believe that the man is complex in some way.

|1.16.07 @ 5:38PM|#

James,

That is a good one. I agree with your rating as well. He might be more like Quayle than I thought! We'll just have to hear what he has to say about Mars.

|1.16.07 @ 5:40PM|#

At the expense of your hard nipples, I would be more than pleased if you would find me an unscripted quote of W.'s that was insightful or original.

BUSH: I own a timber company?

(LAUGHTER)

That's news to me.

(LAUGHTER)

Need some wood?

|1.16.07 @ 5:45PM|#

John,
How many C students, even at Yale, do you think get into Harvard Business School? Well, how about, how many got in who weren't the children of the Head of the CIA? Looking at HBS' stats, not a single person with Bush's 2.35 GPA got in. The lowest GPA in the bunch is a 2.6 (B-/C+).

Say what you will about Kerry's current life. But at the time he was going to college Bush's immediate family had more influence in their pinky than Kerry's did. Kerry wasn't worth a gazillion dollars when he applied to law school. He got his money the other old fashioned way, he married it.

|1.16.07 @ 5:46PM|#

jf,

I stand corrected. That was certainly original.

J|1.16.07 @ 5:48PM|#

I'll be taking bets for the length of the standing ovation this man receives at the Democratic Convention should he get the nod.

|1.16.07 @ 5:49PM|#

I stand corrected. That was certainly original.

And quite insightful...

It let everyone know that Bush has no idea what his own personal finances are.

|1.16.07 @ 5:52PM|#

Damn, ChicagoTom, you're right.

He really is a complex leader!

|1.16.07 @ 5:54PM|#

"If we find ourselves living in that second scenario, a cipher like Obama (especially if he colors in his bio by talking about cutting spending and getting out of Iraq) is exactly who Americans will want to elect."

Somebody help me out. I'm tryin' to decipher "cipher" here.

Doesn't that usually mean a person of little interest?

biologist|1.16.07 @ 6:08PM|#

Ken:

cipher, meaning a person about whom little is known

biologist|1.16.07 @ 6:11PM|#

or, maybe I'm wrong

from www.m-w.com:

Main Entry: 1ci·pher
Pronunciation: 'sI-f&r
Function: noun
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: Middle English, from Medieval Latin cifra, from Arabic sifr empty, cipher, zero
1 a : ZERO 1a
1 b : one that has no weight, worth, or influence : NONENTITY
2 a : a method of transforming a text in order to conceal its meaning -- compare CODE 3b
2 b : a message in code
3 : ARABIC NUMERAL
4 : a combination of symbolic letters; especially : the interwoven initials of a name

|1.16.07 @ 6:16PM|#

biologist,

Per the etymology defition 1 makes sense, but in usage definition 2 totally predominates.

RSDavis|1.16.07 @ 6:16PM|#

This guy is too nice. Bush's experience was conveyed in the election as to running the country like a business, 'cept he couldn't do that worth a flip. And there is no #1 and #2 option on the escalation and further deployment...American soldiers will continue to die for nothing. period.

It is improbable, impractical, and dangerous to try and run a country like a business. Of course, the country wants us to run our businesses like a government, which isn't much better...

- R

|1.16.07 @ 6:23PM|#

Oooh! Oooh!
*raises hand*

Barak's got plenty of experience! After all, he's on the board of directors for The Joyce Foundation!

Boy, I'll be that he writes a lot of legislation that they disagree with, too.

"At a meeting of activists in New York last week, the Rev Jesse Jackson, the first black candidate to run for president, declined to endorse Obama."

Whoever wrote this has apparently forgotten the Chrisholm '72 campaign.
Just saying.

|1.16.07 @ 6:24PM|#

*sigh*

This link should work. Because I used preview to double check.

"Although I can't wait for Obama's candidacy, so I can hear all of the Reasonites bow at the DNC alter and explain how gun control, protectionism and socialized medicine are really good things."

Hey John, blow me.

|1.16.07 @ 6:31PM|#

I'm under the impression that Obama is intelligent, and expresses well the concepts behind his pinko commie philosophy.

But seriously, do you really think the first non-white person elected president is going to listed under.

Obama, Barack Hussein Jr.

?

Really?

I predict that Clinton eats him for lunch in the primary.

|1.16.07 @ 6:49PM|#

The Democratic leadership just doesn't see things the way your average swing voter does--they don't have bubba-vision.

It happens to both sides. They think that a swing away from the other guy is a swing toward them. ...it wasn't that long ago when the economy was great, and the incumbent VP couldn't even carry his home state. They're both stuck in the same cycle.

Win. Overreach. Lose. Repeat.

greg wirth|1.16.07 @ 7:37PM|#

At first glance, you are impressed with Obama, then you realize his vision of government is that of classic New Deal liberalism, then you get sick to your stomach.

|1.16.07 @ 7:52PM|#

Les:"I would be more than pleased if you would find me an unscripted quote of W.'s that was insightful or original"

Skippy:Serching[sic] the web to disprove a negative isn't really my bag.

Uhh, Skippy, you old bush kangaroo, you, It was Les who stated the negative.

All you have too do is find one, that's right, one, single "unscripted quote of W.'s that was insightful or original" and you've proved that Les is an idiot.

Umm, so far, I haven't seen anything. Kind of makes me wonder who the idiot is here.

|1.16.07 @ 8:14PM|#

No, not only Republicans. Just Bush. Because he stands out among middling intellects as the very, very lowest rung on the ladder. Because no other President has ever accomplished so little before taking office. Because he's never said anything unscripted that was insightful or original or interesting. Because there's a book's worth of things he's said that are grammatic and intellectual trainwrecks.

Depressing, really. The Republicans put up someone as bad as Bush...and the Democrats couldn't come up with anyone who could beat him in two presidential elections. The Republicans offered the idiocies of free-spending "compassionate conservatism" and free-wheeling neo-conservatism, and the Democrats couldn't qualify as an opposition party, much less take back Congress, until the Republicans started visibly losing a war.

I'd say this was the bottom and that there was no way but up, but Teams Blue and Red might have shovels laying around...

|1.16.07 @ 8:37PM|#

The Democrats did beat him in one presidential election, and in they other, they came closer to unseating a wartime president than at any other time in American history.

You're right that the Dems haven't exactly written the book on how to be a quality opposition party, but there are much better ways of making that point.

Brian|1.16.07 @ 9:21PM|#

Uhh...no one here should be concerned about Obama running...didn't you clowns here? Ron Paul put together his exploratory committee! Why Hit & Run hasn't covered it is beyond me.

Brian|1.16.07 @ 9:22PM|#

...I mean hear. That is all.

vinc|1.16.07 @ 9:37PM|#

Obama has tons of faults but he is not a "non-intellectual pretty-boy." Among other things, he was president of the Harvard Law Review, graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, and taught at the University of Chicago Law School. And he did that without family connections.

|1.16.07 @ 10:15PM|#

Bush's best quote.

(Although he kinda ruins the delivery by hyper-snickering afterward.)

|1.16.07 @ 10:48PM|#

You beat me to it, vinc. Whether or not one likes Obama's politics, one doesn't become a professor at U of Chicago Law School by being "anti-intellectual". Award goes to KipE for stupidest comment in the thread.

|1.16.07 @ 10:53PM|#

And not to harp on this too much, but it's also unfair to describe Quayle as "anti-intellectual". I don't think that word means what you think it does.

|1.16.07 @ 10:56PM|#

This guy is too nice. Bush's experience was conveyed in the election as to running the country like a business, 'cept he couldn't do that worth a flip.

Sure he could. Enron was a business.

|1.16.07 @ 11:01PM|#

Did you know Bush got his MBA from Harvard and John Kerry despite going to Yale and being a decorated veteren, and being worth a gazillion dollars ended up at BC not a Ivy?

And did you know that Bush got rejected from the University of Texas Law School because his grades were crap? You should, I've pointed it out to you repeatedly. Every time somebody points out Bush's intellectual shortcomings, you trot out the fact that he went to Harvard. As if that meant anything. His Daddy got him in as a legacy, after his daddy bought him out of the service in Vietnam that he would have faced because his daddy's connections couldn't get his son into UT, the Law School of his choice. Really John, I've said this a half dozen times now, I'm starting to feel as if I'm being ignored so that you can preserve your partisan worldview.

|1.16.07 @ 11:03PM|#

Uhh...no one here should be concerned about Obama running...didn't you clowns here? Ron Paul put together his exploratory committee! Why Hit & Run hasn't covered it is beyond me.

Apparently some clowns can't read so well.

|1.17.07 @ 1:00AM|#

The Democrats did beat him in one presidential election

Only if one prefers to ignore the Constitution.

and in they other, they came closer to unseating a wartime president than at any other time in American history.

Or, looking at it another way, they not only failed to gain any ground during the term of an awful president, they actually gave him a bigger victory.

You're right that the Dems haven't exactly written the book on how to be a quality opposition party

Indeed, I am.

but there are much better ways of making that point.

Well, there is their sheer fecklessness and near-total unwillingness to meaningfully oppose the abuses Bush engaged in. While talking about violations of international law and a war that should be stopped and civil liberties violations and torture, the only horror they actually stirred to thwart was...Social Security reform.

Yeah. Those things are probably worse.

But going on since 2000 about how stupid, hopeless, and incompetent Bush is and somehow failing to produce a candidate who could beat him - [b]twice[/b] - is pretty lame.

|1.17.07 @ 1:13AM|#

Hmm, Obama is only serious candidate running who did not vote for the Iraq debacle, over 3000 American's dead, many many more Iraqi's, as well as the emboldening of AL Qaeda and Iran alike.

But uh oh though, he might increase minimum wage. Shit, maybe even up medicare benefits.

Oh, the humanity. The tyranny stops now.

The Wine Commonsewer|1.17.07 @ 1:22AM|#

Vote Obama, it's the libertarian thing to do.

And Mr Goodbar sez...............

Do it today.

|1.17.07 @ 7:07AM|#

I've talked to quite a few black people about Obama, and one thing that struck me is that black people really don't like the guy. Obama is the northeastern liberal fantasy of what a black man should be- a clean cut Harvard Grad who grew up in Hawaii raised by his white mother and white grandparents. The only "black" Obama has in him is a DNA contribution made by an absentee African (not African American, but African) father.

|1.17.07 @ 9:02AM|#

Beyond his TV like platitudes, Obama is nothing more than an elitist and a socialist (as long as he can keep his kingdom and pile of $). He is also disturbingly anti-second amendment.

|1.17.07 @ 9:57AM|#

"Did you know Bush got his MBA from Harvard and John Kerry despite going to Yale and being a decorated veteren, and being worth a gazillion dollars ended up at BC not a Ivy?"

so do you detest bush for being such an intellectual elite

or do you admire him in this comment as an intellectual elitist yourself?

yes, BC Law - might as well have just gone to juco.

|1.17.07 @ 12:05PM|#

Powerline brings down the collective IQ of the internet about 20 points.

|1.17.07 @ 12:19PM|#

IMHO, legacy appointments should be eliminated becaue they are an undeniable vestige of our nations past racism. Those on the right that are against affirmation action (Me Too) and are silent about legacy preferences are idiots at best and hypocriticical racists at worst.

|1.17.07 @ 5:15PM|#

I figured legacy admissions are to secure future donations from the (presumably affluent) parent. No?

|1.17.07 @ 10:08PM|#

The Democrats did beat him in one presidential election,...

Well, they would have beaten him if only they had been able to make unmarked ballots in Florida into votes for Gore. Unfortunately the SCOTUS stopped them.

It's amazing that the evil Republicans were able to steal an election in a state where almost all of the election machinery was controlled by the Democrats. That was the point that I realized we were doomed to anything those evil geniuses wanted.

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