Obama: "I'm better!" (and incredibly lucky in my short, sweet political career)

[candice]

...started my political career by knocking off all my Dem contenders, even the popular Black activist community leader Alice Palmer. That's what hiring an election expert can do to clear the playing field for you! Challenged their nomination petitions and got to run without opposition! That is giving the people a real voice!

Then on the take Bobby Rush's job (Black Panther leader). That failed. I was portrayed as too elitist. Learned my lesson. Go simple.

Fortunately, the 2002 elections turned the Illinois State House Democratic, and the newly appointed Black Majority Leader who had been there forever decided to play kingmaker for me. ("I'm going to make me a U.S. Senator.") Shoved some high-profile bills my way. I made my career in a year thanks to him and other hardworking state senators who had spent years doing the work when the Republicans thwarted them at every turn. Then it was time to run for U.S. Senate. My Dem and Repub opposition imploded (angry ex-wives). For weeks I had no opposition. Beating rabid Allan Keyes was snap.

After a year in the Senate, it was time to start campaigning for the world's most difficult job. Bush got on-the-job training, and I can always hire the expertise. I've been lucky! But I am better!

http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-02-28/news/barack-obama-screamed-at-me/

[anonymous171]

Is he Rambo or is he a weak naive lamb?

We may never know...

[cali]

1. Pathetic and desperate look good on you

Of course that's all I've ever seen you in. *snicker*

[jlake]

2. You are being hateful again.

[billbuckhead]

4. I bet the Obama movement is DESPERATE to keep this true meme off the radar

Democrats are the one who will be eventually desperate if this smiling empty suit is our nominee. Obama's background is troubling in so many ways.

[Kittycat]

6. The only one desperate is Clinton.

As her mismanaged campaign crashes and burns. The only choice now is if she plans on ejecting, or going down in flames with it.

[Little Star]

22. Desperate about everything, you can't even discuss him.

[anigbrowl]

23. Post it all over. Shout it from the rooftops for all I care.

[Colobo]

3. It's sad to see your desperation.

[BzaDem]

24. Did you read the article?

[tabatha]

5. So he's doing well in an extremely tough race

with an outstanding ground game, and he is just lucky.

[RazBerryBeret]

7. I just don't understand...

He is the most popular Democratic candidate in my lifetime. He is likeable, genuine, has 10 years of elected legislative experience, expert on constitutional law...So this is bad for our party? Go Dems...

[goclark]

28. Don't forget bringing in more voters than anyone

could ever remember!

Do they think the outpouring of new voters are there for Clinton?

[angie_love]

8. meh I liked the article about him, shows toughness. thx!

[CyberPieHole]

9. Obama's no better than W. He may prove to be as lucky, but he will never surpass W's mediocrity.n/t

[RBInMaine]

11. CRAZY post, and half the country DESPISES your candidate !

[Ino]

10. I can't find your quote in the linked article

Are these your own words, or are they in the article?

[DemGa]

12. "I got it right" -- because I wasn't there! ---- a striking pattern unfolds

Such adoration for one they hardly know!!

[stillcool]

13. wow....that article is being

plastered all over the net! Of course, Nowhere in it do I see your nasty remarks, but that's not unusual. What I want to know is...who is Todd Spivak?


Reporter: Obama "sounded vanilla" back when I covered him
Dallas Observer
In 2000, Todd Spivak covered Barack Obama's district for two community newspapers. "I was 25 and had no problem interviewing big-wig politicians, but I always had to steel my nerves when calling Obama," he writes. "His intelligence was intimidating, and my hands inevitably shook and sweated." The politician wasn't all that different from the image he projects now, but "one thing I can say is, I never heard him launch into the preacher-man voice he now employs during speeches. He sounded vanilla, and activists in his mostly black district often chided him for it."
----------------------

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-070403obama-ballot,1,57567.story
December 28, 2005
Houston Press... just like all the rest.

Todd Spivak of the Houston Press called me (and a couple other Houston podcasters) a few weeks ago for "an article he was doing on podcasting." We talked at length on the phone about all the cool things happening in podcasting. We talked about the amazing growth, we talked about the explosion of indie music on podcasts, we talked about the strong group of podcasters in Houston... in general, we talked about what a great new medium this was.

His article came out today and boy was I surprised. I was surprised enough to immediately shoot off a letter to the editor. This is the letter I sent:

-------------
What a total hack piece. Mr. Spivak called me in preparation for his article and despite a lot of facts to the contrary, proceeded to paint podcasting as a sideshow act of freaks with only a handful of listeners. Mr. Spivak had at his disposal professional podcasters in the Houston community that have large listener bases, advertisers, and compelling content. To paint podcasting in general, and the Houston podcasting scene in particular, with this brush is disingenuous if not libelous.

[casus belli]

14. Bitter much? n/t

[ElsewheresDaughter]

15. SPOT ON!!!

[Rageneau]

16. How did Obama get into Columbia? Into Harvard? Into the Senate?

My understanding is that he did not have the grades or the money to be accepted into either of these top educational institutions, but got in anyway. Does anybody besides me wonder 'how'?

I also understand that his selection to edit the Law Review was not scholastic or merit-based so much as it was "leadership" based. IOW, he made a very good personal impression on the selection committee.

Being appointed as the first 'black' editor of the Law Review then immediately secured him a large financial advance for the privilege of publishing his personal memoirs. (How many of you -- while still in college -- have been offered hundreds of thousands of dollars to write your memoirs?) If your name is Obama, step forward. But ONLY if your name is Obama.

From what I can find out, it seems to me that Obama has lived a very soft, very easy, very charmed life. He has never been subjected to any of the difficulties faced by poor people, much less poor black people. He seems to have been given special treatment at every single stage of his life. Even his election to the U.S. Senate was actually a "gimme." He didn't have to EARN a victory; his opponent was crazy Alan Keyes. Hell, even I could win against Alan Keyes!

Whereas Bill and Hillary Clinton earned everything they ever got through hard work and perserverence, Obama seems to have been GIVEN everything he has ever desired -- because of his good looks, beneficial timing, and his undeniably transcendent "coolness."

So even though we don't know if Obama will make a good president, we know for sure that he'll make a good Fonzie!

Unfortunately, for too many Americans these days, that's quite enough.

[candice]

19. I wondered if he benefited from affirmative action prior to his political career...

...he also had the advantage of being raised by middle-class whites (his mother and grandparents) in multi-cultural Hawaii--and four years in Indonesia with a wealthy Indonesian step-father). Attended a posh prep-school in Honolulu.

But he is a talented politician. Rezko picked a winner in Obama. When poor Blacks were without heat in a Rezko building in Obama's district during a Chicago winter, Rezko could find $1000 to pass on to Obama's latest campaign.

For more on Obama's early life, see:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/chi-070325obama-youth-story,1,4006113.story

[ElsewheresDaughter]

27. true that!

[emilyg]

17. k/r

[Little Star]

18. Hello Houston! I think that was one of the best

articles I've read in a while. I like the guys writing style. He really had nothing bad to say about Obama, just told his own work history on covering politics in Chicago. Good read.

[Little Star]

20. k&r

[NastyRiffraff]

21. Interesting article, and not a hit piece

The writer even says he still admires Obama. However, some of the more rabid Obama supporters will see it as a hit piece, because he points out that their hero is, at heart, an Illinois pol who used people to rise. Of course, some of us already knew that. That's not an indictment; simply a fact. It's not a deal-killer, either. Many politicians have less than savory incidents in their rise to power.

However, Obama takes pains to brush away his past political machinations. Were they illegal? Mostly, no. Unethical? Probably, but not any more than many tough pols from Illinois. But certainly not "clean," "fresh," and definitely not "new."

[IndyOp]

29. I am an Obama supporter and I agree with you that this seems to be a fair

article. No doubt that Spivak could've found others in the Illinois legislature who did not resent Obama and that would've balanced the piece a bit better, but, still, this is a fair article.

No one becomes a member of Congress or a member of the Senate or, especially, President without an over-sized ego.

My hope is that the people excited by this election - including me - will take our success at getting him elected as a sign that we can work together in other ways. Whether or not Obama was a successful community organizer, community organizing is what we need right now.

FDR ran as a conservative Democrat, concerned with trade agreements rather than people, but he rose to the occasion - to the needs of the time and the demands of the people.

[Political Heretic]

25. See ya.

:hi:

[jmg257]

26. Well - he has certainly been lucky with those great speeches and huge rallies and

awesome debates! You figure the #2, with so much "VAST experience" would have cleaned up. What gives???


Do not fear change!

[jackson_dem]

30. How did a local mediocrity morph into the political hulk overnight?

He was on his way to losing two straight congressional primaries and thereby ending any realistic chance for him to ever rise higher than the Illinois senate. Luck intervenes and within a year he becomes a political hulk who makes it onto the cover of Newsweek when all he had done was vote for Condi Rice's confirmation in the senate, becomes a media darling and hence becomes in demand to stump for Democrats all over the nation. He then parlayed this less than two years later to run for president and the msm instantly made him a co-front-runner at the beginning of 2007, selecting Obama to be Hill's sole challenger. Is there a kingmaker(s) lurking in the shadows?