Dangerous Times

[Annie]

Out of nowhere:

http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2006/09/sweet_column_first_look_at_new.html

Sweet Column: First look at new Obama book. Dems ``confused,'' he writes.


WASHINGTON -- In his new book, dedicated to his mother and maternal grandmother -- the women "who raised me" -- Sen. Barack Obama accuses fellow Democrats of being "confused" as the Democratic Party "has become the party of reaction."

He also relates how during a meeting with President Bush he found the president seemingly transformed in one sitting as Bush's "easy affability" over a breakfast "was replaced by an almost messianic certainty" as the encounter progressed.


The dedication in Obama's The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream is of note because the storyline embraced by the media and the public about the Illinois Democrat -- underscored by his recent trip to Africa and his first book, the best-selling Dreams from My Father -- puts the emphasis on his black Kenyan father who abandoned him rather than his mother, a white Kansas native, who raised him.

Obama sandwiched in time to write the book starting in his 2005 freshman year, completing it this summer, often working at night, writing as his political stock was growing each month to the point where he is now being touted as a possible 2008 presidential candidate. Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes hosted a press conference on Thursday in Chicago urging Obama to run in 2008.

Obama travels to Iowa this Sunday, where he is the marquee draw for Democrats at Sen. Tom Harkin's annual steak fry in the state playing a crucial role in determining White House nominees. Harkin told me Thursday Obama would be a "very credible" 2008 candidate.

Iowans this Sunday will want to see if there is some "sympatico, is there a gut feeling about this person.... They want to feel his cloth, they want to see just how real this guy is," Harkin said.

The book will be published Oct. 17 with the launch of a national book tour in Chicago.

Obama, in the most up-to-date manuscript available, talks about his life in the Senate in what is a policy primer spiked with personal stories. It is far more policy, less personal than his first book, though it is written with the same voice.

The nine chapters cover a range of issues: about Republicans and Democrats, values, politics, opportunity, faith, race, international affairs and family, where he dwells on the struggle he has had in juggling duties as a senator, father and husband.

He uses strong tough-love rhetoric in attacking Democrats -- not to be confused with a rant -- not surprising to anyone who has followed his speeches and comments for the past two years.

"We Democrats are just, well, confused," Obama writes. He goes on. "Mainly, though, the Democratic Party has become the party of reaction. In reaction to a war that is ill-conceived, we appear suspicious of all military action.

"In reaction to those who proclaim the market can cure all ills, we resist efforts to use market principles to tackle pressing problems. In reaction to religious overreach, we equate tolerance with secularism, and forfeit the moral language that would help infuse our policies with a larger meaning."

On Bush, Obama relates two encounters with the president. "Both times I found the President to be a likable man, shrewd and disciplined but with the same straightforward manner that had helped him win two elections."

However, at his second time with Bush, at a breakfast meeting, Obama writes, "There had been a moment ... that I witnessed a different side of the man. The President had begun to discuss his second-term agenda, mostly a reiteration of his campaign talking points ... when suddenly it felt as if somebody in a back room had flipped a switch.

"The President's eyes became fixed; his voice took on the agitated, rapid tone of someone neither accustomed to nor welcoming interruption; his easy affability was replaced by an almost messianic certainty."


Copyright © The Sun-Times Company

 

[CrimsonWhite]

"Now even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters, the negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes.Well, I say to them tonight, there is not a liberal America and a conservative America — there is the United States of America. There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America — there’s the United States of America. The pundits, the pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. But I’ve got news for them, too:
We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don’t like federal agents poking around in our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and yes, we’ve got some gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and there are patriots who supported the war in Iraq. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America."

Sen. Barack Obama

Sounds good, doesn't it?

 

[Gunny]

Sounds good, doesn't it?

That'll probably get him sitting on the curb with Lieberman.

 

[Stephanie]

That'll probably get him sitting on the curb with Lieberman.

 

[NATO AIR]

If only he doesn't fall for the temptation to run now, he could be a fine president in 8-12 years if Washington doesn't corrupt him too badly.

By then perhaps the old Democratic party will be gone and something more represenative of common sense and decency will have taken its place. Certainly he's a man conservatives can do business with on a number of important issues.

 

[Avatar4321]

maybe there is some hope for liberals if one of them can remember the concept of the American dream. The question is will he continue to support liberal policies destroying the American dream or start acting in a way to allow Americans to succeed.