The Draft Obama movement has begun!

[Hailtothechimp]

http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2006/09/draft_obama_2008_movement_laun.html

Thanks to Dan Hynes for getting the ball rolling.

[EST]

1. You have got to be kidding...

[rubberducky]

2. No way.

[acmejack]

3. I feel ill.

Perhaps you would care to explain why Obama deserves to be drafted? Unless you are thinking to send his ass to Iraq that is...

[Hailtothechimp]

4. Why all the hostility?

If he doesn't jump in, it's all Hillary, all the time. Nobody here wants that, do they?

[bigdarryl]

5. Proves the dems are in trouble and looking for a canidate

Any time a party like this has to look at a newly elected senator for President it tells a lot about this party.

[question everything]

10. Agree. After Gore and Kerry what, while brilliant

could not keep regular voter interested, we are looking for a charismatic leader... like Ann Richards who can lead us.

But even if Obama is charismatic, what has he done that we want to entrust him with the most powerful office in the world?

Or is it, because he has been a senator only two years, he had not generated a track record that would need defending?

In general, we need to look outside Congress. Being a legislator and being an executive are two different roles requiring different skills and track records.

[snowbear]

12. What a lame comment Darryl...

"Tells you a lot about this party"

:mad: :mad: :mad:

Like the re-Thugs has a helluva fine crop of folks... ==Give me a &^%$@ break!!!==

[QuidditchFan]

19. I love the inherent contradictions

The same people who bash the Democractic Party for not taking risky or unpopular stances are now bashing the Democratic institution for considering a black, relative newbie to the political scene? What greater risk than this? And really, given the immutable risk/reward trade-off, I am all for taking this risk.

I, for one (as you can maybe tell by how often I post around here), am incredibly inspired by Barack Obama. I am inspired by his intelligence; I am inspired by his ecclectic upbringing; I am completely blown away by the potential that maybe, just maybe, he is one who can unite an America sick of division.

[TankLV]

26. Nope - we're bashing this idiot because of his VIEWS and STATEMENTS.

We don't care "who" or "what" he is.

Only know he's a BIGTIME DISAPPOINTMENT and WAY overrated...

[sendero]

7. He's no better than Hillary..

... politically. Really, another milktoast smiling face? No, this is not the time for that kind of leader.

[mtnsnake]

16. Not too many are, but if he's her equal, then he's got a good chance of

winning the presidency, especially if he's as brilliant a person as Hillary is. Let's hope he's as good a politician as she is and we might be looking at President Obama in 2008 with the way he can get voters excited for change. Yeah

[tkmorris]

9. I don't think that's true at all

There will be others in the race. Hillary is the 900 lb gorilla to be sure, but there will be others. The only candidates I see right now who could really challenge Hillary in the early going would be Gore or Kerry, and to a lesser extent Edwards or perhaps Clark. Anyone else would start out at a significant deficit to Hillary, and that includes Obama.

[acmejack]

21. Obama has no qualifications.

He wanted Lieberman as a mentor. He is another bought and paid for corporatist. He is an "image is everything" guy, no substance-name one piece of legislation he has authored, just one. There is nothing Presidential about this guy, nothing.

Please, tell me why I want this guy for my leader? What is he going to do for me? Tell me? There isn't anything that this man is going to a damned thing for me or the working class, he hasn't got a clue. I want a real change, not business as usual-that's why I am hostile. Take a look at Obama's voting record on issues that matter & while he had the DLC remove his name from their rolls, do you think he really isn't still one of them at heart?

[tkmorris]

6. I also think this an awful idea

The only thing Obama has going for him to suggest him as a presidential candidate is eloquence. He lacks in every other regard, including to me solid liberal credentials. I'm NOT calling him a DINO by any means, but the fact is that at this point in his career it isn't clear to me quite what he is. He simply hasn't developed enough of a track record in the Senate to know.

There seem to me to be two schools of thought for most Dems when it comes to selecting a candidate. We either back someone who most matches our own views (often the most Liberal candidate, at least around here) or we back the "most electable" candidate, usually described as one that can carry at least a few southern states. Barack Obama fits neither of these categories.

[AtomicKitten]

8. I've seen many Obama 2008 bumper stickers here in SF

and quite frankly don't think it's a terrible idea. I would prefer Gore run but that's my personal prejudice. Short of him, I'd like a fresh face, someone who inspires with eloquence.

[snowbear]

11. He was on CNN's Situation Room today & Wolf was pressing him...

I thought these snippets were interesting..

Blitzer: Let me read to you, Senator, what you were quoted as saying in your hometown newspaper, the "Chicago Sun-Times" in November of 2004: "I am not running for president in 2008. The only reason I'm being definitive is because until I'm definitive you" -- referring to reporters -- "will keep asking me this question, but it's a silly question."



Is it a silly question? Because I'll ask you flat out, are you thinking right now of throwing your hat in the ring and running for the Democratic presidential nomination?

SEN. BARAK OBAMA (D), ILLINOIS: Well, let's put this in context, Wolf. That question was asked of me the day after I had been elected to the United States Senate.

I hadn't been sworn in yet, I hadn't gotten an office here in the Senate, and, you know, I thought the question was silly.



(Senator Obama he says what every potential candidate says "I'm focused on 2006 right now.."
continued >> http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0609/14/sitroom.01.html
-----------------------------
He also tells Wolf that his trip to Iowa this weekend is to help out his Democratic comrades, but Chris Ciillizza of the Washington Post doesn't seem to buy it and wrote this today:



"Obama in Iowa: Preview of 2008?

After watching Illinois Sen. Barack Obama (D) closely over the last few months, we've grown more and more convinced that he will come under significant pressure to at least consider a run for president in 2008.

While Obama -- and his staff -- continue to deny any interest in a national bid in two years time, his actions seem to belie his comments on the subject.

The latest evidence? Obama will be the special guest of Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin (D) at his annual steak fry held this Sunday at the Warren County Fairgrounds in Indianola. Harkin has hosted the event for the past 29 years, and it has become a regular stop for presidential aspirants. Harkin's guest in 2005 was former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, who is widely expected to run for president again in 2008.

More >> http://blog.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2006/09/obama_2008.html


Who knows? ~~ He (like John Edwards & Marker Warner also headed to Iowa this weekend) may actually be considering it?

[Ninja Jordan]

13. And it should end right now....

he hasn't even finished a term as Senator.

[snowbear]

18. Obama = 7 years state senator/2 years U.S. Senator --> Bush: crappy TX Gov

If Bush can be elected after only 1.5 terms as the WORST Governor in the Nation.. Surely someone with NINE years as a state and U.S. senator can run!!

[mtnsnake]

14. Hey, he's as good or better than anything else we've got

At least he knows how to inspire when he talks, which is saying a hell of a lot more than you can say for the rest of them.

I think Obama is destined to become president one day. If it's sooner than later, so be it.

[AtomicKitten]

15. I completely agree.

:)

[mtnsnake]

17. Hi AK

I like your endorsement. :)

[TankLV]

27. Not by a LONG shot - he's at the BOTTOM of my list of who we've got.

There are HUNDREDS better than him and more qualified and deserving...

[leesa]

20. Absolutely not interested. We don't need any more corporate

'yes men'. He might give nice speeches but his actions don't match his words. He's a weenie.

[lwcon]

22. Include me out

To score some cheap political points, Obama threw the rest of the party -- and, especially all secular humanists, agnostics, and atheists -- under the bus:

http://vastleft.blogspot.com/2006/06/illinoise_115163328780123540.html

How about Gore/Feingold or Gore/Clark?

___

Hey, the liberal light is always on at the Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy. Please stop by and say "hi!"

[SaveElmer]

23. Barack Obama WILL be President of the U.S. someday...

I don't think it will be 2008.

I believe should Hillary make the decision to run, she will be the candidate and the next President.


Barack Obama is one of the brightest lights in our party, and is going to be an exceptional leader for many years!

He is a very impressive person!

[Hell Hath No Fury]

24. Sorry, but we need a seasoned professional...

to pull our country out of the ditch Bush has driven us, not a greenhorn. And we certainly don't need anyone who might "make nice" after 2008 with the criminals who just about killed our country.

Obama might interest me in 10 years or so.

[TankLV]

25. No way - no how.

Wrong man wrong time.

I haven't like ANYTHING that has come out of this OVERRATED idiots mouth ever since he got elected...

[bushisanidiot]

28. I love Obama. I'd vote for him in a heartbeat :)

I think he'd ignite apathetic young people into hitting the voting booth and reignite a portion of black america who feels that the party hasn't done enough for them. I think a hell of a lot of us could rally around this guy.. a hell of a lot of us.

[Bryan]

29. The Obama hype movement, more like

I don't want to take anything away from the Senator, but it's not like he magically brought everyone in IL together with the sheer force of his personal magnetism; much of the credit for his win goes to one of the strongest state Dem organizations in the country and not one but two fantastically inept challengers.

2008 is still a long way off, but at this point he's an overcautious neophyte who seems to thinks that his future depends on a whopping bloc of "moderates" that he can't afford to piss off.

[Vadem]

30. No, No and No! I love Barack but he is too early to the game...

Give him a few seasons and he will take the presidency, I predict! But certainly not in 2008! I think, in the interviews I've seen him in, he, too, agrees!