The Obama files: Articles and information to help convince skeptics

[fiorello]

This is a summary of information on Obama for 'skeptics' - about his positions, his advisors (which is the best way of looking forward to what he might actually do), his record and personal qualities. This is what convinced me to be an Obama supporter. It's not all positive - but it's enough. It may help convince others.

This was inspired by DFW's post about talking to people who are doubtful about Obama:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x6403231 )

(A few of the sources include negative information on Hillary Clinton - please excuse this, they date from the primary campaign.)

(1) Foreign Policy: Obama's team of advisors consist mainly of people who (like him) opposed the Iraq war from the start.

They include some very knowledgeable 'tough guys' - Richard Clarke (who tried to warn Bush about the terrorist threat back when Bush's advisors claimed that Clinton had 'a terrorism fetish'), and Zbignew Brezhinsky (a tough guy who was smart enough to warn against the Iraq invasion) - and also human rights experts such as Samantha Power.

So, whatever future foreign policy issues await, they will be addressed by people who got the last one right.

Sources:
http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/4940
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080121/berman

(2) Economic policy: Obama's main economic goal is to reduce the massive and growing gap between rich and poor in the U.S. He would do this mainly through shifts in taxes. Obama's economic team includes 'centrists' but it also includes progressives.

Obama's response to the current housing problem emphasizes that the root cause is the dismantling of government regulations (mainly by Republicans). "Mr. Obama proposed to rebuild the governments regulatory structure and promised not to clamp a too-tight hand on economic innovation. But he was unsparing in his view that industry lobbyists and weak legislators produced a misshapen deregulation of the economy."

Sources:
Rich-poor income gap:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/02/us/politics/02obama.html

Attitude toward regulation and the housing crisis:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/27/us/politics/27cnd-dems.html?hp

Advisors: Jason Furman, Jared Bernstein, James Galbraith.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C07E4DB113DF931A25755C0A96E9C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all#

(Paul Krugman writes that Jason Furman is "a very good guy, with a solid track record as a progressive":
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/11/jason-and-the-obamanauts )

(3) Obama supports a near-universal health care proposal, with only minor differences from John Edwards' and Hillary Clinton's. (May have been forgotten in the heat of the primary.)

Source.
http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/27/

(4) Obama's record as a legislator: most notable is his strong advocacy for civil liberties, and his work for ethics reform (with Russ Feingold).. His record in Illinois is often overlooked.

Sources:
Record in Illinois:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/03/AR2008010303303.html

Record in Washington: Obama's work with Feingold on ethics reform.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/06/AR2008010602402.html?hpid=topnews

Also: 'A card-carrying civil libertarian':
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/01/opinion/01rosen.html?ref=opinion

(5) Obama as a person: Obama is not an 'empty suit'. His two books have shown him to be a thoughtful person who goes far beyond campaign cliches.

There is also his personal history: from Harvard Law School (where he excelled) to community organizing in Chicago. Not many politicians have a record of actively working to help poor people.

Sources:
Obama's Chicago background.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/11/us/politics/11chicago.html

Obama's books:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/us/politics/18memoirs.html
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/21063

About Obama's broader view of politics:

"the main reason for his success surely has to do with the central theme of his rhetoric. In the convention speech, as in all his major speeches, Obama aimed far higher than the usual uninspiring Democratic laundry list of health care, good jobs, devotion to Roe v. Wade, and the rest. His subject is our shared civic culture, which he sees as under threat - mostly from the right
but also from the left.... He wants a political culture that is, to be sure, liberal in its outlook but does the difficult work of trying to speak to people who don't share liberalism's assumptions (without being accommodationist to conservatives in power; Obama is no Joe Lieberman)."

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/19651

PS. Did I forget to mention the Supreme Court?

Add your own - maybe this can serve as a useful collection.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. kicked, recommended, and bookmarked n/t

[jaxx]

2. Thanks for your getting this together.

I've bookmarked it and will use it to squash the pub lies.