XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.fan.barbra.streisand, alt.fan.j-garofalo   
   XPost: alt.fan.julia-roberts   
   From: help@help.help   
      
   On 4 Jun 2004 19:55:18 -0700, drgoldblatt6@netscape.net (Leland Milton   
   Goldblatt PhD) wrote:   
      
   >Remember the name Barack Obama. You'll be hearing it a lot as this   
   >election season unfolds.   
   >   
   >Mr. Obama, a Democrat, is tall, thin, youthful and very smart, and   
   >he's running (sometimes literally, depending on the schedule) for a   
   >U.S. Senate seat from Illinois.   
   >   
   >He's got a million-dollar smile and he's charismatic. At the moment he   
   >has a substantial lead in the polls. If that lead holds and he wins in   
   >November, he'll be only the third African-American to take a seat in   
   >the Senate since Reconstruction.   
   >   
   >His partisans describe Mr. Obama as a dream candidate, the point man   
   >for a new kind of politics designed to piece together a coalition   
   >reminiscent of the one blasted apart by the bullet that killed Robert   
   >Kennedy in 1968.   
   >   
   >In winning the Democratic primary in March, he took a startling 53   
   >percent of the total vote in a field of seven candidates, and he ran   
   >surprisingly well among white blue-collar voters. He told me he   
   >believes strongly that while there are powerful and persistent   
   >differences at work in society, there is also "a set of core values   
   >that bind us together as Americans."   
   >   
   >He said the basic idea of his campaign, which he described as "an   
   >experiment," was to see whether "we could recast politics" in a way   
   >that responded to his assumption "that people want to hear an   
   >expression of those common values."   
   >   
   >"I give the same speech," he said, "in the inner city, in rural,   
   >all-white farming communities, or up in the North Shore in well-to-do   
   >suburbs."   
   >   
   >His politics are left of center, but he said he is committed to   
   >working honestly with officials from a wide range of perspectives.   
   >   
   >Differences can be framed and addressed in ways that are positive and   
   >constructive, he said. He doesn't believe in the "slash and burn"   
   >tactics that have such a hold on today's politics, and he hasn't   
   >allowed any in his campaign.   
   >   
   >"There's a certain tone in politics that I aspire to," he said, "that   
   >allows me to disagree with people without being disagreeable."   
   >   
   >In a political era saturated with cynicism and deceit, Mr. Obama is   
   >asking voters to believe him when he talks about the values and   
   >verities that so many politicians have lied about for so long. He's   
   >asking, in effect, for a leap of political faith.   
   >   
   >So far, at least, the voters of Illinois seem to be responding. A   
   >Chicago Tribune poll released this week showed Mr. Obama with a huge   
   >lead, 52 percent to 30 percent, over his Republican rival, Jack Ryan.   
   >   
   >Mr. Obama has not ducked the issues. He has opposed the war in Iraq   
   >from the beginning, and he delivered a stirring antiwar speech at a   
   >rally in October 2002. He supports the war in Afghanistan. He believes   
   >the Bush tax cuts went too far, and he makes that clear even in   
   >appearances before wealthy audiences. He said: "I tell them, `Look, I   
   >think we need to roll back those tax cuts that benefited you. You   
   >don't need them. Let's talk about what we could do with that money.' "   
   >   
   >Mr. Obama, 42, is a state senator who has managed to work well with   
   >colleagues on both sides of the aisle. In a state that drew national   
   >publicity for the large number of condemned prisoners who were later   
   >found to be innocent, he was the driving force behind a new law   
   >requiring the police to videotape all interrogations in capital cases.   
   >   
   >Mr. Obama is married and has two young daughters. He graduated magna   
   >cum laude from Harvard Law School, and in 1990 was the first black   
   >person to be elected president of the Harvard Law Review. His wife,   
   >Michelle, is also a graduate of Harvard Law.   
   >   
   >Mr. Obama has written a moving memoir called "Dreams From My Father,"   
   >which details his unusual and in some ways extraordinary background.   
   >His father, who died in a traffic accident in the early 1980's, was   
   >from Kenya. He left the family early and young Barack was raised   
   >primarily by his mother, who was white and originally from Kansas. She   
   >died in 1996.   
   >   
   >However this election goes, Mr. Obama's effort to connect in a more   
   >than superficial way with people across ethnic, economic and   
   >geographic lines should serve as a template for future campaigns in   
   >both parties. Politics that are increasingly ruthless in a country   
   >that is increasingly diverse is a recipe for disaster.   
   >   
   >   
   >George W. a murdering psychopath who lied about why we went to war,   
   >and is an unelected drunk who should be in jail. Hitler was elected,   
   >but Bush was appointed by the United States Supreme Court. Republicans   
   >want to starve kids, kick old people out on the street, make poor   
   >people have to eat dog food to survive, poison the air, land and water   
   >and kill millions of American kids with your imperialist wars.   
      
      
   ...y'know... I like Obama... being from a Chicago suburb, I've heard   
   him speak, and he is very competent... I don't agree with him on many   
   points, but I think he will be good for Illinois...  your facts are   
   exact, you wrote a very good piece on him (if it IS yours) .....   
   but ya had to throw in that last paragraph which told me your nothing   
   more than a wild-eyed exaggerating boob... Sooooo I think I'll try my   
   best to convince everyone I know to vote Ryan just in spite of YOU...   
      
    You're the kind of idiot he is trying to distance himself from....   
   AND... you can bet I will send him this post to ponder over.... And   
   then maybe someday, he can thank you personally....   
      
      
   Hey Rev!!!  The sky is falling..... RUN!!!   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)