Last year at this time, not many people had ever heard of Illinois senator Barack Obama. Now he's on the threshold of becoming the next president of the United States. What are your thoughts on Barack Obama? Do you like him or dislike him? Please explain your answer. Dale King
Where the hell have you been, I've heard/known of him since 2004 when he gave that great speech at the Democratic convention and became senator.
I'm with Soniq as far as learning about Obama at the 2004 Dem. convention and the incredible speech he gave then... I remember thinking then that "this is the guy that should be running for president" and sure enough, now he is! But I understand you mean mostly unknown by people who don't pay attention to politics but one must realize this is not that unusual at all. I wasn't that aware of George W. Bush prior to him running for president. Bill Clinton was largely unknown to the general public before running for president in 1992. There really aren't that many politicians with large national name recognition. Most of the politicians who do have such recognition get it... by running for president. McCain is mostly well known because of running in 2000. And of course Hillary is known for being the president's wife. I think it's insane that we're all supposed to be so impressed she was the president's wife. I think Obama's resume is far more impressive.
Dude, don't take that freakin' tone with me. I've known about Obama since 2004 as well. However, the fact remains that many people haven't. Dale King
I met him back in August at a local dinner in NH and have been a supporter of him ever since. IMO he is the best person for the job and definitely out of the remaining candidates in the presidential race.
But with George W Bush and Bill Clinton they were governs who ran for president and didn't have the national exposure that Obama received in 2004 so its more understandable to not know of them before they ran for office.
He is quite unknown to me till he became a Presidential candidate. But he looks kinda decent and out of the establishment chap. For those disillusioned with current situation, I guess he holds great promise. Anyway judging from the polls, he does have a strong chance to be the Democrat's Presidential candidate, but whether he can defeat McCain who was a war hero remains to be seen.
Exactly. But it's not just you. He was unknown to most of the country, before he became a legitimate presidential candidate. But everyone sure knows him now! Dale King
Actually didn't Clinton give a pretty well known speech at the 1988 Dem. convention? Except the difference was everyone was making fun of his speech because it was too long or something... That seems to be what I'm remembering. But yeah... I can see what you mean as far as Senators being more nationally known than Governors pretty much just by the nature of their position. But yes, Obama is I'd say just as well known (if not more so) to the general public than many of the presidential candidates of the past... John Kerry in 2004 wasn't particularly well known to the general public. Like I said, the general public is mostly unaware of politicians nationally unless they run for president! So the whole argument that Obama is too unknown to run for president is ... silly.
McCain is a very weak candidate who has very little support from his own party's base. Most of McCain's support comes from independents and moderates. The bad thing for McCain is, Obama pulls very well with those crowds as well and unlike McCain he has an extreme amount of enthusiasm and excitement from his party's base. If you look at any metric (fund raising, crowd size, base support) you'll see that Obama should be heavily favored over McCain. McCain represents more of the same (George W. Bush) of a very very very unpopular administration. I don't see how that's going to fly. Obama is already leading handily in general election polls over McCain (47% to 36% in the most recent one I've seen) and I truly feel he will open up an even bigger lead once more people hear McCain's "100 years in Iraq" quote and hear more of what Obama says. McCain's only issue is war and when you consider how unpopular the war is, that doesn't put him in a very good spot.
Same thing different skin. This is his wife. You have to let it go on for a while to get to the real lunacy and you have to listen to Hewitt. But here it is: http://hughhewitt.townhall.com/Medi...tentGuid=9e3a08aa-ad84-46cf-8492-6aff289bca42 Does she remind you of someone?