The Two Obamas
By DAVID BROOKS
Published: June 20, 2008
Barack Obama is no liberal goo-goo. Republicans keep calling him naïve. But naïve is the last word I’d use to describe him.
God, Republicans are saps. They think that they’re running against some academic liberal who wouldn’t wear flag pins on his lapel, whose wife isn’t proud of America and who went to some liberationist church where the pastor damned his own country. They think they’re running against some naïve university-town dreamer, the second coming of Adlai Stevenson.
But as recent weeks have made clear, Barack Obama is the most split-personality politician in the country today. On the one hand, there is Dr. Barack, the high-minded, Niebuhr-quoting speechifier who spent this past winter thrilling the Scarlett Johansson set and feeling the fierce urgency of now. But then on the other side, there’s Fast Eddie Obama, the promise-breaking, tough-minded Chicago pol who’d throw you under the truck for votes.
This guy is the whole Chicago package: an idealistic, lakefront liberal fronting a sharp-elbowed machine operator. He’s the only politician of our lifetime who is underestimated because he’s too intelligent. He speaks so calmly and polysyllabically that people fail to appreciate the Machiavellian ambition inside.
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The Caucus: Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
By John M. Broder
Published: June 20, 2008
Barack Obama gave a preview of the campaign he thinks the Republicans are preparing to run against him.
Barack Obama is one of the most controlled and disciplined politicians around, but he occasionally shows a glimpse of what he’s really thinking.
Friday evening, before a fired-up crowd of about 600 donors at a civic center in Jacksonville, Mr. Obama gave a preview of the campaign he thinks the Republicans are preparing to run against him.
He said the choice in the election will be between hope, which he said he is offering, and fear, which is all the Republicans have, in his view.
“We know what kind of campaign they’re going to run,” Mr. Obama said. “They’re going to try to make you afraid. They’re going to try to make you afraid of me. He’s young and inexperienced and he’s got a funny name. And did I mention he’s black?”
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An awfully presidential logo
Barack Obama isn't president, at least not quite yet.Read More...
But the campaign logo that debuted today bears an uncanny resemblance to the presidential seal.
It is a circle of a distinguished blue hue. It features an American eagle, also clutching an olive branch in one talon and spears in the other -- with the campaign's well-known "O" on its breast instead of the presidential seal's shield. And instead of "E Pluribus Unum" between the eagle's wings, there's the rough Latin translation of his "Yes We Can" slogan: "Vero Possumus."
Obama Making Christian Push
By Daniel Burke
Religion News Service
Saturday, June 21, 2008; Page B09
WASHINGTON -- With the Democratic presidential nomination in his grasp, Sen. Barack Obama is making a full-throttle push for centrist evangelicals and Catholics.
It's a move that's caught some conservative evangelicals off guard. They say they are surprised and dismayed to see a liberal-minded politician attempting to conscript their troops. At the same time, they say that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has done little to court their affections.
"I've never seen anything quite like it before," said evangelical author Stephen Mansfield, who wrote "The Faith of George W. Bush" and has a forthcoming book about Obama.
"To be running against a dyed-in-the-wool Republican, and to be reaching into the Christian community as wisely and knowledgeably as (Obama) is -- understanding their terms and their values -- is just remarkable."
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