Obama's appeal has always been that he is camera-ready. He's a charmer. If he weren't running against Bill Clinton's cyborg half, the senator would be compared to him all the time. Instead, Democrats keep invoking JFK (and they complain about the Republicans bringing up Reagan all the time). His campaign has brought in more money than a partnership between Bill Gates and God.
But he hasn't budged in the polls.
So, Sen. Obama has decided to start saying stuff. Until now, most of his rhetoric has been the sort of broad-themed, feel good cotton candy that Democrats love. Better education. Better health care for-as always-EVERYONE. Better ways to tell an enemy exactly when and how you plan to give up on a war. Oops, he actually has put in some thought on that last one. Like the Democratic party of the last twenty years, Obama's ideas have been heavy on the tugging of heart strings and light on the details.
This week the early debate season took its toll and Obama started with the aforementioned stuff. He said a President Obama would be willing to meet with the leaders of North Korea, Cuba and Iran in his first year in office. Time permitting, he might squeeze in a little badminton with Hugo Chavez. My mind is still reeling that the words came out of his mouth and he thought they formed a good idea. There are all kinds of things I want the next President of the United States to do with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, lunch isn't one of them.
Feeling that he was on roll after proposing the Summit From Hell, Obama went on to beef up his foreign policy street cred. He told a group of media and entertainment types that he thought his judgment in that area was superior to that of any other candidate in the field. Why? Because he has lived in other places. Seen the U.S. "...through the eyes of people outside our borders," and things like that. Hey-John McCain lived in Hanoi for five and a half years. That's gotta count for something, right Barack? What about all that time Dennis Kucinich has spent on Neptune?
I don't know about you but I'm going to look for a president who sees the United States through the eyes of an American no matter where he his.
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