Michael Jackson TalkRadio Content

ave you ever met Senator Barack Hussein Obama? I'd very much like to and I'll wager he'd make a most favorable impression on almost anyone who gets the opportunity. Last Tuesday he announced that he had formed a committee to raise money for the 2008 race. He has promised a "different kind of politics". At this stage we have little knowledge of his real or potential leadership skills, and we have no idea whether he has what it takes to win the Democratic presidential nomination from Senator Hillary Clinton, or the former Vice Presidential candidate, John Edwards or whoever else feels propelled into the race to be the party's presidential hopeful. By this spring, a full year-and-a-half before we are called upon to vote, the presidential campaign will be in full swing. Based on the outcome of the mid-term campaign, corruption, failure in the war on terrorism and more, it is probably fair to assume that the conservative revolution is over, and it appears too early to discover whether the traditional Democrats or Republicans have espoused what should take its place. Maybe it is time for a person who promises to transcend the ugliness of partisan and racial politics. Someone who really has the wisdom and knack to bring us together. The campaign is virtually wide open at this stage. In the same edition of the international newspaper, The Financial Times, which featured the most unflattering, close-up, 'photo of New York Senator, Hillary Clinton, on page one, they heralded Obama in an editorial saying, "Imagine an American presidential candidate who combines the cross-cultural appeal of Tiger Woods with the youthful charisma of John F. Kennedy, and the result is Barack Obama who entered the US presidential race in earnest this week." There is obviously something about the man - the 45 year old son of a black Kenyan father and a white Kansas mother that causes the American media to love him and many potential white voters to compare him with the likes of the martyred Kennedy brothers and even Bill Clinton. Again, we need to know much more about this potentially potent candidate who has, as yet, not completed his first term in the US Senate. One thing is for sure, at this stage (before the opponents and the media start digging into his life), he is surely a very attractive candidate. As of the moment Mrs. Clinton hasn't announced, but her team is ready, willing and able. We know she has an abundance of knowledge and skill, intelligence and self-discipline. Maybe the biggest fear in many Democrats is that she is not electable. The Wall Street Journal stated bluntly, "It's Hillary verses everybody else", and in a lead editorial, filled with praise for Obama they write...campaigns have a way of filling in a candidates resume in ways other than they design, including their positions on actual issues. Mr. Obama is already moving left on national security"...which is dangerous ground for a political rookie amid what the Pentagon calls "the long war on terrorism".