Election Result 2008

So Obama is almost certainly not running for the 2008 election, but I had to include this strange piece of news. He’s been campaigning for ex-klansman Sen. Robert Byrd. The same guy who filibustered the 1964 Civil Rights Act is being represented by my favorite senator ever.

In a letter to it’s members MoveOn.org had Obama make a request for campaign funds on behalf of Sen. Byrd. Within 48 hours they’d raised almost $900K.

This is either an odd friendship or Obama knows that doing crappy jobs is part of being a senator.

“A fundamental element of the American character: a belief that we can constantly remake ourselves to fit our larger dreams.”

That’s part of what Barack Obama had to say in Lincoln, Illinois to commemorate the opening of the Abraham Lincoln Library andMuseum in Springfield, Ill. Barack Obama was compared to Lincoln in an article discussing the similarities between the Keyes-Obama and Lincoln-Douglas oppositions.

President Bush was present and used his speech to compare the civil war and the tension of slavery to the modern war on terrorism and the tension of Iraq. Obama countered this with an expression of the hesitant nature of many of Lincoln’s executive judgements and the slow and conservative way that he went to war:

“Lincoln was not a perfect man nor a perfect president. By modern standards, his condemnation of slavery might be considered tentative, his Emancipation Proclamation more a military document than a clarion call for justice. He wasn’t immune to political considerations. His temperament could be indecisive and morose.”

Sources: Associated Press

Considered a huge success by the left, the Clear Skies Act has been effectively killed in the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee when its votes split 9-9.

Included among the Democrats who voted against the Bush-sponsored bill are Barack Obama (D-IL), Hillary Clinton (D-NY), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), and Joseph Lieberman (D-CT).

These four Senators are significant names in the coming electoral cycle because of their respective histories of battling from the left.

• Hillary Clinton is expected to run in the 2008 primary
• Barack Obama became famous during the last presidential election and there is some talk of him running in 2008.
• Joseph Lieberman ran in the Democratic primaries during the 2004 election
• Barbara Boxer, while she didn’t run for president nor is she expected to, became a champion of grassroots causes when she publicly challenged the outcome of last year’s election.

From The Senator’s Humble Beginning (washingtonpost.com)

“I am genuinely somebody who doesn’t get caught up in the hype,” he says, adding that his wife, Michelle, loves to tease him about his big ears, and that he loves her for that.
“I think me puncturing my own balloon is something that’s not only calculated to endear me to others,” he says. “But it helps remind me of who I am and where I’ve come from.”

The Washington Post has done a story complete with an interview of Barack Obama discussing his demeanor, his popularity, and his approach to his new job. He’s getting plenty of press already and he’s not yet done much as a Senator of the United States.

The Washington Post contrasts Obama with Sen. Rick Santorum and the late Sen. Paul Wellstone in his attitude regarding the elders of the Senate. They were both known for hotheadedness in their first years and the point is being made that such a demeanor is not expected from Barack Obama.

It was in the Democratic National Convention of 2004 that Barack Obama (then not even a U.S. Senator) made his debut performance as an easily admirable politician. He gave an address that made headlines above the usual level for the event primarily because of it’s content. Barack was immediately seen as something new in the political seen because, from his small but visible presence so far, he appeared to be a politician who was more optimistic than partisan.

“That is the true genius of America, a faith in the simple dreams of its people, the insistence on small miracles. That we can tuck in our children at night and know they are fed and clothed and safe from harm. That we can say what we think, write what we think, without hearing a sudden knock on the door. That we can have an idea and start our own business without paying a bribe or hiring somebody’s son.”

-Barack Obama

Immediately after the convention there were news reports where writers spoke of Obama’s passion and linked it to a possible nomination for the 2008 election.