Obama recites Republican talking points and pledges bipartisanship, “reaching across the aisle.”

It's a stale line, a trite empty promise. I have no idea why he would want to work with the Republicans that have marched in lockstep with the Bush administration the last eight years. His policies are virtually identical to Clinton's. He isn't offering change, he's offering the oldest empty promise there is. You can determine it's empty, because he has NO specifics.

Whenever someone compares him to Kennedy, I remember that Kennedy won with the thinnest popular vote margin in history – against the least charismatic man in modern politics, Richard Nixon.

McCain can beat Obama. He is a proven centrist, at least as far as the media is concerned, and an experienced legislator, a war hero, and has foreign policy credentials. McCain might defeat Clinton as well, because of the baggage of the long assault on the Clintons.

Obama's substanceless talk about hope might put him over the top in the general. But I doubt it's going to go very far when things get nasty. But please, act like an educated, rational individual, and stop waxing poetic about your dead heroes. It's embarrassing for you.

That's why I've come to believe Obama is the perfect candidate at precisely the right time. I believe he would provide a clean break from the past 15 years at a critical moment. His policies are perfectly sound, certainly as sound as Hillary's, McCain's etc. Plus he has the personal charisma and leadership ability to inspire the congress and citizenry to move forward. That is what both Roosevelts had, what Kennedy had, what Reagan had. No, it doesn't necessarily mean he'd be another Roosevelt, and Kennedy and Reagan certainly have benefited from myth as much as accomplishment.

But I think he represents such a break from the recent past that the nation, and also importantly, the world, will want him to succeed, and allow him to succeed more than any other candidate currently running. And without so much of the drama we have come to accept as “politics as usual.”

More insightful is something like this:

“The Kossacks and their activist allies — who skew toward the Boomers — believe that Republicans are venal bordering on evil, and that the way Democrats will win elections and hold power is to one-up Karl Rove's divisive, bare-knuckled tactics. Their opponents within the party — who skew younger and freer of culture war wounds — believe that the way to win is offer voters a break from this poisonous tribal warfare and a compelling, inclusive vision for where we want to take the country.”

“The best evidence that Kos-ism is about kaput, though, comes from Kos's mouth himself. Yes, the most delicious irony of this campaign is that the supposed hatemonger is supporting the hopemonger.

Seeing the writing on the wall, as well as on his own blog, Markos Moulitsas — Kos himself — rejected the candidacy he himself helped spawn and announced (albeit grudgingly) on Dec. 12 that he would be voting for Mr. Obama via “a process of elimination.”

Not exactly the most graceful concession, but the import is undeniable: Hope trumped Kos for Democrats. Now let's see what it will do for the rest of the country.”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120191142380836...

So I can infer from your comment that Clinton has done “the politic thing” on Iraq as a senator? Pray tell what that might be?

Or if elected president, which is a very real and in some senses welcome possibility, she will do “the politic thing” on Iraq, which will be to indefinitely support a war with no endgame that the American people overwhelmingly oppose.

Is that what you mean by a willingness to take an unpopular stand?

As for Obama, I see the charisma and the ability to bring an audience to its feet. But when I look at his platform, I see nothing to make me prefer him to Hillary Clinton. And while I can at least trust Hillary to do the politic thing in office, I don't know what Obama will do. One aspect of an effective president—W got this right at least—is a willingness to take an unpopular stand. I am okay with that as long as I have substantial faith in the judgment of the person in charge. I think Obama is persuasive (including on the issue of his judgment), but it seems for his supporters to be more an article of faith. I have lost all mine.

The Moderate Voice’s Shaun Mullen recently attended an Obama rally, and gushes with praise