gross

What impact could a junior Senator that is 98th in seniority in the minority party possibly have? Have you seen any Democrats get any of our legislation through lately? Harry Reid can't do it, Dick Durbin can't go it, Ted Kennedy can't do it...so why would Barack Obama be able to do it? What should he do to act big? Propose heroic liberal legislation that will never get passed and play the martyr?

I'm sorry. I'm not saying this to support Obama, on whom I am still reserving judgment, but the two statements reported here are not contradictory. On the contrary, it may be perfectly true that too many politicians think too small (I'd agree with that) and also true, as a consequence, that a politician with bigger ideas will have to trim his sails a bit and work to push his colleagues as far as they are willing to go in the direction he wants them to go. Spinning this as a character flaw is slander and reduces my opinion of the author far more than it does my opinion of the target of his attack.

You can put any two quotes next to each other out of context and make them seem contradictory. But that's what GOopers do, so let's not swiftboat Obama. He's a great Senator, has done quite a lot, is helping to shape the debate as much as he can (he speaks at events constantly and takes more media appearances than most senators). Our political leaders are not perfect, they're human beings. We in the progressive movement expect so much of Obama that we can't cut him some slack when he doesn't stand up for everything we want. Obama will be president one day and a great one at that. He'll fight the good fights that he can fight and he is. He's going around the country talking about climate change and energy independence right now, which is a critical issue, so let's cut him some slack. After all, on the war, he was principally against it from the beginning, and while I don't agree with him on his opposition to strategic redeployment, he is at least thinking long and hard about Iraq policy without political calculations.

I have not done in-depth research on Obama, and I realize that everyone seems impressed with his charisma, but the few bits and pieces of his speeches that I've run across are not particularly impressive.  They tend to lapse into bureacrateeze, making no clear statement.  My initial impression--and I'll admit it may well be an uninformed impression--is of a chameleon trying to be all things to all people.

Contradictions are welcome, but please point me to some substantive material.

Please tell me what Obama has done, because I've seen none of it.  The least I was expecting from him was a little political courage, but I've come to the sad conclusion that I expected too much.

Jesus, what does it take to step into the yawning leadership vacuum in this country?

C'mon people.  How many people in the Democratic Party get the stature and air time that Obama and Clinton do -- yet neither have clearly staked out any kind of leadership position on ANY of the issues that call out for leadership and that would help the Democrats nationalize the elections and create a clear alternative in people's minds as to what the Dems are all about: not the war, not wiretapping, not corruption, not other invasions of privacy, not the Supreme Court, not the scorched earth viciousness of Republican tactics.  Neither have used their unique position to take ANY political risks.  98th in seniority my tushy.  What is the Senate but one big bully pulpit for those in opposition?  I'll tell you who HAS taken advantage of their opportunities and taken risky leadership positions: John Kerry and Russ Feingold.  As far as I'm concerned, Obama and Clinton? Hacks.  Kerry and Feingold? Leaders.  Grrr.

Obama is not the answer. He's unwilling, like many other Dem 'leaders', to tell the people the truth.

Remember FDR....no well read some history homer.

Remember Lincoln...same thing

JFK...same thing.

The current progressive movement must seek out politicians, like Brian Keeler or Admiral Sestak, and get behind them. Obama is wholly owned and operated by DCCC dickheads.

Oh...maybe that's why Keeler and Sestak were at YearlyKos...

Wake up and smell the coffee the Corporate Slave State has learned to hire black overseers.

Don't fall for the 'Obama effect' he's got no more spine than Chuck Schumer...

And that's just not what the country needs.

You guys expect a hell of a lot from one guy, don't you? Obama has staked out positions on every issue, as do all senators! You read a quote, without hearing intonation or context for what the Senator was saying. Give the guy a break! With all the equivocating senators and congressmen we have in our party, Barack Obama doesn't even rank in the top 100! You guys need to cool it and focus your attention on getting our leaders, you know like Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, who were actually elected to leadership positions to stand up. Barack is not the Democratic party's spokesperson and if we want to take back congress, we need to speak with one voice! Sheesh, lay off the man, he's got young kids and can barely see them because people like us harp on him for not being a perfect human being!

The guy is just a pol, for Heaven's sake!

Sirota produces a hit piece on Obama -

It's not every day that God calls your cell phone.

He builds him as some kind of Democratic Moses, and then why, oh whys that he has tablets of clay.

(If it's true that George W. Bush recently called Obama "the pope", he was clearly taking the piss. Sirota chooses not to see that.)

Obama's speech is the usual old bollocks - compare the section on healthcare with the paltry proposals in New Direction, for instance. Can you say forty acres and a mule?

...we know that as progressives we believe in affordable health care for all Americans - and that we're going to make sure that Americans don't have to choose between a health care plan that bankrupts the government and one that bankrupts families, the party that won't just throw a few tax breaks at families who can't afford their insurance, but will modernize our health care system and give every family a chance to buy insurance at a price they can afford.

His fabulising of historical fact I find a tad more reprehensible: referring to a 105 year old woman who came to one of his rallies, he comes up with this:

I thought about the fact that she was born at a time when there were no cars on the road and there were no airplanes in the sky; born in the wake of slavery, in the shadow of Jim Crow, a time when it was far more frequent for African Americans to be lynched than to vote.

But hardly more so than his healthcare promised land.

Neither can be taken seriously. (Except by Matt, perhaps. Kidding.)

Fortunately for him, he seems to have some conception of what can realistically be accomplished; he's lowering expectations which in 04 were built sky-high based on hot air - his own in his Convention speech!

Let the poor guy get reelected first. Let the Dems win control of the Senate and keep it for two or three Congresses.

Then judge what he's done with his position.

I don't have much faith in Obama.  I dunno, I generally just don't care for the guy.

That just says it all.

He's a superb speaker, and his stump speech is wonderful.  Then he turns right around and acts just like the problem he decries.

And to think, I used to be frustrated by Jesse Jackson's whole "I'm a tree-shaker, not a jelly-maker" schpiel.  Well, at least he was upfront about his disinterest in follow-through.

I live in Illinois and voted for Obama.  This is exactly what he sounds like every time I get in touch with him about an issue.  I've mentioned this a couple of times at dKos and then get hammered, but this is the way it has been.  It seems to me that if you're going to stand up and be a man it has more to do with being a Senator than what your seniority is.

I've seen nothing from Obama to think he should be a party leader at the national level.  To get carried away by a couple of good speeches and a media frenzy is ridiculous.  The idea that this guy should even THINK about running for president in 2008 is so absurd that it just shows how desperate some progressives are for a new face, a deus ex machina solution to a problem that will require hard work at the grassroots level and a reinvigoration of debate within the party and its ancillaries.

The problem I have with Obama is that he is taking his good fortune seriously.  I appreicate all the fundraising but he needs to really stop acting like he doesn't know the shelf-life on a new celebrity pol.

Another day, another Barack Obama diary.

And nothing new.

Obama is the greatest disappointment to come out of the last election. I'm sorry I ever donated to him. They ruined this guy when they put him under the tutelage of Lieberman.

The only people excited by Obama are those who don't know his record yet. The Senate, with only a few exceptions, is the place where good Democrats go off to die.

The guy talks a good fight, but he has disappointed on some really important votes and then he just sounds mealy mouthed when he tries to explain it.

I'm not from Illinois, but fire Obama in 2010.

Remember that Obama is from Illinois, though solidly blue, its not exactly the most liberal state in the union. Remember, he has to appease the rural white citizens, many of whom like  his honesty. Cut the guy some slack.

"You'll get everything you want after the election. But just for the meantime, shut up so that we can win." -- Rep. Peter H. Kostmayer, Pennsylvania Democrat, at the 1988 Democratic National Convention.

Thank you for paying attention to tort-deform Matt. I don't know if there is enough understanding of the importance of preserving access to the courts among even progressives. Obama's vote on this issue is one of the reasons he only got a 75% score, a C on DMI's Congressional Middle Class Scorecard. You can see the grades here.
http://www.drummajorinstitute.com/congre ss/drum-major-voting-summary.php?name=Ob ama&state=IL&database=senate

I hope he does better next time.

I was roundly castigated here (Carpetbagger Report) for calling Obama a trimmer.

I did not expect the senator himself to vindicate me so swiftly...

Barak Obama contributes the rhetoric of hope to the body politic. That's important, since the overall perspective is one of fear (from the right) and impotence (from the left).

Obama dares to say that we can hope to make changes. That even in the face of a Republican president, house, senate and supreme court, we can hope to change the outcomes.

Obama says all that in the face of the nay-sayers and those who would deny that we have any options at all. There are those who say 'why bother with politics, when we can't win?' Obama answers them by explaining that our intentions match those of lots of Americans, and that together we can aim to make a difference.

That's important.

Hey Stoller, How about going after Republicans for a change... or if you really must piss all over your own party, go after Liebermann or Clinton.  What the hell did Obama do to you?  Some imaginary insult?  You're acting like a teenage girl who got spurned for the prom.  Seriously, this is the way girls I knew in High School would act, not grown adults.  One article is one thing... your obsession with Obama is sickening... how about working toward winning in 2006 AND ATTACK REPUBLICANS!!!

I thought Hillary Clinton was a principled and high-minded Democrat. I thought John McCain was a principled and high-minded Republican. Wrong on both counts. I have high hopes for Obama. Let's hope that the third time is a charm.

I live in Obama's old Illinois State Senate district.

All I can say is I'm sorry you imagined you saw a great progressive when you all watched ONE speech at a convention. He's no progressive!

One thing I'll guarantee you... When you're counting on Obama for that big critical vote on a controvercial issue, you'll find him hiding in the men's room.

Thanks for being willing to point out imperfection in a new icon among some liberals.

He's not so bad. I'd certainly rather have him in the Senate than the majority of Republican Senators.

He's not perfect, either.

Police Our Own.