June 20, 2006 5:55 AM

Too good to be true...or the answer to our prayers for 2008?

Obama’s Profile Has Democrats Taking Notice: Popular Senator Is Mentioned as 2008 Contender

Obama, a first-term Democratic senator from Illinois, seems to be hitting the right notes these days. During Senate recesses, he has been touring the country at breakneck pace, basking in the sudden fame of a politician turned pop star. Along the way, he has been drawing crowds and campaign cash from Democrats starved for a fresh face and ready to cheer what Obama touts as “a politics of hope instead of a politics of fear.”

Neither Democrats nor Republicans seem to have anything close to clear-cut Presidential candidates in place for 2008. Of course, there are almost 2 1/2 years left untiil Election Day, 11.4.08, and it’s way too early to be handicapping horses in this race. Nonetheless, what’s a political junkie to do in the meantime?

He’s young, he’s handsome, he’s articulate and intelligent, AND he’s African-American. For those of you who are fans of The West Wing, Barack Obama has an almost Matt Santos-like quality to him- someone who just wants to do the right thing in the most effective way possible. He certainly doesn’t have the unfortunate political and emotional baggage that Sen. Hillary Clinton brings along with her, but it’s far too early to know what chance Obama would have in a bruising national election. Still, the possibilities DO intrigue, do they not?

His office fields more than 300 requests a week for appearances. One Senate Democrat, curious about Obama’s charisma, took notes when watching him perform at a recent political event. State parties report breaking fundraising records when Obama is the speaker.

The money he is bringing in for fellow Democrats is shaping up as an important influence on 2006. And the potential Obama is demonstrating as a political performer — less than two years after his elevation from the Illinois state legislature — is prompting some colleagues to urge him to turn his attention to 2008 and a race for the presidency. Obama has made plain he is at least listening.

“I think he is unique,” said Illinois’s senior senator, Richard J. Durbin (D). “I don’t believe there is another candidate I’ve seen, or an elected official, who really has the appeal that he does.” As for the 2008 presidential race, “I said to him, ‘Why don’t you just kind of move around Iowa and watch what happens?’ I know what’s going to happen. And I think it’s going to rewrite the game plans in a lot of presidential candidates if he makes that decision.”

Obama has the advantage of being something of an unknown when it comes to the national political stage. This may well turn out to be a double-edged sword, though. If Obama does run, he’ll have the opportunity to frame himself in the public consciousness in the manner of his choosing- if he is aggressive and convincing. They down side is that his political enemies also have the opportunity to stamp their own image of him in the public consciousness- if they are agressive and negative enough. There is the possibility that if they keep digging long enough, they may just find something in Obama’s past that could be used against him.

To date, Obama hasn’t expressed any interest in running. However, if Democratic Party leaders come to him hat in hand, I would think that it might be difficult for him to resist the temptation to throw his hat in the ring. Frankly, the way things look right now, Obama appears to be the only potential Democratic candidate with even the barest of hopes of victory in 2008. It will be tough for Republicans to slander him (not that they won’t try), and it will be much more difficult to “Swift Boat” Obama than John Kerry or Hillary Clinton, who has seen an entire industry arise that’s built around the intense personal and political hatred of her.

Stay tuned, y’all. There might be hope yet….

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on June 20, 2006 5:55 AM.

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