[tomder55]

' The American Journey of Barack Obama ' is a Time-Life authorized pic-bio of "the one".

Saw this book at Borders (did not buy ;just flipped through it quickly) . It covers his early life through the current campaign.

But if someone was looking for any insights into the ever persistent and unanswered question :Who is Obama?. Do not think you will find the answers in this fluff pictojournalism. It looks more like a personal photo album than any serious examination of the man who most likely will be the next President.

Conspicuously missing was anything meaningful from his time at Occidental College and Columbia .Missing is his visit to his roommate's family in Pakistan. Missing is any testimonial from anyone at all from this time .Who were his friends ? What were his experiences ?Where are the non-radicals ?
There are no photos about Obama the community organizer. That is a prominent in his personal narrative .Why no pixs ?
Trinity Church is there only showing the wedding shots and the one familiar pix of Obama and Wright.
There is no Woods Fund ,Joyce Foundation ,Annenberg Challenge , Bill Ayers ,Bernardine Dohrn ,Mike Klonsky,Screwy Louis Farrakhan ;the million man march .No reference to 'Dreams of my Father ' ;not even a book signing picture. Nothing of his run for the Ill. Senate ,nor of any of his 8 years on the job . No Tony and Rita Rezko (althought there are photos of the mansion that the Rezko's helped the Obama's buy... again Sen. Obama... keep fresh in your mind why Senator Stevens is now a convicted Senator ) , No photos of the constituents when Rezko failed to pay for heat and rennovations in the slums he ran. No Rashid Khalidi,Governor Rod Blagojevich ,Mayor Richard Daley. No pix of Obama making his 2002 anti-Iraq war speech .There are pictures of visits to Africa and Kenya ,but none of him campaigning for his thug cousin Odinga.

This book is more like a family photo album where the subject selects the parts of the story they want you to see. It is a far cry from serious journalism . Tomorrow voters will be voting for Obama the idea(Hope.. change etc. ) rather than Obama the man.

[excon]

Hello tom:

Wheew. I'm glad you told me about him. I didn't know. McCain for pres...

Bwa, ha ha ha.

excon

[tomder55]

You are one of the people voting for Obama the idea.
You are not alone. Robert Kuttner of the American Prospect wrote a book called :Obama's Challenge: America's Economic Crisis and the Power of a Transformative Presidency.

He doesn't necessarily buy into the mystique of Obama but he thinks Obama can be steered towards a more radical Presidency . "Whether we get a progressive president, and whether that president governs as a progressive, is up to us," he told a group of radicals that gathered in Denver during the DNC. That group was represented by various groups of misfits like the Kossaks. He said ;
"If he doesn't understand that everything that needs to be done for the economy is more radical than almost anything that can be debated in polite company, he will neither be elected, nor will he be a great president."

Now Obama may well be as doctrinare as "progressives "think he is . He certainly in his very thin public record has shown it. But there is a big part of me that thinks perhaps that he is just pure opportunism . He was in Chi-town so he had to gravitate to the lunes who run that city's politics.

If that is the case then he will be crucified by his own.

[tomder55]

Stanley Kurtz at NRO disputes the idea I forwarded above that Obama is merely a political opportunist .

Has Obama changed? Was he merely using his radical Chicago allies to gain national renown, and thereby an opening for a more moderate political program? I find this view unconvincing. Obama has often claimed that his early community organizing, and his redistributive legislative work, were at the very core of his political identity. We've heard his radicalism on the radio in 2001. Does anyone really believe that he's changed in 2008? Obama's political radicalism consolidated his shaky personal identity. It formed him as an adult. He cannot abandon that inner stance without losing hold of an already precarious self. Obama chose to live in Hyde Park — chose that radical setting as the site of his adult self-creation. Hyde Park was never the place Obama needed to conquer in order to escape. On the contrary, it was the personally chosen home he now hopes to nationalize by spreading his organizing gospel to America's youth.

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q...TE4ZWFkNGJkNjg=

[excon]

You are one of the people voting for Obama the idea.

Hello again, tom:

Yup.

excon

[Skell]

That's one hell of a browse tom? :)

The idea of Obama is better than the idea of McCain for most people by the looks of it.

You admit you don't agree with McCain but your still voting for him. So, you like the idea of him. Not necessarily McCain the politician. Not necessarily his policies. No difference Tom. Its just that you think you're the only one who is right to vote this way.

[tomder55]

Actually it's a lesser of evils choice. McCain is the better choice because he is heads above Obama as a potential Commander in Chief .

[TexasParent]

actually it's a lesser of evils choice. McCain is the better choice because he is heads above Obama as a potential Commander in Chief .

I think Barrak Obama will be one of the greatest President's in history. And you heard it here first, I think he will offer the position of Secretary of Defence to John McCain. If he doesn't do that specifically, I'm sure he will offer him an important role in the administration. That would be the ultimate in reaching across party lines.

I don't think John will accept, but what a story that would be.

[NeedKarma]

McCain is the better choice because he is heads above Obama as a potential Commander in Chief .

As I understand it a lot of people in the US are not impressed by the warmaking so this is not the asset you believe it to be.