Digging in the Crates: 'The Candidate.'

obama1

The New Yorker has, I assume for a limited time, put on its website a 2004 profile of a young African-American running to represent Illinois in the United States Senate.*

I can’t imagine it was more fun to read then than now. Among the highlights: the prescient sentiment of all who had met him that he was destined for great things, and his alarmingly remarkable consistency.

To an outsider with only the broadest idea of Chicago politics, Obama’s victory in the Democratic primary actually looked like a victory over cynicism. He had not slimed his opponents. Nor was he the candidate of the fabled local machine. . .

. . . Obama, meanwhile, attracted legions of fervent volunteers. “People call it drinking the juice,” Dan Shoman, the political director of Obama’s campaign, said. “People start drinking the Obama juice. You can’t find enough for them to do.”

And about the Bush tax cuts:

Ryan told me that he will also be watching closely for contradictions between Obama’s statements in the primary campaign and what he is saying now to the general electorate. “Voters, in my view, have a high antenna for inconsistency,” Ryan said. He had already heard about shifts, for instance, in Obama’s position on the Bush tax cuts. Back when Obama was speaking to Democrats alone, he had called for across-the-board repeals—now he was talking about repealing only the tax cuts of the wealthiest five per cent. (The Ryan campaign was unable to document this alleged discrepancy.)

* I, of course, read it from my snazzy Complete New Yorker hard drive.

  • NinaG

    Now I get Rosa Clemente’s reference… once I heard her say something about people drinking “Obama Kool-Aid”
    The LA Times article by Tammerlin Drummond from ’90 was extremely interesting as well.

  • bonus points for using the word “snazzy”!

    i,too, am watching and waiting to see what happens. we have all gotten way to comfortable with candidates saying one thing and then doing another. i know the processes in any ‘business’, especially in Washington, aren’t always conducive to keeping campaign promises, but it’s moreso the way a President behaves and his honesty with the American people that interest me. i’m more interested in his integrity because i know Presidents can only get what they promise so much of the time. and when changes are made, then i think being upfront and honest about it is the key. we distrust government too much, so we need more transparency from our representatives.

    speaking of transparency, check out bailoutsleuth.com — this person is keeping an eye on the bailout.

    but back to Obama — he seems like the type of guy who understands what i am getting at and what the American people need — we need to know what is happening, just as much as we need to be involved. it’s time to put down the lattes and stop shopping for the right bed ruffle in Target and get involved in our country.

    http://simplyscott.wordpress.com/ — new blog: paved paradise (part two)