Tag Archives: obama

Obama on the Issues

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There’s been a meme going around for a while that Obama is all hope and sunshine and no substance. Clinton and McCain have both used this argument in the last few days. And witness this political cartoon today:

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The thing is, it’s not true. Obama has plenty of substance. Just look at the Issues section of his website, which is filled with links to specific proposals on various subjects. He doesn’t talk about it much, but there is in fact a there there.

Carpetbagger does a good job of unpacking the meme.

(By the way, I love the word “meme.” Such a part of the Internet age. Remember when “memes” were just called “ideas”?)

Obama Sings

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Obama can sing!

Mr. Obama’s advisers said although they have not determined how to deal with Mr. McCain, they intend to keep their criticism focused on differences over issues.

And no, they said, do not expect Mr. Obama to dust off the lyrics to a song he performed on March 11, 2006, when he appeared as a keynote speaker at the Gridiron Dinner in Washington. His words were written to the tune of “If I Only Had a Brain.”

“When a wide-eyed young idealist, confronts a seasoned realist, there’s bound to be some strain,” Mr. Obama sang perfectly on pitch. “With the game barely started, I’d be feeling less downhearted, if I only had McCain.”

Texas Primary

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Interesting tidbit from tomorrow’s New York Times. Barack Obama may have an edge over Hillary Clinton in the Texas primary next month for the following reason:

In Texas, Mr. Penn said Mrs. Clinton would be helped by the Latino vote — which he said could ultimately be as much as 40 percent of the electorate.

But Mrs. Clinton faces another problem there in the form of that state’s unusual delegation allocation rules. Delegates are allocated to state senatorial districts based on Democratic voter turn-out in the last election. Bruce Buchanan, a professor of political science at the University of Texas at Austin, noted that in the last election, turnout was low in predominantly Hispanic districts and unusually high in urban African-American districts.

That means more delegates will be available in districts that, based on the results so far, could be expected to go heavily for Mr. Obama. Mrs. Clinton, Dr. Buchanan said, “has got her work cut out for her.”

To be honest, this doesn’t seem fair.

At any rate, I don’t think Hillary can be counted out yet at all. There are two more debates coming up. Hillary’s good at debates; Obama’s not usually at his best during them.

As the primary season has shown so far, anything can happen.