@ Ellie2
While exceptionally gifted, he is at the core a hollow man, an empty suit. Maybe even a man without a country.
I see the amount of his giftedness is open to debate. Traditionally, the best students made Law Review. He got in for other reasons. If he was such a good student, then why didn’t he clerk or go to a top law firm? Or release his grades? His hollowness, maybe a man without a country, quite agreed. He has had very little experience with the America that most of us live in. It is not his country. (private schools and the South Side of Chicago.) There was a NYT article last year about his law school days. Most of his classmates said they had difficulty figuring out where he stood on issues. By paraphrasing what others said, but not stating what HE thought, it was easy for people with opposing beliefs to believe he stood with THEM. So, voting present in the Illinois legislature, not taking a stand, is consistent with his previous pattern of not committing himself. In 2008, it continues. We all want CHANGE. Problem is, Code Pink’s CHANGE is not Giuliani’s CHANGE is not Helen’s CHANGE is not ImaDinnerJacket’s CHANGE.

I think, I hope, Obama will one day be POTUS. When he finds himself. But not yet.
As Obama will turn 47 this year, is this not a somewhat protracted adolescence?

BREATHES there the man with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said,
‘This is my own, my native land!’

Whose heart hath ne’er within him burn’d
As home his footsteps he hath turn’d
From wandering on a foreign strand?

If such there breathe, go, mark him well;
For him no Minstrel raptures swell;
High though his titles, proud his name,

Boundless his wealth as wish can claim;
Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
The wretch, concentred all in self,

Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonour’d, and unsung.

While exceptionally gifted, he is at the core a hollow man, an empty suit. Maybe even a man without a country. “Is there a man with soul so dead …?”

I think, I hope, Obama will one day be POTUS. When he finds himself. But not yet.

And he’s sure been of no benefit to her as she’s been campaigning. He’s probably been a negative to her campaign, in fact. (Then again, he’s probably astounded at what a lousy candidate she’s turned out to be.)

This has actually been a fairly amusing campaign from the standpoint of potential First Partners.

Clinton’s a mess and would be nothing but a problem back in the White House; Michelle Obama’s been nothing but a problem to her husband - whom it looks as though she has thoroughly whipped, as the saying goes - and, according to spouse, daughter, and spouse’s friends, though Cindy McCain never says a word, the way she looks at him makes it fairly plain she mostly despises ol’ John.

I don’t know. I don’t look at her through female eyes, so am not competent to comment. (BW, you’re female - what do you think?)

But I think the First Partners have been an interesting crew this year.

The problem with the Clintons, primarily, has always been the flunkies, vampires, parasites, and incompetent fascists that they surround themselves with. They, as individuals, are rather competent, if only in their particular little fields. Bill Clinton was competent at domestic policy manipulations and PR and Hillary Clinton is competent at reaching a moderate segment of the population through promises and some kind “military hawk” position.

Of course, that has always been the primary problem with Democrats. Even if they mean well, if you bring them into power they will inevitably invite in the undying beasts of Hades to serve as our political and bureaucratic masters. However, with Obama he is actually one of those flunkies, not just the figurehead for them.

I found this humorous quote from Steyn about Barack Obama and Michelle Obama. I thought you’d enjoy it in light of your post.

Michelle Obama is a bizarre mix of condescension and grievance – like Teresa Heinz Kerry with a chip on her shoulder. But the common thread to her rhetoric is its antipathy to what she calls “corporate America.” Perhaps for his next Gettysburg Address the senator will be saying, “I could no more disown my wife than I could disown my own pastor. Oh, wait … .”

So, in a way I’d prefer Obama as a candidate, because I think he’ll go down in flames in November — except for my deep fear that he won’t!

I think the democrats - the professional pols, I mean - must at this point be in terror of this guy. And now we’re all expecting (as of Tuesday AM, PT) some new bombshell from her mouth that may yet turn the whole thing upside-down for him.

He is a walking gaffe, which is being kind.

His experience, in a field of people with no executive experience, is zero.

Without cue cards or a prepared text, when forced to respond off the cuff: he’s an idiot.

His associations, about which we do not yet know all, are beyond belief.

His presumption strains credulity, his self-regard is not capable of concealment, and when attacked (either in the real world or in his imaginary one), he reacts like someone more usually encountered in a nursery school recess.

I would bet that the behind the scenes guys, the true professional pols in the democrat party, are absolutely paralyzed by this guy. They obviously can’t say that, but I suspect they are.

I don’t think this is over yet, though another of today’s rumors is that Hillary quits tonight. But if Michelle’s mighty mouth drops another bomb on her husband’s head, it’s all up in the air. I don’t think the boys in the back room are going to tolerate much more of it.

With blogs, the media messages have become a lot more complicated - and valuable - for us in the proletariat.

One thing is abundantly clear about Obama. He is willing to jettison almost everyone that will get in his way or hinder him from his goal. He has done it to Rev. Wright, whom he said he wouldn’t denounce. He has used his elderly grandma as political fodder. He has left Trinity United Church of Christ, even though he seems to agree with their preaching.

How far all this casting off will go, we can only speculate. I don’t know if he would jettison his wife or coax her into silence at least until the election is over.

Other than making the words “hope” and “change” a mainstay in this election and making race a very visible factor, I don’t know what else he has contributed to this election. There is nothing new in his positions, nothing new in his proposals.

But he does look staunch and strong standing on that podium while intoning these toss-off phrases, almost in a sort of TV show sort of way.