Barack Obama said in an interview: “Let’s face it: I am a Christian, and I believe that Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld want the best for this country”.

Barack Obama is an infiltrator sent by the right wing agenda to take votes away from any decent Democrat.

For Mike Ryan #49589
Mike, here is some Obama issues, for full report, go to http://www.ontheissues.com. Hope this helps.

Barack Obama on Civil Rights
Opposes gay marriage; supports civil union & gay equality. (Oct 2006)
Marriage not a human right; non-discrimination is. (Oct 2004)
African-Americans vote Democratic because of issue stances. (Jul 2004)
Forthright on racial issues and on his civil rights history. (Jul 2004)
Defend freedom and equality under law. (May 2004)
Politicians: don’t use religion to insulate from criticism. (Apr 2004)
Supports affirmative action in colleges and government. (Jul 1998)
Include sexual orientation in anti-discrimination laws. (Jul 1998)
Miscegenation a felony in 1960 when Obamas practiced it. (Aug 1996)
The civil rights movement was a success. (Aug 1996)
Voted NO on recommending Constitutional ban on flag desecration. (Jun 2006)
Voted NO on constitutional ban of same-sex marriage.

Barack Obama on Gun Control

Keep guns out of inner cities--but also problem of morality. (Oct 2006)
Ban semi-automatics, and more possession restrictions. (Jul 1998)
Voted NO on prohibiting lawsuits against gun manufacturers. (Jul 2005)

Barack Obama on Homeland Security

We are currently inspecting 3% of all incoming cargo. (Oct 2004)
Increase funding to decommission Russian nukes. (Jul 2004)
Give our soldiers the best equipment and training available. (Jul 2004)
Balance domestic intelligence reform with civil liberty risk. (Jul 2004)
Voted YES on reauthorizing the PATRIOT Act. (Mar 2006)
Voted NO on extending the PATRIOT Act’s wiretap provision. (Dec 2005)
Voted YES on restricting business with entities linked to terrorism. (Jul 2005)
Voted YES on restoring $565M for states’ and ports’ first responders. (Mar 2005)

Barack Obama on Principles & Values

Born in Hawaii; lives on Chicago’s South Side. (Nov 2006)
Hopefund PAC donated $500K to Democratic Senate candidates. (Nov 2006)
On cover of Time magazine, about his book & presidency. (Oct 2006)
Raised secular, but with working knowledge of world religion. (Oct 2006)
Baptized as an adult in the Trinity United Church of Christ. (Oct 2006)
Progressives should recognize common morality with religion. (Oct 2006)
“Audacity of Hope” to change politics to reflect common good. (Oct 2006)
Offer real hope-not blind optimism-to the American people. (Jul 2004)
I’m living my parents’ dreams and the American dream. (Jul 2004)
Greatness based on Declaration of Independence, not military. (Jul 2004)
We are one people all defending the United States of America. (Jul 2004)
Want common-sense solutions, not liberal-conservative labels. (Jul 2004)
Unflinching progressive but ok to downstate conservatives. (Jul 2004)
Convention keynote speech highlights party’s black targeting. (Jul 2004)
First black president of the Harvard Law Review. (Jul 2004)
Ryan quits Senate race amid sex scandal allegations. (Jun 2004)
There’s a call to evangelize in politics. (Apr 2004)
I’m a big believer in the separation of church and state. (Apr 2004)
Be strong or be cleaver and make peace. (Aug 1996)
Mother attacked for playing with a black girlfriend. (Aug 1996)
Guilt is a luxury that not everyone can afford. (Aug 1996)
America’s race and class problems are intertwined. (Aug 1996)
Biracial heritage has caused identity crisis. (Aug 1996)
There is some hope of eventual reconciliation between races. (Aug 1996)
Poverty of political organizers was proof of their integrity. (Aug 1996)
Spent time in both Muslim and Catholic schools. (Aug 1996)
Racism wasn’t merely the cruelty involved, but arrogance too. (Aug 1996)
Voted NO on confirming Samuel Alito as Supreme Court Justice. (Jan 2006)
Voted NO on confirming John Roberts for Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. (Sep 20

I don’t think Obama is capable of winning the general. I’m reading “Audacity of Hope” and I just don’t think his current appeal is solid enough to withstand what the ruthless Republicans will throw at him.  Look at Harold Ford Jr. in Tennessee.  Ford had everything going for him a candidate can have, yet the Republicans told voters Ford wouldn’t protect them from terrorists, would cost them their jobs and they even played the race card against him.
They will play as dirty as they have to, to win.
Obama has more vulnerabilities than Ford. It is unfortunate, but I would feel I was wasting my vote, even though I, myself, love Obama.

First of all, the implication as well as it’s relevance[?] are based on ignorant generalizations. Second,anyone who troubled themselves to attend the protest in D.C. Saturday
would have noted `The Great Obama’s’ absence.
The courage and patriotism of Maxine Waters ,
John Conyers and Dennis Kucinich who were not hiding and hoping it would die down ,chosing instead to take the
the risk involved in assemblig such a rally is
a lesson to those such as Obama and Clinton
who crawled out after to make yet to be proven sincere gestures regarding the war to avoid criticism. Age is irrelovent.I may also
point out that the mere fact that there is no
agency to slap one on the hand for such ignorance
does not make it any less ugly a predjudice
than the other varieties.

All you NA sayers:
Read Obama’s Iraq War De-escalation Act of 2007
Sounds like a plan, may have to be some modifacations (who knows), but at least he is thinking **more than you can say for the season people in Congress or House
Give this young man a chance to explain where his head is**

The old adage “You can’t tell a book by it’s cover” doesn’t seem to resonate with the American psyche.

Bush looks really presentable… looks like a guy you’d invite to dinner… until he opens his mouth. Then you KNOW he’s either a used car salesman or a politician… both professions at the BOTTOM of the trustworthy scale.

C’mon America. Wake up! Look a little beyond years and good looks. How about assessing someone’s ability on what he/she’s accomplished, and, perhaps even more importantly, HOW HE/SHE’S ACCOMPLISHED IT. How many skeletons are in his/her closet… how many bodies are buried upon which he/she’s climbed to become a candidate?

How about electing your next President on the basis of BRAINS, SENSE OF FAIR PLAY, HONESTY, ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND RECORD OF SERVICE TO HIS/HER COUNTRY/COUNTRYMEN? How about leaving out which religion… which party… which friends… which race… which sex… hell, even sexual orientation. Who the hell cares who a President sleeps with if they do one hell of a job as PRESIDENT? How about looking to see how honorably he/she has treated EVERYONE since puberty?

There I go… dreaming again.

OBAMA=ROVE’S DREAM OPPONENT
The GOP and its big-money supporters are putting the media spotlight on Obama, to push his nomination, to sink the Dem’s in ‘08.  Obama has NO chance of winning the general election.  As a black (product of an interracial marriage between a black man and a white woman), yuppy lawyer, DLCer (’free-trader’), and glib BS artist, he represents everything that white working people hate, fear and despise, and will line-up with the GOP to vote against.

The guy doesn’t even have a real track record at winning elections for national office. His senate win in 04’ was against another black candidate who was even weaker than him, namely Alan Keyes who was a complete wacko.

Ellen, can’t you think of anything more relevant to write about than Obama’s face?! Really…

What has Obama done to date to give anyone the thought that he could run a country or anything else. Isn’t the Bu$h lesson painful enough for everyone?
The presidency is a job nothing more and I want to see resumes full of accomplishments and leadership skills before I’d vote for any of these pretenders. Hillary’s claim to fame as the wife of Bill doesn’t cut it either.
Vote for someone with something in their head - not just the prettiest one. That would be a welcome change for the American election process.

Yes, Obama is old enough to be President - but he is not seasoned.  2007 brings a much different world than Kennedy’s 1960, and that requires someone who has actually done something.  Relatively speaking, Obama has not.

Also, reagrding the comment cited, “Obama was born at the tail end of the boom, but places himself politically outside the “psychodrama of the baby-boom generation,’’ which he describes as “a tale rooted in old grudges and revenge plots hatched on a handful of college campuses long ago.’’ It’s these kind of flip comments and, often times, out right arrogance in Obama, that sets a lot of people’s teeth hard against him. 

Obama may think himself the next best thing since Wonder bread, but a lot of us - I would venture to say a large majority of us - do not.  Obama needs to grow up, in more ways than one.

Trust noone regardless of age.  The system selects those who are corrupt enough to defend it.

When I watched his entrance for that 2004 [now famous] speech at the Democratic Convention, my first thought was, ‘Uh?..... this guy looks like he is 14 years old.’
As he began his speech, something kept quietly building in his speech and in my reaction.  Then, quite literally, I had goose bumps and felt like a butterfly pinned to a board, such was the totality with which he held my attention and evoked my deepest patriotism.
Perhaps a month later, I attended an Illinois Democratic Women’s luncheon to hear Michelle Obama as speaker.  Again, I was blown away by an Obama, this time the wife.  What was unique was that Michelle Obama was so utterly down-to-earth and unscripted and funny.  She spoke to us, not like a politician’s wife, but comfortably and casually as though talking to life-long next door neighbors. 
I would use the word ‘mastery’ to describe some quality I see in both Barack and Michelle Obama.  I think Barack’s mastery is to be able to rapidly synthsize a lot of data, decide upon a next-step action, communicate the whole process, all the while not losing sight of the bigger picture.  He is sort of a master of gestalt, alternating as appropriate between foreground and background issues.  His wife has the mastery to be beautifully grounded in everyday living, and to be the perfect ballast for his soaring.
BTW, I am of boomer age, but I don’t think age is as important as innate ability and leadership quality.

Enough of this divide & conquer chatter because it diverts our attention from the task at had which is to make Congress cut off all funding for the Iraq war.  And after that no matter who we run for president there’ll be new rules, we lead, our nominee follows.

I sent Senator Obama an e-mail last month. In it I advised him not to run in the 2008 presidential campaign.

I told him he doesn’t have a track record or the experience required for the job just yet.

The American people have had a belly full of inexperienced grinners.

Senator Clinton I am sure worked closely with her Presidential husband throughout his career. She knows how to work within the system and at the same time make changes in the system to bring back a Government of, by and for the people. I think she knows it’s absolutely essential to re-establish the importance of a healthy middle class.

Further, Senator Clinton has an ally who was and is one of the most intelligent persons in this country, Her husband.

Another most promising candidate is Vice-President Al Gore. He served under Bill Clinton for eight years and I think they take the same position on many issues important to the middle class.

I want two things. First, I want the American middle class to quit waiting on justice. I want the middle class to take back the control of our government from big business. Secondly I want to see a ticket with Hilary Clinton for President with Al Gore accepting the second position on that ticket. I only ask that she make Al Gore the person who will take all necessary steps to get us back in the Kyoto Accord, and to force business to address all environmental issues. Oh, Mr. Gore please put aside your pride and help us again. I know you should have been president for the last eight years, but your country desperately needs you in whatever capacity so you can provide the leadership to affect the essential changes which Bush and the Republicans have spent the last eight years tearing down.

To Senator Obama I repeat. Wait two more Senatorial terms then call us again. We’re not going to elect any more unknowns who might turn out to be as arrogant, pig-headed, self-serving, lazy and stupid as Bush.

Age shouldn’t be a factor in who our next leader is.  There ideals and ability to accomplish goals should be.  In 2000 the Millennium Development Goals were created to bring global poverty to an end by 2025.  Eliminating World hunger would only cost $19 billion annually according to the Borgen Project. So obviously the question is not wheter we can accomplish our goals, but when. Now!

Obama is certainly old enough to be president. He’s clearly smart enough. He was once bold enough to be the voice of a new political generation but lately he seems unnaturally cautious. I hope he willo shortly realize that caution will not be his ticket to ride. Hillary has the cautious vote cornered which, perhaps explains her supporters muted enthusiasm and her democratic critics vocal disapproval. I’m a boomer who wants desperately to support Obama and hope he finds his voice again.

Will anyone rid us of these horserace campaigns?  Only the media benefits from the scam.  Advertising money is something from nothing as usual.

No, the only skepticism is do not to his looks or age, but that he’s been a party/media darling...and has risen so far and fast.

There is two years yet to the presidential elections...We have some time to get to know all the candidates. Don’t panic yet.

For the record, as someone in my 30s, I don’t trust anyone in their 50s. Or at least I think it’s time for sell-out baby boomers or the others of their generation who were left out of the love-in (Karl Rove) to step down and let another generation have a shot at fixing things.

On the issue of Obama being too inexperienced to be president. Uh, look, if Bush can be president, I’d really like to know what the bar for presidential qualifications is. That reminds me of Chris Rock’s bit comparing the experiences and outcomes of education for blacks and whites. It was somethign like, a black person needs to get straight-As and be at the top of his class (Barack Obama) just to gain a little respect, while C students (Bush) get to be president.

Sticking to terms of political experience, doesn’t Obama have experience pretty close to Hilary? She was the wife of a president. So what? She recently became a senator. He recently became a senator.

Also, on a side note, Obama seems like a really great guy. Does anyone know exactly what he stands for? Just wondering.