Obama's Sixty Percent Solution
http://michaeldorf.org/2007/05/obamas-sixty-percent-solution.html
I had the good fortune to attend a speech by the junior Senator from
Illinois yesterday. (Okay, it was a fundraiser. I paid for the
privilege, but it was still good fortune.) In response to a question
about his red state appeal, Sen. Obama referred to a very positive
profile by Lisa MacFarquhar in the current issue of the New Yorker.
The article, which Obama himself acknowledged was quite insightful,
suggests that he is by nature a conciliator because he values dialogue
and compromise for their own sake. He took issue with this point. To
paraphrase loosely, Obama said something like: Sure I think it's
better if people get along than if they don't, but the main reason I
want to broaden my appeal is because a strategy of appealing to 50%+1
of the voters wins you an election, but it doesn't enable you to do
anything once in office. To govern effectively you need more like 60%.
(To be clear, that's my rough recollection of the gist of what he
said; not an actual quotation.)
Getting to Know Him
http://barkbarkwoofwoof.blogspot.com/2007/05/getting-to-know-him.html
Earlier this week the United States Secret Service began to protect
Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) as he campaigns for President. The reason
wasn't stated -- the Secret Service doesn't talk about their work much
-- but reports are that it was at the request of the senior senator
from Illinois, ***** Durbin, who asked for it.
Perhaps it has to do with the fact that America is beginning to take
Mr. Obama seriously as a candidate. There's an in-depth profile of him
in this week's The New Yorker by Larissa MacFarquhar, and he his not
your typical all-American success story. But then again, perhaps he
is.
Bob Kagan on Obama
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2007/05/bob_kagan_on_ob.html
I missed this, but Kagan likes the tone of Obama's internationalism.
Matt Yglesias sounds a note of caution here. I've been impressed with
Obama's foreign policy vision. It sure isn't isolationist or pacifist.
But I should add that Kagan's dichotomy between "realism" and
"internationalism" is a bit of a canard. The critique of Bush is not
that he is somehow too internationalist. It is that he is incompetent
at internationalism, failed to do due diligence before launching a
vital war, and refused to adjust when adjustment was necessary. Part
of the critique must also now surely be that nation-building in an
Islamic country can fail to grasp the nature of the enemy we're
facing. It's more like a disease than an army. And imprudent warfare -
and how can the Iraq fiasco be called anything else? - may actually
worsen the disease rather than cure it. Certainly the medicine of
brute force is not enough. That is surely the lesson of Iraq. That
doesn't mean no use of force; but it must mean a much more chastened
deployment of it. I think Obama has that chastening almost in his
bones. Marty seems to agree. A prediction: there will be some
reconstructed neocons in Obama's team at some point.
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