Barack Obama is not well suited to the 30 second format. So there are a few options.
(1) He will get around to it. He did just fine debating Alan Keyes in 2004. He comes across as authentic and inspirational when he speaks. He is well informed. He is the one challenging the conventional wisdom in Washington. All that will show.
(2) Prepare.
(3) How about having bull sessions with policy experts and putting it all out on Google Video? He could be shown exploring all the issues.
In The News
Obama Pledges To Clean Up Washington Guardian Unlimited Obama won't budge Chicago Sun-Times some Republicans, and the conservative Wall Street Journal, have applauded the forceful recommendation. ..... "We're not going to fix our failed foreign policy if we can't talk straight about [it] during the campaign," he explained. ...... "I'm not afraid to lose a propaganda battle to a bunch of dictators," Obama said in response to the criticism, adding that, of course, he would "do the proper preparation" before meeting someone like Kim Jong Il of North Korea. ...... "No one had more experience in Washington than Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld." Michelle Obama, all fired upMSNBC "Think! Listen!" she implored during an impassioned introduction of her husband today, "The game of politics is to make you afraid, so that you don't think!" ....... "We are in this war because for eight years; we were told to be afraid!" .... At the beginning of his Illinois run, she said, he ran against a "billionaire" and a "strong political family" believed to be unbeatable. ...... "the man I love, who I would rather have home with me ... but who I am willing tosacrifice, because we have this window of opportunity, a chance to make something real happen." Clinton leaving Obama in the dust in latest state poll San Francisco Chronicle Clinton, bolstered by an aggressive campaign organization in California, has amassed a whopping 30-point lead .... enjoys more support among likely voters in the state Democratic primary than all of her Democratic presidential rivals combined ........ has seen his support drop by one-third since the previous Field Poll taken in March. ...... 49 percent support Clinton, followed by Obama at 19 percent ...... March, when Clinton held a 41-28 percent lead over Obama ..... "she seems to have strengthened herself across the board," and appears increasingly unstoppable here ..... a crushing 4-1 lead among Latino voters, a more than 2-1 lead among women and African American voters, and at least a 2-1 lead in every geographic region in the state ...... the overwhelming favorite in all age groups and ethnic groups and at every education level. ..... an extremely impressive feat. ...... Obama may be forced to consider shifting even more resources into a dramatic goal-line stand in Iowa ....... credited what he said was the decision to mount aggressive groundwork and intense grassroots organizing in California for the upward trend. ..... a field organization that will reach 4 million voters ...... Obama's campaign, by contrast, has been the focus of concern among some grassroots supporters and bloggers who have publicly questioned the lack of campaign offices and infrastructure in California. ........ Los Angeles public relations executive Mitchell Schwartz, who helped run Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign in New Hampshire, was named as Obama's state campaign manager. ...... a state campaign office will be opening soon ..... "It's early. To me, the key polls are the early states - New Hampshire, Iowa, South Carolina, where the people (are) on the ground; those are more accurate snapshots of where we are right now" Poll: Nearly half favoring Clinton in Calif. Democratic primarySan Jose Mercury News The telephone survey of 418 likely Democratic primary voters The Buzz: Obama touts openness in government Kansas City Star Karl Rove slammed Bush’s critics as “elite, effete snobs.” .. “This is one of the best-read people I’ve ever met. This is a Harvard MBA. A Yale undergraduate whose major was history and whose passion is history. … People on the Upper East Side who are putting their nose in the air about him can’t hold a candle to him.” ..... James Carville: “It’s almost hilarious that Karl Rove … talks about Hillary Clinton’s negatives when his boss’s negatives are like 65 percent. … This is America. And everybody is free to make a fool of themselves.” ...... According to Sen. John McCain, illegal immigration has angered people unlike no other issue, including the war in Iraq. He revealed that his position for a path to citizenship sparked unprecedented death threats against him. ..... The candidates continue to be weirdly amazed by Iowa. Rudy Giuliani: “I’ve never seen more corn in my life.” Blair hires Clinton's agent to seek £8m memoir deal Independent Nepal to allow fifth telecom operator Telecom Paper
We are going to win Iowa. We are going to win Nevada. We are going to win New Hampshire. We are going to carry South Carolina by a wide margin. We are going to carry New York and California.
Midnight February 5, it is all over.
To: The Cubans In Florida
We know what does not work. If the idea is to get rid of Fidel Castro, the status quo has not worked in half a century. Insanity is to try the same thing again and again and expect a different result. If you want Fidel to continue to haunt you, you stick with the status quo. If you want Cuba to be turned into a multiparty democracy, you go for change, you go for Obama, who will assault Cuba with total engagement at all levels.
Got To Raise A Lot Of Money
We have to account for Hillary selling her house in November. We got to raise $20 million more than we otherwise would. Obama does not have a house he can sell and compete with Hillary in the real estate market. He has to make up for it with grassroots fundraising, money raised in small sums like $25 and $50.
Obama Takes Sharper Tone to the Trail New York Times increasingly drawing sharp contrasts with his rivals and seeking to turn criticism of his foreign policy credentials into a fresh argument for change. ..... The recalibration of the campaign is a marked departure from a laid-back tone Mr. Obama often had taken in the first six months ....... Laying the groundwork for a debate in Iowa on Sunday, and at the start of a three-day bus tour across the state on Thursday ..... “There is — not just with Senator Clinton, but a lot of my opponents — a premium on reciting the conventional wisdom in Washington,” he said at a news conference before speaking here in southwestern Iowa. “And that’s what passes for experience.” ......... Barely a week has passed since February when Mr. Obama has not made one — or more — visits to Iowa ...... arguing that judgment was more critical than experience. ........ the business-as-usual ways of Washington represented by both President Bush and Mrs. Clinton. ...... Or do you think that the problem is more than just George Bush and it’s a problem with how Washington works? ..... Mr. Obama has told associates he finds the burst of aggressiveness to be liberating. ...... telling the truth to the American people about the very serious and difficult challenges and choices that we face .... Even the root beer floats served to supporters sat beneath a homemade banner, “Floats 4 Change.” ....... a woman rose from her seat and declared, “You excite the hell out of me, and I haven’t been hopeful for a long time!” ....... She added: “But I’m not sure that she’s really committed to the sort of radical change that I think we need. We need things to really change — the way Washington works, the way decisions are made in this country.” Clinton’s tactic of targeting Bush has pros, cons MSNBC Blair hires Clinton lawyer to seek multimillion memoir deal Guardian Unlimited
