Prediction: Barrack Obama is running for president. Proof: he's already chased the first mid-level candidate out of the race.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana announced on Saturday he will not seek the presidency in 2008, saying he believes the odds of a successful run were too great to overcome.
"At the end of the day, I concluded that due to circumstances beyond our control the odds were longer than I felt I could responsibly pursue," Bayh said in a statement. "This path - and these long odds - would have required me to be essentially absent from the Senate for the next year instead of working to help the people of my state and the nation."
The announcement comes just two weeks after Bayh, in an appearance on a Sunday talk show, said he would take a first step toward a presidential campaign by forming an exploratory committee. His decision to step aside narrows a crowded field of possible candidates that, for now, is dominated by Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois.
Asked how he would address the issue of his relative lack of experience, Obama said he thought that the campaign itself--how he managed it, his position on issues and his framing of a vision for the country--would answer the question. "That experience question would be answered at the end of the campaign," he said.
"The test of leadership in my mind is not going to be what's on a paper resume," Obama said. Vice President Dick Cheney, a former defense secretary, and departing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld "had the best resume on paper of any foreign policy team and the result has been what I consider to be one of the biggest foreign policy mistakes in our history," he said.
On Hillary:
Though he was born in 1961, Obama cast himself as the face of a post-Baby Boomer generation not fundamentally shaped by Vietnam and the culture conflicts of the 1960s. He said he could "help turn the page in ways that other candidates can't do."
Sounding very much like a candidate, Obama called Clinton, 59, a "tough, disciplined, smart, intelligent public servant." But, compared to Clinton, he maintained he was able to look at "some issues differently as a consequence of being of a slightly different generation."
On the Republicans, including the new establishment candidate, John McCain:
As for Republicans, Obama said he placed Sen. John McCain of Arizona in the same position Clinton holds among Democrats, with great name recognition and resources and the ability to sew up much of the party establishment. But he also said he considered Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney an "attractive candidate," though he said Romney was "making a mistake in trying to look more conservative than he may be" to gain core conservative support.
Run against McCain
Speaking of a potential matchup with McCain, Obama said he was under no illusions about how a GOP presidential campaign would be run against him.
"War hero against snot-nosed rookie," Obama said. ...
..."Look, if it's John McCain ... I don't think you need a lot of imagination to figure out how they would run that campaign. `We live in dangerous times. Terrorism's looming. We need a battle-tested leader and that's John McCain.' I think that's how they present it."
On the Rezco scandalette:
Obama acknowledged "it was stupid" of him to get involved in the purchase almost one year ago of a strip of property adjoining his $1.65 million home from Antoin "Tony" Rezko, who owned a vacant lot next door. Rezko, a political insider and fundraiser, was indicted in October on charges of trying to extort campaign donations and kickbacks from firms seeking state business. Rezko has pleaded not guilty.
"I am the first one to acknowledge that it was a boneheaded move for me to purchase this 10-foot strip from Rezko, given that he was already under a cloud of concern," Obama said. "I will also acknowledge that from his perspective, he no doubt believed that by buying the piece of property next to me that he would, if not be doing me a favor, it would help strengthen our relationship."
And two more quotes that I think make Obama the most compelling figure in a potential race:
"What I at least think about is, whether through luck or happenstance or serendipity or convergences between my biography and events, doI have a particular ability to bring the country together around a pragmatic, common-sense agenda for change that probably has a generational element to it as well?"
... "I think that experience question would be answered during the course of the campaign. Either at the end of that campaign, people would say, `He looked good on paper but the guy was kind of way too green' or at the end of the campaign they say, `He's run a really strong campaign and we think he's got something to say and we think he could lead us.'"
Obama nailed it. At the end of the day, voters will get a "feel" for what kind of leadership they want. If it wound up being McCain vs. Obama, the question would be whether we want to reach back to the past, to a war hero who now embodies not only the establishment's "war on terror", but also the legacy of George W. Bush (which McCain has fully embraced,) or whether we want youthful, fresh leadership, and a dramatic change for America. There would also be a hell of a fight on the issue of race, particularly with McCain drafting the team that produced that odious Harold Ford ad, and with his having opposed the King holiday. McCain-Obama would be a study in direct opposites: opposites on the Iraq war, on racial issues, on abortion, afrirmative action and on and on. Because of that, it would be a much more interesting race, in many ways, than McCain-Hillary.
America needs a serious ideological test: old vs. young, pro-war vs. anti-war, white old boy's club past vs. the multicultural future. And at this stage, as much as I love Hillary, I think Obama fits the bill better than any other candidate. So goodbye, Evan Bayh (good job getting that you had no shot) ... stay pretty, John Edwards ... Loved your TV ads, Bill Richardson ... bag it, Vilsack ... keep on talkin' Joe Biden ... and you're the man, Chuck Hagel (Bayh may be the first casualty, but I wouldn't expect Vilsack or Biden to hang on much longer...) Don't tell mama, but my vote would be with Obama.
Update:You cannot close the book on the Obama topic until you have read this post. Rick Morin, you GO boy (and Baldiocks, too...)
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dim done
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if done = "" then
done = "No"
%>
Tell a friend
<%
Else
if request.form("done") = "Yes" then
'sets variables
dim email, sendmail
email = request.form("email")
Set sendmail = Server.CreateObject("CDONTS.NewMail")
'put the webmaster address here
sendmail.From = "webmaster@aspbasics.com"
'The mail is sent to the address entered in the previous page.
sendmail.To = email
'Enter the subject of your mail here
sendmail.Subject = "Check out this website"
'send a specific page or send a site url
dim url
'url = Request.ServerVariables("HTTP_REFERER")
url = "http://www.aspbasics.net"
'This is the content of the message.
sendmail.Body = "Site recommendation from a friend!" & _
vbCrlf & vbCrlf & "A friend has sent you this email and thought you would should check out this site." & _
vbCrlf & url & vbCrlf
'this sets mail priority.... 0=low 1=normal 2=high
sendmail.Importance = 1
sendmail.Send 'Send the email!
response.redirect Request.ServerVariables("HTTP_REFERER")
'Response.write ("Sent to ") & email
End if
End if
%>
"[T]he practice of arbitrary imprisonments, have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.' Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 84, August, 1788
