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ORIGINAL: saved9201

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Nobody is completely self-made, of course, but for a politician, he is surprisingly un-beholden.

You know this for a fact?

- Julius

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ORIGINAL: saved9201

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I find it interesting that a defender of Obama would have the same concerns that have been on my mind throughout this election perioid.

The majority of attacks against him in this forum have been of the sort -Is Obama Muslim? What about his strange name? Does Obama like white people? Why isn't his wife proud of this country? Does Obama look like a monkey? I defended him because those foolish and irrelevant accusations, in my humble opinion, are the attempt by the right wing media to divert attention away from real issues because they have no better solution and no candidate they're excited about. So since they have no confidence whatsoever in McCain beating Obama outright, they feel their only chance is to make people afraid to vote for the other guy.

Meanwhile, no one ever asked the question, why him? Why Obama? Who put him up there and why? Why didnt' this same "machine" embrace Hillary? Or John Edwards? Sure, he's a good speaker, but to be honest, good speakers are a dime a dozen. And somebody wrote every word he spoke in those speeches. I'm just saying it's pretty obvious the management of his campaign has been very impressive, and I find it hard to believe he organized all this without some bigtime entity overseeing it all . A "Manchurian Candidate?" I wouldn't go that far. But think about it. Where have you seen anything like this before? Me? Never.

- Julius

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BHO is merely the packaging for basically the exact same ideas, as HRC, Kerry, Dukakis, Mondale, Pelosi, Reid, or Gore.

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ORIGINAL: PhunkD
He is an adult convert to Christianity.

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He has experience as a community organizer.

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ORIGINAL: Sophie11

Interesting Article.

Not sure if it helps or not though, still reading it now.

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The campaign’s focal point is My.BarackObama.com, which has made better use of technology than its rivals since the beginning.

The alchemy of social networking and the presidential race has given Obama claim to some of the most fabulous numbers in politics: 750,000 active volunteers, 8,000 affinity groups, and 30,000 events. But the most important number, and the clue to how Obama’s machine has transformed the contours of politics, is the number of people who have contributed to his campaign—particularly the flood of small donors. Much of Clinton’s haul, and McCain’s, too, has come from the sort of people accustomed to being wooed in the living room, and Obama initially relied on them, too. But while his rivals continued to depend on big givers, Obama gained more and more small donors, until they finally eclipsed the big ones altogether. In February, the Obama campaign reported that 94 percent of their donations came in increments of $200 or less, versus 26 percent for Clinton and 13 percent for McCain.

In a sense, Obama represents a triumph of campaign-finance reform. He has not, of course, gotten the money out of politics, as many proponents of reform may have wished, and he will likely forgo public financing if he becomes the nominee. But he has realized the reformers’ other big goal of ending the system whereby a handful of rich donors control the political process. He has done this not by limiting money but by adding much, much more of it—democratizing the system by flooding it with so many new contributors that their combined effect dilutes the old guard to the point that it scarcely poses any threat.

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Staffers credit the candidate himself with recognizing the importance of this new tool and claim that his years as a community organizer in Chicago allowed him to see its usefulness.

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ORIGINAL: PhunkD

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ORIGINAL: saved9201

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Nobody is completely self-made, of course, but for a politician, he is surprisingly un-beholden.

You know this for a fact?

- Julius

Not for sure (it's not like we hang out), but he doesn't take special interest money, and he doesn't seem to have a problem going against people in leadership and/or popular opinion.

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ORIGINAL: Leon_Figg3

RC,

1. The Democratic Party put itself in a bind this year by having a black and a woman as its top two contenders for the office. (Representaties of the two groups that the Democratic Party has made itself out to be the champion of)

2. When faced with the choice of which group to push forward first, the Democratic Party will always choose Afro-Americans. (especially when faced with the reality that many African-Americans are moving over to the Republican Party because they are tired of decades of words over action)

3. There are enough members of the Democratic Party that fear another Clinton Reign of ??????, to justify them to put forward a candidate that few reaily know anything about other than he knows how to use alot of words without really saying a whole lot that is any different than what has been said time and time again by members of the Democratic Party and those who are said to be their base.

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ORIGINAL: PhunkD

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BHO is merely the packaging for basically the exact same ideas, as HRC, Kerry, Dukakis, Mondale, Pelosi, Reid, or Gore.

Clinton, Kerry, Pelosi, and Reid, were all part of our stupid rush into war. That's a big difference.

Obama has spoke on the need for personal responsibility more than Dukakis and Mondale combined.

And Gore (actually the rest of them, too) was connected to special interests.

Other differences:

he doesn't come from money.

he comes from a single parent family.

He has lived in a foreign country.

He is an adult convert to Christianity.

He has experience as a community organizer.

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ORIGINAL: PhunkD
And his church's much maligned teachings say that blacks need to take care of themselves. Also very conservative.

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ORIGINAL: wing2000

His 2004 convention speech launched him into the national spotlight.

First and foremost are his communication skills. Both Reagan and Clinton demonstrated the power of an effective communicator.

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ORIGINAL: PhunkD

You are obviously unfamiliar with him. Google his father's day speech. He sounded like a Dobson clone on the importance of fathers, especially in the African American community.

And his church's much maligned teachings say that blacks need to take care of themselves. Also very conservative.

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ORIGINAL: rcjames

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ORIGINAL: PhunkD
And his church's much maligned teachings say that blacks need to take care of themselves. Also very conservative.

Please do not use the word conservative in a paragraph that speaks of that liberal black theology wind mill of a "church".

Thanks
RC

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ORIGINAL: saved9201

Perhaps some in the democratic party did not want the GOP to become the first to nominate a viable black presidential candidate and felt desperate to find and actively promote someone of color before that happened.

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And somebody wrote every word he spoke in those speeches. I'm just saying it's pretty obvious the management of his campaign has been very impressive, and I find it hard to believe he organized all this without some bigtime entity overseeing it all . A "Manchurian Candidate?" I wouldn't go that far. But think about it. Where have you seen anything like this before? Me? Never.

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ORIGINAL: PhunkD

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ORIGINAL: rcjames

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ORIGINAL: PhunkD
And his church's much maligned teachings say that blacks need to take care of themselves. Also very conservative.

Please do not use the word conservative in a paragraph that speaks of that liberal black theology wind mill of a "church".

Thanks
RC

Does it hurt? I noticed you didn't say it wasn't true!