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It would be fair to say that Barack Obama has stage presence. He is stronger at making prepared statements and speeches than he is at competing in public debates. While Hillary Rodham Clinton is probably the leader on closet skeletons, it is likely that Obama and Edwards have some as well. Don’t we all? But we all don’t have Hillary Rodham Clinton claiming she has a career ender for us in her arsenal. Obama does. The question is does she really have something on him or not? But that’s another matter for another time.

Frequently the voting base subset of ‘women’ is touted to be owned by Clinton. That may be more true for her husband than her. It is also reported from time to time that HRC’s campaign has focused on shoring up the women’s vote. Just by virtue of gender you might think that shouldn’t be necessary. But one report today indicates another voter subset, ‘blue collar’ women are for Hillary Clinton. Yet another features this:

Michelle Obama urges black women to support her husband

Does that mean Michelle does not want other women to vote for her husband or that other women will but she is concerned about black women voting for her husband? If you would think that women voters would vote for Hillary Clinton on a gender match, would you think that black voters would vote for Barack Obama on a racial match? It is interesting that politically motivated rhetoric renders support of amnesty for illegal aliens as an American ideal and not supporting the troops in pursuit of victory as an equally pro-American position. For liberal candidates who often speak of America with patriotic overtones and the need to ‘come together’ like a rerun of a Beatle’s song, slicing up the electorate may be good campaign strategy but what does it really tell you about the candidates?

`It would be logical for a white voter to expect that Barack Obama may spend more time pursuing legislation and policy that favors black Americans than other racial or ethnic groups. It may not be true and it may not even be fair. But when you see a report that Michelle Obama is urging black women to vote for her husband it has to make you wonder about what candidates are doing. Maybe this is the true equalizer about race and ethnicity in our nation. The fact that when it comes to politics all men (and women) are created equal. They are all equally the target of candidates and after the vote the concerns about voters are returned to the back burner. A fate executed by all candidates after election whether they be Democrat, Republican or any other.

Specifically for Obama, while the criticism from Clinton that he is naive and irresponsible in foreign affairs or elsewhere, his headline below does no better than to play into Clinton’s earlier criticism.

Obama foreign policy views based on family experience

Just living somewhere and experiencing culture and the daily life among locals in another country does not qualify as foreign affairs experience any more than Clinton residing in the White House as First Lady. It can be argued that one person who has foreign affairs experience has the last name Rice or Powell. And even the relatively brief time that both people have held the Office of Secretary of State, their experience could be viewed as far exceeding that of either Clinton or Obama. Foreign affairs experience is gathered in few places outside the White House or the State Department. Perhaps all Presidential candidates should concede they are extremely limited in that capacity and move on to matters they can speak to.

McCain and Thompson dwarf the experience of Clinton, Obama and Edwards as Senators. Romney and Giuliani dwarf the three Dems on leadership and administrative experience. The three leading Democratic contenders for the 2008 race have something in common. Essentially they are all rookies doing well in the early stages of a Presidential campaign. Perhaps the only reason they are doing that well is that within the Democratic party ranks they are the best they had to offer and no others are available with adequate experience.

Sometimes a candidate’s failed attempt to get elected serves as the seed to combine with more experience years later and a subsequent successful run for the same office. We should be viewing the Democratic candidates in that light. But then, that is all the Democratic party has to offer and one of them will be their nominee. Predicting the outcome whether you lean left or right is probably a fool’s mission. Sure, one of the candidates in the 2008 race, barring some unlikely turn of events, will be our next President. Whether they are Republican or Democrat, one of them will win.

Obama’s recent advance on Clinton’s lead and Huckabee’s mirrored experience in Iowa within the GOP ranks tell you one thing. This race is a long way from over. We are nearing the first real votes and the polling trends are shifting. That may only indicate that more people are starting to pay attention. If the first, second and third among both Dems and the GOP are close together after Iowa and New Hampshire this will get interesting. Here are two possible outcomes in Iowa you may want to consider. Either Edwards and Romney or Obama and Huckabee would really stir things up.

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 24th, 2007 at 2:13 pm and is filed under Public Affairs, wordpress, Politics, campaign, election, McCain, GOP, Democrats, Clinton, thompson, obama, romney, Edwards, Foreign Affairs, giuliani. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.