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"Let no one be discouraged by the belief there is nothing one man or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world's ills - against misery and ignorance, injustice and violence... Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation...

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"It is from the numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."

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Let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own.

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I think it is time we, all of us, askourselves some searching questions about out values, about what kind of people we reallyare, about who we are, as the psychologists say. If our freedom means ease alone, if itmeans shirking the hard disciplines of learning, if it means evading the rigors and rewardsof creative activity, if it means more expenditure on advertising than education, if it meansin the schools the steady cult of the trivial and the mediocre, it means – worst of all –indifference or even contemp for all but athletic excellence, we may keep for a time theforms of free society, but its spirit will be dead”

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I have been thinking that I would make a proposition to my Republican friends... that if they will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them.

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The idea that you can merchandise candidates for high office like breakfast cereal - that you can gather votes like box tops - is, I think, the ultimate indignity to the democratic process.

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I'm not an old, experienced hand at politics. But I am now seasoned enough to have learned that the hardest thing about any political campaign is how to win without proving that you are unworthy of winning.

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To act coolly, intelligently and prudently in perilous circumstances is the test of a man-and also a nation.

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I don't want to send them to jail. I want to send them to school

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What is more difficult, to think of an encampment on the moon or of Harlem rebuilt? Both are now within the reach of our resources. Both now depend upon human decision and human will.

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Respect for intellectual excellence, the restoration of vigor and discipline to our ideas of study, curricula which aim at strengthening intellectual fiber and stretching the power of young minds, personal commitment and responsibility - these are the preconditions of educational recovery in America today; and, I believe, they have always been the preconditions of happiness and sanity for the human race.

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Posts: 5600 | Registered: Jul 2001  |  IP: Logged | 

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Obama's a star who doesn't stick to the script

Published July 27, 2004

BOSTON -- Despite all the Democratic criticism of the war in Iraq, there isn't much of a difference on war policy between their man, John Kerry, and President Bush.

Republicans have been insisting as much for months, even as Democrats thwack the president. With the economy improving, Democrats must make the election a referendum on Bush's handling of the war in Iraq.

But it wasn't a conservative Republican who said there isn't much difference between Kerry and Bush on the war.

It was Barack Obama.

The Democratic Party's new icon and opponent-less candidate for the U.S. Senate in Illinois, Obama was preparing to give the keynote speech Tuesday night at the convention here. He sat down for lunch with Tribune writers. He opposed the war.

"On Iraq, on paper, there's not as much difference, I think, between the Bush administration and a Kerry administration as there would have been a year ago," Obama said. "There's not much of a difference between my position and George Bush's position at this stage."

That wouldn't have surprised the Deaniacs and other anti-war activists of the Left gathered here. While Kerry has acknowledged as much on the main points--a Kerry presidency wouldn't mean a withdrawal of U.S. armed forces from Iraq--it is not something the Democrats draw attention to or brag about.

Because if it's not "the economy, stupid," and if there's no difference between Bush and Kerry on Iraq, then what the heck are we doing here?

Watching a scripted TV show, waiting for Bill and Hillary sightings, wondering which Baldwin brother will say something ridiculous while munching on great Italian food in the North End?

Obama didn't deviate entirely from the bash-Bush theme. He did stress that Americans like Bush but don't trust him. I disagree, but that's his argument. And though I respectfully disagree with some of his politics, I couldn't help but be impressed by the man.

Sitting there watching him discuss issues--seeing him willing to consider the faults in arguments, not simply dispensing sound bites like a political mannequin--made me realize something: He's the real thing, and Illinois Republicans had no chance, sex clubs or no sex clubs.

Obama reiterated that if he had been in the Senate during the vote on the war, he would have voted no. Kerry voted yes. At the same time, Obama wouldn't advocate pulling out now, responsibly arguing that the U.S. cannot accept a failure there.

"How do you stabilize a country that is made up of three different religious and in some cases ethnic groups with a minimal loss of life and minimum burden to the taxpayers?" he said. "I am skeptical that the Bush administration, given the baggage from the past three years, not just on Iraq. ... I don't see them having the credibility to be able to execute. I mean, you have to have a new administration to execute what the Bush administration acknowledges has to happen."

Republicans might suggest that's a tough argument--hiring Kerry to complete Bush's war policy--but what I like about Obama is his willingness to consider different angles out loud. Such as race.

It is one reason he was chosen to offer the keynote address, obvious to politicians and voters but difficult to acknowledge publicly. He acknowledged it himself, straightforwardly.

"You know, look, there's no doubt that part of the reason I was asked to speak is because I'm an African-American candidate," he said, picking at a salad.

He was asked: So how does Kerry connect with African-American voters?

"There's no doubt John Kerry has not captured the hearts of the black community the way [Bill] Clinton did," Obama said. "... His style is pretty buttoned down. He's not the guy who is going to play the saxophone on MTV."

Still, Obama said Kerry didn't have to stoke emotions to connect with black voters before November. "He'll make them feel he cares about them," Obama said. "The African-American community doesn't need a preacher. We see preachers every Sunday."

Again, Obama answered honestly. I'm not used to that from Chicago politicians. As he grows into the job of senator, he may change his style and stick to the script. But he's riding so high now that he doesn't have to.

For all the adulation and the rock-star status, Obama is levelheaded enough to know there will come a time when all his incredible political fortune will tempt others to try to knock him down. Some of those people may be young, ambitious Illinois Democrats, whom he has eclipsed.

"There will be some deflation, which is good. It's healthy," Obama said. "... I have to walk a careful balancing act, of not seeming ungrateful for all the hype around my election, which I think is a little over the top."

All glory is fleeting. But for now, there's Tuesday night, and the speech he'll give to the nation. Good luck, Senator.

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Posts: 4344 | Registered: Mar 2003  |  IP: Logged | 

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It was pointed out that he mentioned that he was born in Kansas -- and his web site apparently says he spent the first two years of his life in Kansas, as his mother worked for one of the aircraft manufacturers here, and she was originally from Kansas.

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Posts: 2069 | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged | 

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Kirk Dillard, a leading Republican senator from the Chicago suburbs, looked chagrined when I asked him about Obama. “I knew from the day he walked into this chamber that he was destined for great things,” he said. “In Republican circles, we’ve always feared that Barack would become a rock star of American politics.” Still, Dillard was gracious. “Obama is an extraordinary man,” he said. “His intellect, his charisma. He’s to the left of me on gun control, abortion. But he can really work with Republicans.” Dillard and Obama have co-sponsored many bills.

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What he wanted was to practice civil-rights law in Chicago, and he did, representing victims of housing and employment discrimination and working on voting-rights legislation for a small public-interest firm.

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“Teaching keeps you sharp,” Obama said. “The great thing about teaching constitutional law”—his subject—“is that all the tough questions land in your lap: abortion, gay rights, affirmative action. And you need to be able to argue both sides. I have to be able to argue the other side as well as Scalia does. I think that’s good for one’s politics.

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“If you make political discourse sufficiently negative, more people will become cynical and stop paying attention. That leaves more space for special interests to pursue their agendas, and that’s how we end up with drug companies making drug policy, energy companies making energy policy, and multinationals making trade policy.”

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Mikva said, “I’ve seen him speak on Israel in front of a Jewish audience—a very, very tough crowd. And he was incredibly thoughtful, saying, basically, ‘There are a lot of people in that area, with lots of different interests and points of view, and they all have to be taken into consideration, and we can’t just rally around Sharon,’ and so on. And the crowd was just wowed... Barack managed to make those people who disagreed with him feel comfortable with the disagreement.”

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Posts: 1892 | Registered: Mar 2002  |  IP: Logged | 

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Later, I asked him if he wasn’t waving a red flag in front of labor by talking about free trade. “Look, those guys are all wearing Nike shoes and buying Pioneer stereos,” he said. “They don’t want the borders closed. They just don’t want their communities destroyed.”

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Posts: 5600 | Registered: Jul 2001  |  IP: Logged | 

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Suneun, that explanation makes a whole lot more sense. Interesting indeed. Here's hoping he wins this year.

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Posts: 5600 | Registered: Jul 2001  |  IP: Logged |