Opinion of the Candidate: Barack Obama

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Negative. I don't feel comfortable with electing someone with so little experience, after eight years of Bush.

[Lunar]

     Negative. I don't feel comfortable with electing someone with so little experience, after eight years of Bush.

Have our most experienced presidents been our best ones?  Second, I would implore you, despite the oddness of the self-fulfilling prophesy, to imagine what kind of managerial skill Obama's had to manage to defeat Hillary Clinton (huge hill) and John McCain (moderate hill).  ~700 million dollars, hundreds of thousands of paid and unpaid staff, one mistake and you're gone.  Even in the business world if you're 0.1% less effective than your nearest competitor then you're fine, but in the US Primaries, that means you're toast.  I know it's heresy to say it, but I'm more impressed with John McCain's and Barack Obama's managerial skills running their campaigns than Palin's skills running Alaska (with little crime and zero budget issues). Although I'm more impressed with the Obama's since he defeated the inevitable instead of McCain who was inevitable and collapsed, but then emerged as everyone's Plan B.  But whatever, both campaigns involved a lot of the same skills involved in choosing a good cabinet and advisors and responding to pressure and even meeting with foreign leaders.  That involves about some of the most intense managerial experience anywhere.

Still, the experience critique has its validity.  The inverse is that more Washington experience is bad for the soul.  The inverse of the "Executive Experience" argument is that most of what a president does is work with Congress and having connections there and being aware of the process is of a great asset to him (I think Joe Biden would be a far more effective president).

[TheGlobalizer]

I would seriously consider voting for Obama if we had a GOP congress.  I want to say positive, but neutral is probably better.

That sums me up.

[davajuan]

Negative

I don't want to say Very Negative because he seems to be a good guy that really cares but he's made enough stupid decisions and has enough positions on the issues that make me dislike him. I'll say that I find him far less annoying than his fanatical base.

[Wakie]

Very negative.  I'm sorry, the man is utter slime, plain and simple.  And if you can't see that, then you're deluded.

Not for nothing but I kinda get the feeling you would have said that about any of the Democrats running for President.  I kinda get the feeling you would have said the same of Kerry, Gore, Clinton, Dukakis, Mondale, and Carter.

And if that is the case then maybe ... just maybe ... you are a "one-party" guy.

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

Negative

He's an empty shell

aren't you the one that was the unofficial leader of the Sarah Palin jerk-off session that lasted a week or ten days here?

only based on her performance as the Gov of Alaska, where she demonstrated competence.  I had no idea she was so unprepared for the national stage.  I had assumed she had been prepping herself since the Summer of 2007.

She should have turned McCain down and gone through the normal process in 2012 of having a team of advisors prep her on national/international issues beginning 6 months prior to primary debates.  That's the normal process for governors seeking the whitehouse.  That's what Bush43, Clinton, Reagan, Carter...all did.

[Keystone Phil]

The greatest Freedom Fighter ever to run for President since 1972.

You like McGovern more than that pathetic excuse of a candidate, Minnesota's own, Walter Mondale?

I like both RFK and McCarthy more than Humphrey. McGovern stood for bigger and greater things.

You didn't address the person I mentioned.

[opebo]

     Negative. I don't feel comfortable with electing someone with so little experience, after eight years of Bush.

What're you talking about?  Bush was a huge success!  Just not for me, or you.

[True Democrat]

Positive