Obama: "Three months ago, I gave my opinion." Yea, sure.

[babylonsister]

I'm watching the second part of the Obama interview on the post-election stuff w/Matthews and KO.
Focus on the cost of the war; no joke.
I think Senator Kerry needs to give his opinion, starting now!

[_dynamicdems]

1. I realized something watching Obama tonight.

He's really obnoxious. I don't like him at all. He's in love with himself. It was almost like watching someone primp and preen before a mirror. This guy is a bag of wind and nothing else.

[Island Blue]

2. He also says "I" a lot.

When JK speaks it's almost always about "we" or "the American people". Just as it should be.

[whometense]

13. I noticed that too.

That is one of my biggest problems with Bush, actually - everything is "I" "me" "my". With Bush, anyway, I think it's more than a verbal tic - it's a manifestation of the way he really sees the world, and it bothers me terribly. He is a selfish, selfish little man. I have no problem at all with ambition - but it needs to be paired with a grand vision of the way the world could be - and a big heart.

When I listened to Obama yesterday, I thought that he may have all those things eventually, but he doesn't have them now. The way he speaks shows how raw and unseasoned he is - not a bad thing at all in a first-term senator, but not anything I want to see in a president.

[karynnj]

3. I think he's more than that, but possibly over his head

It has to be heady going from being one of several contenders for the IL Senate seat in what at the earliest point looked like a tough race in both the primaries and general election to a superstar after his convention speech (Kerry gave him an enormous opportunity and he used it very very well.) to a media pushed candidate to be President - all in 3 years!

I was switching between stations - and he was everywhere. On CNN, he was asked about the Fox stuff. His response was that they used photos of him and OBL in 2004 and he still won 70 % of the vote - so it won't hurt. This is either intentional PR or its delusional - he ran against a nut job!)

On another channel he botched the Healthcare question - babbling about it having no mecanism to control costs - missing that it taxes the middle class people with employer paid healthcare for something they get no benefit from. (Another concern I have is he proposes to use deductions, which affect only those people maing enough to pay taxes.

[Mass]

4. No surprise he is getting a big head. The media are absolutely ridiculous.

This morning, Obama was the only one on the Morning Show and I have read somewhere that they dumped Biden to have Obama instead (LOL, Biden probably did not like that).

There is something so wrong in how the media behave. During the SOTU itself, they did not spend too much time focusing on them, but afterword, it is a round of Hillary, Obama, and Edwards, to the exclusion of anybody significative, and this morning, it was a one-man show.

Do not misunderstand me, but Obama is not yet the nominee, neither is Hillary. We cannot afford having the next two years with the media focused only on 2 very junior senators and somebody who is outside of the senate.

Unfortunately, this is so much the media's mentality: focus on one thing at a time.

[karynnj]

5. I think it may show how not ready for prime time

both Edwards and Obama are. Hillary did better than they did - but she mostly said things Kerry, not she, said from 2004 through 2005, she's not up to 2006 yet.

Edwards did make a good point that he didn't mention New Orleans - but had nothing detailed to say on Iraq, healthcare etc.

[Mass]

6. After Webb's speech, I think that I would rethink my notion of charisma.

It seems that Obama has been swallowed by the caution center.

Here are the goods of why Webb's speech was so good.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=25154&mesg_id=25154

[beachmom]

7. I will not be voting for Obama in the primaries. He is not qualified

for the job at all. If it was Obama vs. Hillary, I'd vote for Hillary, because, well, at least she's got Bill, and she has WAY more experience than Obama both in the WH and the Senate. We have no time for learning curves in the WH. And experience will trump ideology for me. But here's hoping Kerry runs.

[karynnj]

8. This makes it clear why they are hitting Kerry night and day

I'm not sure what I would do in that case. Assuming that Kerry were out, and those were the only real choices, it would be tough. (For the reasons you lay out I would take Hillary over Edwards.)

It would depend on the likely Republican and who Obama had advising him on foreign policy. If it's Huckabee or Mitt and Obama had good advisors and he seemed to have the humilityto listen to them, I might go for him. (The reason for considering the Republican is that the general election will turn on whether the person was believable as CIC.)

[beachmom]

9. Question: when are the Republican primaries?

The calculation you speak of may not be known. I admit to total ignorance on their schedule.

[karynnj]

12. In many states they are the same day

I was surprised years ago to find they don't have to be.

[wisteria]

10. I have heard the "at least she's got Bill" line a lot lately.Santorum,

yes that Santorum, was asked on Imus the other day if the choice came down to Obama or Hillary who would you choose. And, after he sighed and waited a bit, he said Hillary. And why, a disappointed Imus asked. And Santorum said because "she has Bill". For me, this comments says volumes about how comfortable people feel about her ability to lead this country.

So,who is actually running here? And,I wonder what Senator Clinton thinks when people say this? After all, she is running to be CIC- the top spot- not the spot behind her husband.

[beachmom]

11. For me, it's about reality, Wisteria. Bill is going to be there, and he'll

be Hillary's closest advisor. We can't deny that, and all the info that's in his head. And if HE was the presidential envoy that went to Iraq and stayed there until it got done, well, that's real. It's weird, however, and it'll be interesting to see how she plays that out. People want Bill back in the WH, and are willing to vote for his wife to make that happen. I've heard them say it. We'll see if there's a lot of wink, wink, nod, nod about that.

And on your views of Hillary, I'm 100% with you. I'm just trying to figure out how all this swings out.