I just got home from Barnes and Nobel where I picked up his book, The Audacity of Hope. The book certainly isn’t the typical ghost-written book by a politician. It easily passed the skim test in the book store, where glancing through the book I found items which caught my interest, convincing me it is worth reading more from him.
The skim test is certainly sufficient for deciding whether to read a book, but is not sufficient to take the author seriously as a Presidential candidate. It is no surprise after the past week of Obamamania that he is now saying he is considering running in 2008. He’s made the cover of Time and in the past week I’ve had excerpts here from op-eds from three of the New York Times columnists, David Brooks, Maureen Dowd, and Frank Rich.
Not surprisingly, Obama dismisses questions as to whether he is too inexperienced:
On Sunday, Obama dismissed notions that he might not be ready to run for president because of his limited experience in national politics. He agreed the job requires a “certain soberness and seriousness” and “can’t be something you pursue on the basis of vanity and ambition.”
“I’m not sure anyone is ready to be president before they’re president,” Obama said. “I trust the judgment of the American people.
There certainly are characteristics of the individual which must be considered beyond experience. George W. Bush showed the problems with making someone lacking in experience president, but it is doubtful that no amount of time in government would change the fact that he was both morally and intellectually unfit for the job.
It will be interesting to read through Obama’s book to help decide whether he is the type of person who would make a good President. In 2004 I read through a large number of John Kerry’s public statements before deciding he had a unique grasp of the issues which made him by far the most qualified of those running. Perhaps I’ll find that wisdom of Obama’s book, but even if it is there the fact remains that having the experience on top of the wisdom as Kerry has would be preferable.
Taylor Marsh’s take on Obama:
on the current hoopla:
http://www.taylormarsh.com/archives_view.php?id=24698
on his recent lecturing to Dems on religion:
http://www.taylormarsh.com/archives_view.php?id=24206
I was thrilled by Obama’s 2004 convention speech, and delighted he got elected to the Senate. . Since then, however, I’ve been disappointed by his cautious, and often surprisingly conservative, voting record. No matter who he becomes over time, or what directions his political choices take him, the bottom line is this: right now, HE DOES NOT HAVE THE EXPERIENCE TO BE PRESIDENT. There’s no question that he’s an intelligent and talented person, with great potential, including the potential, someday , to be president. But, sorry, NOT NOW. He simply is not ready.
We desperately need a seasoned, deeply experienced person for our next president. With the multiple disasters to be cleaned up, on every front (Iraq, health care, the economy, the environment, the Constitution, habeas corpus, and everything else the Bush administration has broken.. .), we do not have the time for someone to learn on the job. Please, can we grow out of our fantasy-heartthrob-du-jour mentality and make a grown-up choice for once, and elect a grown-up for president?