OBAMA RISING

...He said he has spoken to terrorism experts who have told him that there are only about 10,000 committed terrorists, and the rest are people facing hardship, or being educated in madrassas that teach hate...

...I think everything she does is calculated by what kind of effect it will have, and we’ve had a lot of that...

...Obama provided the example of the Marshall Plan as an instance of foreign aid contributing to our long-term security...

...His oration...

...Clinton still has the support of many in the party establishment, and benefits from Bill’s popularity among black voters...

...As has been widely explored, Obama had to navigate through many worlds and balance several cultures growing up in Hawaii and Indonesia as the offspring of a white woman from Kansas and black man from Kenya...

...And in February, she said of Republicans, “I’m the one person they are most afraid of...

...He’s just too good to be true...

...That was apparent on a rainy Saturday morning in Manchester, New Hampshire, where about 550 supporters gathered to hear Obama speak before departing for a door-to-door canvassing effort to ask New Hampshire residents to urge the state’s Republican senators, Judd Gregg and John Sununu, to change their votes on the Iraq war...

...In campaign appearances, she recalls the 1993 fight over her healthcare plan, joking, J U L Y / A U G U S T 2 0 0 7 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 2 9 O B A M A R I S I N G her because of Bill, so I was really torn,” MacLellan told me after the Rye town hall meeting...

...the country riol for the mood that is consuming this to “[He has] perfect pitch, I think, for the mood of , which is a flinch from the rhetorical vitwn,” once elected...

...on bombast and bullying, and in some cases, lies...

...Senate, their voting records are practically identical...

...But clearly, he intends to capitalize on this particular moment in American history...

...And Barack’s got the capability, I believe—and the pizzazz and the charisma—to be a leader of America, not a leader of Democrats...

...His views could not be more different from those of the staunch conservative Sen...

...has immense talents and understandable appeal...

...Ten thousand people in Los Angeles...

...Under Bush, the size of government has increased at a faster rate than during any administration since Lyndon Johnson’s, and it has given us the monstrosities of the Medicare prescription drug benefit and No Child Left Behind...

...senator or the leader of the free world, whether the question is ethics in government or education, health care or Hezbollah, his solution is replacing our “cynicism” with “hope” so that we can overcome any challenge by working together...

...But its appeal should not be underestimated...

...universal health care for welfare reform if it meant They voted for him because they said we like him, he’s maintaining power...

...presidency...

...Obama has called for increasing the size of the military and moving against terrorist groups when the subject specifically comes up, or when he is addressing a more general audience, but when speaking to a partisan crowd, he strikes a different balance...

...Unlike Bill Clinton, who also had a certain charisma, Obama has a strong family life and at this point it seems unlikely that there are any Paula Joneses or Monica Lewinskys in his closet to distract from his legislative ambitions...

...Obama acknowledged that “we have very real enemies out there,” but argued that we could be spending money more wisely, and lamented the cost of the Iraq war...

...It’s not an act...

...Writing of the visit, Obama describes his father’s “effect on other people,” recalling: For whenever he spoke—his one leg draped over the other, his large hands outstretched to direct or deflect attention, his voice deep and sure, cajoling and laughing—I would see a sudden change take place in the family.… It was as if his presence had summoned the spirit of earlier times and allowed each of them to reprise his or her old role...

...But another button more appropriately conveys the mood of the moment...

...This was quite a different tone from the major foreign policy address he gave a few weeks earlier...

...As long as those governments are still in place, it is unlikely that they will take too kindly to American efforts to feed and reeducate their people...

...Senate candidate: Obama began by saying, as he often does, that people were always getting his name wrong, calling him “Alabama” or “Yo Mama...

...Considering that this all came from somebody identified as a conservative president, Republicans are left with little leverage to argue against Obama’s “slight change in priorities...

...King had never been shot, and the Kennedys continued to beckon the nation, and war and riot and famine were nothing more than temporary setbacks, and there was nothing to fear but fear itself...

...None of this is to suggest that conservatives should simply roll over and wait to be devoured by the Obamasaurus Rex...

...He instantly got in playing poker with some of the old bulls of the state senate who came from all different walks of life, many of whom were skeptical, I’m sure,” he said...

...That is why, though it is just a silly button slogan, the phrase “Carpe Diem” may be the best way to describe the rationale behind Obama’s candidacy...

...the overcast skies opening up, a crowd huddles outside the doorway of the Rye Elementary School in this New Hampshire seacoast town, waiting for Secret Service officers to complete their sweep of the building...

...His audacity—he likes that word...

...When President Bush announced his “surge” strategy in January, like other Democrats, Obama opposed it...

...The military action,” he complained...

...As much as his calls for “a new kind of politics” in which Americans overcome cynicism and find common ground sound like the empty platitudes of a phony politician, there is reason to think that in Obama’s case, he genuinely believes in bringing people together...

...Jimmy Carter seemed like an honest guy to help us recover from Watergate, Ronald Reagan was the ideal choice for us to recover from the malaise of the Carter years, and Bill Clinton felt our pain at a time when the elder President Bush was seen as out of touch...

...But at a moment in history when Americans are war-weary and eager for change, the optimistic, freshfaced Obama should at the very least be considered a by Philip Klein J U L Y / A U G U S T 2 0 0 7 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 2 5 O B A M A R I S I N G formidable candidate...

...It’s a photo of the candidate, smiling and waving, with a rising sun behind him, surrounded by the words: “Carpe Diem Barack Obama November 4, 2008...

...Obama has pointed out in recent campaign appearances that, “we are just 16 votes short from bringing this war to a close...

...When Obama chats with people after campaign events, he looks at them intently, puts his arm around them, or even embraces them...

...Charles Rangel has already endorsed her over Obama...

...But Obama comes across as more likable, and he crafts his rhetoric carefully to make his 30 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR J U L Y / A U G U S T 2 0 0 7 P H I L I P K L E I N ernment, during a period of economic stagnation, to give middle-class voters a sense that it was fighting for them...

...A one-time John Kerry delegate, she is now actively supporting Obama, along with her husband...

...24 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR J U L Y / A U G U S T 2 0 0 7 Obama Obama Rising Rising The charismatic freshman senator may just be the Democrat who can beat Hillary—and make liberalism a winning philosophy again...

...Dillard described how Obama became one of the guys by playing cards and pickup basketball games, bumming cigarettes, and going out for drinks...

...When Obama jokes about his name, the crowds still roar with laughter, and when he calls for replacing cynicism with hope, his flocks of supporters find it inspiring...

...Philip Klein is a reporter for The American Spectator...

...It’s enough to make somebody, well, cynical...

...It’s difficult to imagine a scenario in which Obama would win the presidency in 2008, while Republicans regain control of Congress...

...There is still a long way between now and the election...

...That would be 28 years of two families...

...It is interesting to speak to Obama boosters about why they prefer him to Hillary...

...Here I am a woman, who wouldn’t mind a woman president, a lot of my friends are going to vote for Hillary will also do her best to portray herself as battle hardened...

...Neither the Clintons N A CHILLY AFTERNOON in mid-May, with nor conservatives should ignore his appeal...

...But they sense, deep in their bones, that with just a slight change in priorities, we can make sure that every child in America has a decent shot at life, and that the doors of opportunity remain open to all...

...NOTHER QUESTIONER WANTED TO KNOW what could be done to increase humanitarian assistance to the rest of the world...

...But considering that Democrats vehemently oppose the war, want change, and are sick of divisiveness, it would actually be odd for them to choose somebody who voted for the war, who is the most polarizing figure in politics, and who has already occupied the White House for eight years, over a fresh face who opposed the war all along...

...There is an obvious problem with that analogy...

...His personality...

...Obama has maintained a solidly liberal voting record in the U.S...

...For all of Bill Clinton’s electoral suc- George Will said of Obama on ABC’s This Week...

...He is a genuinely nice man who cares greatly about overcoming obstacles on a variety of fronts...

...With many Americans tired of hearing about war and terrorism, and fed up with the divisiveness of the Bush years, there is a certain demand for a healer, and the Oprah-approved Obama is well suited for such a role...

...Think of Al Gore’s “people versus the powerful” refrain or John Edwards’s “two Americas...

...Responding, he held up the in terms of military spending and cookie and noted the disproportionate amount of money America spends on defense relative to the rest of the world...

...The effort served a duel purpose, as volunteers were also instructed to ask voters which candidates they were leaning toward and what issues were most important to them...

...He went on, “People are always asking me, ‘Why, with these fancy degrees and a professorship, would you want to go into something dirty and nasty like politics?’ And my answer is, ‘We’ve got too much cynicism in this country, and we’re all in this together, and government expresses that.’” So, whether he is running to be a U.S...

...and six in the morning behind closed doors,” said Dillard of their years together in the Illinois state senate...

...He also had more than 100,000 donors, which was double the number reported by Hillary...

...How do we see a Department of Peace be a bigger item than a Department of Defense...

...This prompted a meditation on public cynicism...

...He continued: “One of the enemies we’re going to have to fight, is not just terrorists, it’s not just Hezbollah, it’s not just Hamas, it’s also cynicism...

...Such goals would not hinder economic growth, he argues, but position us better to compete in a global economy...

...As Obama adjusts to being a candidate in a contentious Democratic primary dominated by a base that is restive and angry, his conciliatory impulses are being put to the ultimate test...

...That environment allows the hardcore terrorists to recruit,” Obama said...

...He paces back and forth holding a sheet of cardboard displaying rows of buttons, most of them the typical offerings you’d expect to see at a gathering of Democrats...

...The lucky ones get cozy beneath the entrance’s overhang, while the less fortunate depend on umbrellas and ponchos to protect themselves from the elements...

...He continues: legislative agenda...

...But the bottom line is that she voted to authorize the war (for which she still hasn’t apologized) and in 2002 Obama called it a “dumb war...

...lion for the primary alone, beating out the vaunted When Obama chats with people after campaign events, he looks at them intently, puts his arm around them, or even embraces them...

...In outlining his top priorities, he talks about pulling out of Iraq, fighting global warming, achieving energy independence, creating universal health care, and improving education...

...They were talking about their need to make a difference, and this is the only guy in a very long time that has sparked their interest...

...stump speech, Obama recounted the first time he decided to run for office...

...This general sense has been echoed throughout conservative blogs...

...Scrub language of all religious content, and we forfeit the imagery and terminology through which millions of Americans understand both their personal morality and social justice...

...We didn’t attempt to deliver humanitarian assistance to Europe or try to reeducate Germans while Hitler was still in power...

...Many conservatives have a difficult time believing that at a critical time in the nation’s history, in the midst of the War on Terror, the country would choose a novice like Barack Obama to serve as their commander in chief...

...When this University of Chicago professor and Harvard graduate walked in, their eyes rolled...

...Senate should wait until he gets more experience...

...Before instituting the Marshall Plan, we first had to defeat the Nazis...

...THE 2004 NEW YORKER PIECE, Dan Shoman, Obama’s political director at the time, spoke about people “drinking the juice...

...When George Bush steps down from office, the entire world will breathe a sigh of relief,” he said in Rye, New Hampshire...

...Obama displayed tremendous naïveté by applying his feel-good liberalism, which may have had relevance when he was a community organizer in the South Side of Chicago, to a complex and intractable conflict with deep historical, religious, ethical, and cultural roots...

...Obama is a bigger draw on the campaign trail than any candidate in either party...

...And the American people still value individualism, and remain deeply suspicious about government interference in their lives...

...With a photo having surfaced on the Internet of Obama at a 1998 Arab community dinner in Chicago, chatting with leading anti-Israel intellectual Edward Said, many supporters of Israel questioned Obama’s true sympathies...

...Those young people, and their passion for this guy, was really inspiring this morning...

...Despite their ideological incompatibility, Coburn sees Obama’s potential...

...To those who care about limiting the size and scope of government, the threat of Obama goes deeper than his potential to capture the Obama displayed tremendous naïveté As he does during his standard presidential by applying his feel-good liberalism to a complex and intractable conflict with deep historical, religious, ethical, “Alabama” or “Yo Mama...

...As president of the Harvard Law Review and law professor at the University of Chicago, he went to great lengths to give both sides a fair hearing on controversial issues, according to the accounts of those who knew him at the time...

...Conservatives have long contemplated the nightmare of a Hillary Clinton presidency, but even if she were to make it to the White House, there would be a limit to how much she could accomplish...

...By contrast, in his highly touted speech to the 2004 Democratic National Convention, Obama’s liberalism was inclusive, rooted in the American tradition, and exemplified by his life story...

...We don’t need a Bush-Clinton-BushClinton dynasty...

...Tom Coburn, but the two worked together on earmark transparency legislation...

...Bill and I have beaten them before, and we will again...

...But when I think of Barack, and where he stood on civil rights, Historically, when Americans are unhappy with the way things are, they Clinton, Russ Feingold, and even John Kerry, acelect presidents to repair flaws they see in the current administration...

...Also, Clinton faced a hostile Congress for the last six years of his presidency, but if Obama won, he would likely have the benefit of a Democratic-controlled legislative branch...

...In The Audacity of Hope, Obama expands on his vision...

...For years, the right has been gearing up for another epic confrontation with the Clinton machine, and it’s hard to imagine Hillary would allow a political neophyte to squash her White House ambitions...

...We had 20,000 people in Atlanta, 20,000 folks in Austin, Texas...

...Obama and Coburn have described each other as friends, and even their wives have hit it off...

...Obama can be to liberalism what Ronald Reagan was to conservatism, and that’s a friendly face or likable personality that can move the country left,” Dillard told me...

...In response, Obama reiterated his call for a “new security” that would involve the doubling of foreign aid...

...His background...

...Rennick is not alone...

...His passion...

...His declaration that “the era of not off putting, he’s not frightening...

...Senate, but has still sought to work with his Republican colleagues in Washington when possible...

...SEIZE THE DAY, HOWEVER, he’ll have to get past Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries, and she will not go quietly...

...It fascinated me, this strange power of his… Watching Obama on the campaign trail made me wonder if he is channeling his father, because whenever he speaks, it’s as if September 11 had never happened, as if there weren’t terrorist groups throughout the world plotting to attack us, and the only thing we have to fear is “cynicism...

...It is unlikely that her shrill voice, calculating ideas sound more moderate than they actually are...

...As we move farther away from September 11 without another terrorist attack, it is only natural that this tendency will manifest itself and people will want to “turn the page...

...One portrays Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld as the Three Stooges, and one reads: “Friends Don’t Let Friends Vote Republican...

...Some have shown up to see the political world’s new celebrity out of sheer curiosity, while others are already smitten...

...In the Illinois senator, Democrats may have finally found a political figure capable not only of winning an election, but of advancing liberalism...

...At the philosophical level, Obama attempts to reconcile the conflict between individualism and collectivism that is at the root of the debate over the role of government by arguing that “our individualism has always been bound by a set of communal values, the glue upon which every healthy society depends...

...We see him as a bridge to a better vision for the country,” said a Kate Singletary, who took a bus in from Cape Cod with about 30 others, including 18 high school students...

...I heard one grown woman gush after meeting him following an event in New Hampshire, which was not an atypical reaction...

...He’s cesses and political talents, he never attempted to a little like Ronald Reagan in this regard: Reagan used make a philosophical case for liberalism...

...He is, in fact, seizing the day...

...Iappearances paint a portrait of a politician who , speeches glance, but his writings T IS VERY EASY to dismiss Obama as shallo , and campaign w at first The first time I saw Barack Obama speak in person was at a small reception following this year’s gala dinner of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s annual convention in Washington, D.C...

...However, to counteract Obama, conservatives will have to start by seeing him as a legitimate threat...

...One can see a scenario in which this desire for change expresses itself not only in the primary, but the general election itself...

...It isn’t “naïve” or “soft” to argue that humanitarian assistance could be used to reduce terrorism, he said, but simply a matter of making a smart investment...

...Furthermore, his messy personal life and that while he disagreed with Reagan’s policies he scandal-plagued administration distracted from any “understood his appeal...

...Another problem Hillary faces is that to the extent she tries to use her years as first lady to emphasize her experience, and to deploy Bill, it reinforces Obama’s narrative that he’s the candidate who most represents change...

...Obama does not even bother to pay lip service to going after terrorist groups in his standard stump speech, which indicates where his heart really lies...

...If she were to win, it would have to be by promising to govern as a moderate, so any attempt to drastically augment the size of the welfare state would make it very easy for conservatives to rally opposition to her liberal agenda...

...Asked what she found so appealing, she rattled off a long list...

...home when I went back and read William Finnegan’s 2004 profile in the New Yorker, and stumbled on a description of a speech Obama delivered as a U.S...

...and thinking about the real people, that’s what we need again...

...You know, my feeling is the country is too big to go from Bush to Clinton, from Bush to Clinton,” Robert Gomperts of Richmond told me before Obama took the stage there...

...Tim Kaine, entering the stage to the sounds of Aretha Franklin’s “Think...

...it also spoke to the failures of liberal govnature, and disagreeable personality would win over any converts to her cause and thus she would have a difficult time realizing her policy ambitions...

...In a not too subtle rejoinder to Reagan, he ruminated that “people don’t expect government to solve all their problems...

...Enough already...

...His father left Hawaii when the younger Barack was just two years old, and they didn’t see each other until his father visited Hawaii in the early 1970s...

...At a J U L Y / A U G U S T 2 0 0 7 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 2 7 O B A M A R I S I N G rally in Manchester, he declared that the American people “are tired of a foreign policy that instead of being based on our ideals, on our values, is based only “We have come to view security only throughout the world...

...He’s Ann Coulter has written that “only white guilt could explain the insanely hyperbolic descriptions of Obama’s ‘eloquence.’ His speeches are a run-on string of embarrassing, sophomoric Hallmark bromides...

...JUST THINK HE’S AMAZING,” said Beth Rennick of Richmond, who was first impressed with Obama when she saw him speak at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, where she was a delegate...

...But unlike others, he was sure to add: “I have no doubt that the President is sincere in believing that his strategy is the right one...

...But leadership changes that...

...Brenda MacLellan, an eighth grade teacher from Londonderry, New Hampshire, said she was turned off by Clinton after meeting her at a February town hall meeting in Concord...

...He deemphasizes racespecific policies, arguing that most of the problems minority groups face are ones confronted by most Americans...

...Before he announced his intention to run, many pundits argued that the 45-year-old with less than three years in the U.S...

...He sounds quite genuine in his concern about all of those issues, but fighting terrorism does not make the cut...

...Obama’s voting record makes him one of the most liberal members of the Senate (to the left of cording the National Journal’s most recent ratings...

...Some still consider his campaign a dry run, or a bid for the vice-presidential nomination...

...His mind...

...That Reagan’s message found such a receptive audience spoke not only to his skills as a communicator...

...Over the course of the campaign, it is likely that everything about Obama will come out in the worst possible light, from his admission of past cocaine use to his controversial land purchase from indicted businessman and fundraiser, Tony Rezko...

...The core of Obama’s message in his run for president may be captured in a refrain he uses in his speeches, that “it’s time to turn the page...

...HIS FIRST BOOK, Dreams of My Father, Obama recounts his only meeting with his dad...

...I think [Hillary Clinton’s] general inclinations are right, but she’s too calculating for my taste...

...she asked...

...Considering it is only May, the turnout was impressive...

...The critics may be right, and he may just be a flash in the pan, too green to survive in a long campaign...

...Before the Rye, New Hampshire town hall meeting I attended, a woman handed out cookies decorated with a pie chart representing the size of the Pentagon budget, suggesting that money wasted on outdated weapons could be diverted to health care and education...

...Instead of proposing that money saved by pulling out from Iraq be spent to improve national security in other ways, he said we could use the money for early child education, or to expand access to health care...

...In the first quarter, he blew away expectations by raising $23.5 milpolitical machine at the disposal of Hillary Clinton...

...Obama also perceptively argues against liberals’ attempts to secularize society, realizing that appealing to faith is actually an effective way to advance progressive ideas...

...More than anything, Obama’s candidacy taps into a desire among a certain portion of the electorate to move beyond September 11, to return to a time when terrorism may have been a part of political life, but far from the central focus...

...If Barack disagrees with you or thinks you haven’t done something appropriate he’s the kind of guy who’ll talk to you about it,” Coburn told New York magazine, “He’ll come up and reconcile: ‘I don’t think you were truthful about my bill.’ I’ve seen him do that...

...She was with the group PrioritiesNH, which claims to be nonpartisan, but is run by liberal activist Ben Cohen, cofounder of ice cream company Ben and Jerry’s...

...Combined...

...Bill cared to drive people crazy, in the Democratic Party, more about winning people’s love than fighting ideo- because they’d say the public doesn’t agree with him logical battles, and was perfectly content to abandon on this or this or this or this, and they vote for him...

...J U L Y / A U G U S T 2 0 0 7 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 3 1...

...On the Senate floor...

...In that speech (which got good reviews from neoconservative Robert Kagan), he called for adding 65,000 soldiers to the Army and 27,000 Marines...

...So I’m looking for something new...

...But it didn’t take long for Obama to prove to all of his colleagues that he’s a pretty nice regular guy...

...He joked that people used to mispronounce his name by calling him people would ask him why a nice guy would want to get mixed up in politics...

...And I think this is big government is over” was an acknowledgment that another 1980...

...We spend more money on defense than the next 30 nations combined,” he stressed...

...A salesman sees an opportunity to make a quick buck...

...I’ve worked with Senator Obama publicly, privately, and at 1 A.M...

...A quarter century ago, Ronald Reagan not only won the presidency, he won the argument, selling a generation of Americans on the virtues of individualism and limited government...

...Then he recalled that and cultural roots...

...Rhetorically, Bush gave away the store by touting “compassionate conservatism” and notoriously uttering, “When somebody hurts, government has got to move...

...He buys into the narrative that Franklin D. Roosevelt saved capitalism from itself, and while acknowledging the importance of free markets, he argues that government has a role in addressing income inequality, improving education, and universalizing health care...

...as if Dr...

...Politicians who advocate progressive policies by resorting to populism have had a tendency to come across as divisive and anti-business, and they have suffered at the ballot box as a result...

...Once volunteers “start drinking the Obama juice,” Shoman said, “you can’t find enough for them to do...

...Historically, when Americans are unhappy with the way things are, they elect presidents to repair flaws they see in the current administration...

...The superficiality of these remarks were driven 2 6 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR J U L Y / A U G U S T 2 0 0 7 P H I L I P K L E I N mous crowds,” he likes to boast on the stump...

...just too good to be true...

...Skeptical conservatives would be wise to heed the words of Kirk Dillard, the Republican minority whip of the Illinois state senate, who worked with Obama for eight years in the legislature...

...Their concerns would not be assuaged...

...His charisma...

...I still have the scars to prove it...

...Just as Reagan’s sunny optimism portrayed conservatism in its most positive Reagan spoke to America’s longing for order, our need to believe that we are not simply subject to blind, impersonal forces but that we can shape our individual and collective destinies, so long as we rediscover the traditional values of hard work, patriotism, personal responsibility, optimism, and faith...

...Hillary has dispatched Bill to make the case that the media has exaggerated the differences between her and Obama on Iraq, arguing that since Obama joined the U.S...

...The fact that he had to add the qualifier “in some cases” suggests he’s still not entirely comfortable throwing red meat to partisan crowds...

...The crowd roared with laughter...

...It is only human nature that the more time that elapses after a traumatic event, the less it stings, and the more people desire to return to normalcy...

...His emotion...

...Though Americans are unhappy with the Iraq war, it doesn’t mean they are ready to abandon the fight against terrorism...

...The biggest enemy we have in this whole process,” Obama reflected as he was wrapping up his speech on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, interrupting himself to acknowledge the presence of young people in the audience...

...More than anything, Obama’s candidacy taps into a desire among a certain portion of the electorate to move beyond September 11...

...What Washington does is cause everybody to concentrate on where they disagree as opposed to where they agree,” Coburn continued...

...He spoke of America as a “magical place” and said “in no other country on earth, is my story even possible...

...he still was operating inside the box that Reagan had In his book The Audacity of Hope, Obama writes created...

...Bthere is the dang use his charisma to implement liberal policies EYOND HIS POTENTIAL er that Obama will be able to to win the presidency, light, Obama puts a happy face on liberalism...

...In a sense, President Bush has already paved the road for a figure with Obama’s skills to reassert liberalism...

...Though the two had many disagreements, and despite the fact that Dillard considers Obama a “socialist” on health care, they were able to work together on ethics reform and a law that required the videotaping of interrogations in capital cases, and they remain friends...

...If you spend the money up front, you don’t end up having to spend as much money on the back end on much more costly military interventions,” he said...

...Everywhere we go we have been attracting these enorEarly in May, Obama stopped by an art space in an industrial part of Richmond for a low-dollar fundraiser hosted by Virginia Gov...

...HOUGH OBAMA HAS BEEN A FIERCE CRITIC of the Iraq war, he hasn’t resorted to the vitriol typical of some of his more seasoned Democratic colleagues...

...During the question and answer session, Obama was asked about withdrawing all of our troops based 2 8 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR J U L Y / A U G U S T 2 0 0 7 P H I L I P K L E I N prime breeding grounds for terrorists are in nations ruled by corrupt totalitarian governments hostile to the United States...

...We don’t have dynasties here...

...My immediate reaction was best summed up by a man I overheard remark to his friend, “I don’t know about you, but I think the enemies are Hamas and Hezbollah...

...We have come to view security only in terms of military spending, and military action,” he complained...