Barracking for the right reasons

I guess the main thing that seems to come out about Barack Obama in the media is his assumed lack of experience and the "unfortunate name" factor

I thought this was worth looking into more closely.

To start, in a state that produced both Hillary Clinton and Abraham Lincoln, Barack has more public office experience than either of them combined prior to attaining Presidential office and we all know what a mover and shaker Lincoln was.

Specifically, Barack had been a state senator of Illinois for six years prior to gaining the federal senate ticket in 2002. He's been in public office now for over a decade. A man who could have chosen a career in any one of America's prestigious law firms instead fought hard to be accepted as a civil rights lawyer and community organizer.

The State of Illinois is no backwater either, it has the 5th largest population and economy out of the 52 states.

Not only did he beat his Republican counterpart for the State senate with an underfunded campaign but achieved this while working his full-time job as a law lecturer. It's interesting to note that his core support during this campaign came from African-American's who as we know hold the keys to a Democrat Whitehouse.

Far from working against him, Obama's name is his classic ice-breaker. He often says that people get his name wrong addressing him as “Alabama” or “Yo Mama.” it cracks people up and from that moment on, whether Jew, Muslim, Mechanic or Doctor he has them in the palm of his hands and open to listening.

And therein lies the threat to Hillary Clinton in that everyone who meets Barack or works with him admires him. It has been said that Barack has a way of making people who disagree with him "feel comfortable with the disagreement." Even Republican Senator Kirk Dillard said: "I knew from the day he walked into this chamber that he was destined for great things ...in Republican circles, we’ve always feared that Barack would become a rock star of American politics."

So, who would the Republican's run against Obama? I'd guess the Republican's will be searching for their own Obama, someone who's a Republican heavyweight--lots of experience and someone who is a consenus-builder to neutralise the Barack Obama factor. They'll want to be able to hold their candidate up along side of Obama impling that "Barrack's very good but we're better and these are the reasons why."-- captalising on Baracks good will. If it's Hilary, they can pick from a larger field as they can covertly swiftboat her out of the running. As one cheeky blogger made the observation recently "If she can't control her own husband how's she going to control an entire country?"--simple, ruthless but effective.

It's a long 400 day run into the key March primaries of 2008 and Barack has lots of time to get out to every city in every state and build his karma at a grass roots level--the money will come to him. And if he's a little short I'm confident that someone will pop the spread to keep the playing field level as too many people like him. At that point Hillary's money clout will be neutralised and America will be in a position to choose a new way forward.

Whether America's new president is a centrist issues Republican or a centrist issues Democrat like Obama, it can look forward to escaping the ham-fisted neo-realism nightmare created by Bush and Cheney.