Is Obama ready? Sit tight.

[Herman Munster]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-schmeltzer/is-obama-ready-sit-tight_b_36462.html

To run a successful campaign, it is essential that you start with the big picture, and then work your way down to issues. If you go the other way around, you're caught trying to fit a bunch of disjointed pieces together into a larger vision. That rarely, if ever, works. You can take a look at the candidacies of John Kerry, Al Gore, Bob Dole and so on as ones that never really defined the grand vision of where they wanted to take the country, but rather focused on issues first, and worried about a direction later.

Jimmy Carter started with the promise of a government as good as its people. Ronald Reagan had the theme of his presidency restoring confidence in a secure America. George H.W. Bush had his kinder, gentler nation. Bill Clinton opened his campaign with restoring the promise of America (which later became A Place Called Hope). George W. Bush talked of a nation of compassionate conservatism. None of these candidates opened up the dialogue talking about trade, or the environment, or singular issues. Yes, they espoused general views on them, as Barack Obama has, but none of them fleshed anything out until the campaign moved forward, and did so in such a way that it was consistent with the vision they had for America.
..

That is another reason Obama is resisting any pressure to get down in the weeds and kick off his pre-candidacy with policy debates; because it contrasts Hillary Clinton's strategy. Obama is setting himself up nicely to be as Bill Clinton was to Bush in 1992 - big vision versus small.

So, Barack Obama will continue to go around the nation and give his stump speeches about a national reconciliation, restoring hope and optimism, and giving everyone the opportunity that he had, all the way through the months after he announces that he's running. Then, we'll start to hear some of the meat. At that point it will be much more fair to judge whether he's got the right ideas to carry the party banner, let alone what it takes to lead our nation.

Is it on our timeline? Nope. Is it frustrating? Sure thing. Does it mean people are wrong when they say he's someone who could be ready to be President? Not at all. If anything, Barack Obama is making all the same moves as each of our Presidents did to start their campaigns, over the past few decades.

[Gman]

1. Obama's name ends in a vowel

as does Gore's. Gore wasn't elected either.

[blm]

2. None faced a presscorps so intent on protecting Bush as Gore and Kerry faced.

Dole was given EVERY COURTESY by the presscorps to define himself. Anyone who thinks the newsmedia is the same as it was in the 60s for Kennedy or even in 1992 is tripping.

The only reason the press is even halfway reporting the news lately is because a category 5 hurricane blew back the curtains on the emperor and exposed that he had no clothes and they had no integrity.

[in_cog_ni_to]

3. Here's what I think he's doing, for what it's worth...

He's traveling around the country, putting on a presidential-like campaign and showing Hillary Clinton that he 'could be' a true threat to her, should she run/should he run. I believe, when Hillary decides she's going to run, she will call Obama and offer him the VP spot on the promise that he will NOT run. He'll say yes and off we go to an '08 landslide victory. Then, in 2016...Obama runs for prez.