Obama Up in Smoke Update

Said Obama: "I've got an ironclad demand from my wife that in the stresses of the campaign I don't succumb. I've been chewing Nicorette strenuously."

When do we get a "Here's what Obama could be doing to stop smoking" article, sponsored by Zyban?

Well, Barry-O IS articulate

And Joe Biden is a moron. At least when he opens his mouth. But of course, it's absolutely out of fashion to say that Barry-O is articulate because of the implication that he shouldn't be because he's black. Or that he's articulate considering he's a black dude (implying that if he were a white dude, his current level of articulateness wouldn't be remarkable). Or something like that.

Now, I say Barry-O is articulate not because he's a black dude, but because we've got a guy in the White House who couldn't form a complete sentence in front of a microphone without a teleprompter for the first three years of his presidency, and our last democratic presidential candidate couldn't tell you his favorite color without using a semicolon.

So let's claim the word back, and let's call Barry-O what he is. Articulate. He's a damn good orator. Cicero style. Ghandi style. Kennedy style. Lincoln style. AND MLK style. Hell, maybe even Jim Webb style. But absolutely NOT Joe Biden style.

So Barack isn't articulate because he's a black dude that talks good. He's articulate because he was the damn editor of Harvard Law Review, and he's articulate because he wrote a book ten years ago that actually had something to say. And he's articulate because you can listen to a speech of his and, even though he doesn't say any more or any less than anybody else does, you get that special feeling, that feeling you haven't had since fifth grade history class when the frigging War of 1812 made you proud of your country.

It's nice to feel good about your country, even if the guy is laying on the same bullshit that other politicians try to use less effectively. Barry Obama can make you feel good about your country, and I'm pretty sure he'd be able to do that even if he were a purple transsexual instead of a black dude.

I'm not saying his rhetorical excellence would make him a good president. But Dreams from my Father at least shows that this is a guy with a lot of smart things to say. He's openly thoughtful in his writing, and that's not something we can say all that often about politicians writing books.

But we're not talking about what he has to say right now. We're talking about how he's damn good at saying them. He could tell you how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and it might make you cry.

Now, if he just stopped smoking...

UPDATE: Political Wire compiles the media reactions:

Washington Post: "Biden Stumbles at the Starting Gate"
New York Times: "Biden Unwraps His Bid for '08 With an Oops!"
Chicago Tribune: "Hat in Ring, Foot in Mouth"
New York Post: "Biden Blows It"
New York Daily News: "Senator Stupid!"

UPDATE2: Biden explains himself on the Daily Show, doesn't refer to Jon Stewart as a 'clean Hebrew-American.'

Obama 1, Fox 0

Barry-O's senate office has released a killer statement debunking the 'madrassa' myth. Greg Sargent has the text on his blog. Read it. It's scathingly beautiful.

Suck it, Fox.

Politics: EVERYBODY PANIC!!!

Barack Obama is a smoker, and Juliet Eilperin is scared that he might lose his "wonderful maple-syrup sound" if he stops.

I especially like when the article refers to smoking as "old-school GOP."

cue MP3 of "It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)"

Politics: Obama too African for African-Americans?

African-Americans however, who are are accustomed to leaders who emerge from the civil rights movement, sometimes appear to struggle to relate to Obama.

"For some African-Americans, he has not really affirmed their identity. He has affirmed his own mixed identity, but he has not strongly affirmed the right and the claim of African-Americans in this society to equal treatment," said Walters, a professor at the University of Maryland.

Others said Obama is simply an unknown figure to many African-Americans who are almost reflexively suspicious.

As a white Southerner who knows practically nothing about his genealogy and what his ancestors might have been doing pre-1863, I know nothing about what it means to be an African-American with a slavery legacy, other than what I can get from books. As a kid born in the final weeks of the Carter administration, I know nothing about the civil rights movement outside of books and interviews.

That said, my initial impression is that if there are individuals who don't like Obama because he's not black enough, then said individuals should get their heads out of their asses, because I'm sure John McCain is white enough for white people, and they'll be glad to vote accordingly.

I don't care if Obama is paisley purple with green stripes. If he's traveling around telling people that one of his top three priorities is health care for all, he's got my positive attention. And he'd certainly be paisley enough for me.