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stephanie
01-14-2007, 04:45 PM
:uhoh:

By Philip Sherwell in New York, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 12:30am GMT 14/01/2007



Many Democrats are already eyeing him as perhaps their best hope for the White House in the 2008 presidential election campaign.


Barack Obama: 'A new Jack or Bobby Kennedy'


Now Barack Obama, the charismatic senator with near rock-star status, has won glowing praise from another, more unlikely source.

Frank Luntz, the communications strategist who has helped mastermind a string of victories for the rival Republican party, has singled him out as the politician whose oratory puts him in pole position for next year's presidential election.

"His whole message is one of hope and opportunity," Mr Luntz told The Sunday Telegraph. "He comes across as a real person, and 'real' is in for 2008."

According to Mr Luntz - whose recognition of David Cameron's appeal was a pivotal moment in the last Conservative leadership contest - Mr Obama's oratory skills contrasts sharply with the Republicans' "pathetic" utterances, which helped to consign them to defeat in November's congressional elections.

advertisementIn a book published last week, Mr Luntz predicts that the party of Ronald Reagan, who was known as the "Great Communicator", will also lose the White House next year unless its leaders raise their game to challenge fresh voices like that of Mr Obama.

Mr Luntz highlights Sen Obama's inspiring speech to the 2004 Democrat convention - in which he talked of coaching Little League baseball, having gay friends, worshipping God and pledging allegiance to the Stars and Stripes - as a striking example of his unifying communication skills.

"I was in the hall when he gave that speech and I heard a future president," says Mr Luntz. "Here was the American dream embodied in a young man running for Senate, a new Jack or Bobby Kennedy."

The pollster has a long track record of identifying the phrases that make or break political and corporate campaigns. In 1994, he helped craft the "Contract with America", which paved the way for 12 years of Republican domination of Congress, replacing neutral terms such as "estate tax" with the politically-charged "death tax" in order to stage a vote-winning campaign against it.

So when he makes such observations, American politicians listen. In his book, Words That Work: It's Not What You Say, It's What People Hear, he identifies Mr Obama as the "verbal opposite" of fellow senator Hillary Clinton, the frontrunner for the Democrat 2008 nomination.

"She's all about 'Us versus them', but he's much more a uniter than a divider," he says. "He's the most aspirational presidential candidate since Bobby Kennedy in 1968."

Mr Obama, who is 45 and has two young daughters, is blessed with the sort of gripping personal story that plays well in US politics: he is the Hawaiian-born son of a black Kenyan father and white mother from Kansas and was brought up for four years in Indonesia. He has admitted that he went off the rails as a young man, using cocaine and marijuana, and he still has a little-publicised smoking habit (of tobacco).

Such honesty will play to his advantage, rather than come back to haunt him, Mr Luntz believes. "It shows he's real," he said. "If he can frame his image as an American success story who overcame incredible odds, then that plays very well for him."

His "human" side received further exposure last week when America's best-selling magazine, People, ran a photograph of him emerging from the Pacific in surfer trunks during his recent family holiday in Hawaii.

The "Beach Babes" spread placed him in illustrious company, alongside the likes of Penélope Cruz and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Although Sen Obama feigned embarrassment when asked about the picture, this confirmation that he is still photogenic when less than fully clothed is unlikely to harm his reputation.

Mr Luntz does identify an "Achilles heel" in Mr Obama's CV: he is a youthful politician with no experience of government. The pollster believes such inexperience showed last week when, after Mr Bush's Iraq speech, Mr Obama said, "We're not going to baby-sit a civil war."

Mr Luntz commented: "The image of 'baby-sitting' lacks the gravitas that a conflict that has taken thousands of American lives, and tens of thousands of Iraqi lives, deserves."

But Mr Obama's status as a Capitol Hill neophyte - he has served two years in the Senate - could play well at a time when "Washington" is a dirty word for many Americans.

For now, Mr Obama continues to say that he will decide "soon" whether to join the presidential race. But he gave a hint of how his thoughts were progressing when he attended a black economic summit in New York last week, and said he owed the host, the Rev Jesse Jackson, "a great debt" for paving the way with his White House runs in 1984 and 1988.

Mr Obama is the only black politician seriously considering making a run in 2008.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/01/14/wdemo14.xml

Mr. P
01-14-2007, 04:56 PM
Barack Obama: 'A new Jack

I think he is, but not for 08. Unless he does something stupid, He'll take 2012 in one HELL of a landslide!

Mr. P said it on 1/14/06..mark it down.

Gaffer
01-14-2007, 10:25 PM
I still think it will be a hellery obama ticket in 08. He was getting set up for this 04. An unheard of unelected sentor canidate is keynote speaker at the dem convention? Something smelled fishy to me back then and its getting fishier.

Mr. P
01-14-2007, 10:36 PM
I still think it will be a hellery obama ticket in 08. He was getting set up for this 04. An unheard of unelected sentor canidate is keynote speaker at the dem convention? Something smelled fishy to me back then and its getting fishier.

very well could happen. Heard him say today an announcement (on 08) is comimg soon. That's all he'd say.

The Witch and a black guy..what can't the liberal left wing love about that.

Gaffer
01-14-2007, 11:37 PM
very well could happen. Heard him say today an announcement (on 08) is comimg soon. That's all he'd say.

The Witch and a black guy..what can't the liberal left wing love about that.

Yeah they are just gonna fall all over themselves getting to the polls for that one.

He doesn't have enough experience to be president, hell he's a freshman in the senate. He knows how to vote on laws, not how to conduct foriegn policy or economic policy or any other policy.

Gunny
01-14-2007, 11:48 PM
Yeah they are just gonna fall all over themselves getting to the polls for that one.

He doesn't have enough experience to be president, hell he's a freshman in the senate. He knows how to vote on laws, not how to conduct foriegn policy or economic policy or any other policy.

LOL, and we'll fall all over ourselves voting against them.:laugh:

jillian
01-14-2007, 11:56 PM
Yeah they are just gonna fall all over themselves getting to the polls for that one.

He doesn't have enough experience to be president, hell he's a freshman in the senate. He knows how to vote on laws, not how to conduct foriegn policy or economic policy or any other policy.


He wouldn't be my choice in a primary, but John F. Kennedy had the same level of experience before becoming president.

As for foreign policy experience, I'd say his is far greater, even at its minimal level that Dubya's when he took office, no?

Gaffer
01-15-2007, 12:02 AM
He wouldn't be my choice in a primary, but John F. Kennedy had the same level of experience before becoming president.

As for foreign policy experience, I'd say his is far greater, even at its minimal level that Dubya's when he took office, no?

I would say they would be equal. Bush had been a governor. He had governing experience. obama has none.

jillian
01-15-2007, 12:05 AM
I would say they would be equal. Bush had been a governor. He had governing experience. obama has none.

But seems to me not knowing who any foreign leaders were when he took office was a pretty big deal. His lack of understanding also seems to have played a huge role in his not handling Iraq properly.

stephanie
01-15-2007, 12:11 AM
Obama couldn't run for President now...Nobody ever heard of the guy...He has no experience in ANYTHING....I've heard he's not all that loved in Ill.
He's being groomed for Shirllerys run as President...

Shrillery has to have a black token probably for any chance to win....

Why Obama would want to be known for that........:dunno:

Gaffer
01-15-2007, 12:15 AM
But seems to me not knowing who any foreign leaders were when he took office was a pretty big deal. His lack of understanding also seems to have played a huge role in his not handling Iraq properly.

Did you know who the leader of pakistan was before 9/11? Do you know the leaders of somolia, ethiopia, and any number of other small countries? I don't, I have to look them up. The president has assistants that provide the names to him cause I'm sure he doesn't remember them all. At the time he was a governor and it wasn't necessary to know the names. It was a liberal reporters ploy to get him to look stupid.

Dilloduck
01-15-2007, 12:24 AM
But seems to me not knowing who any foreign leaders were when he took office was a pretty big deal. His lack of understanding also seems to have played a huge role in his not handling Iraq properly.

I thought it was Rove or Rumsfeld or Wolfowitz that did all the " handling ".

Is that all different now?

Gunny
01-15-2007, 12:26 AM
Obama couldn't run for President now...Nobody ever heard of the guy...He has no experience in ANYTHING....I've heard he's not all that loved in Ill.
He's being groomed for Shirllerys run as President...

Shrillery has to have a black token probably for any chance to win....

Why Obama would want to be known for that........:dunno:

He's actually been getting a pretty good push as the darling of the Dems in the MSM the past couple of years. And don't think if comes out and declares we won't get the hard sell. We'll know what he voted on for dinner ten years ago.

Mr. P
01-15-2007, 12:26 AM
Obama couldn't run for President now...Nobody ever heard of the guy...He has no experience in ANYTHING....I've heard he's not all that loved in Ill.
He's being groomed for Shirllerys run as President...

Shrillery has to have a black token probably for any chance to win....

Why Obama would want to be known for that........:dunno:

I'm honestly hoping he won't do it in 08..IMO he is a black JFK.

I've voted republican since Nixon (cept for a brain fart with Carter), but I'll give this guy a good look if the republicans don't offer anything better.

Gaffer
01-15-2007, 12:32 AM
I'm honestly hoping he won't do it in 08..IMO he is a black JFK.

I've voted republican since Nixon (cept for a brain fart with Carter), but I'll give this guy a good look if the republicans don't offer anything better.

You better give him a real good look. he's way left of hellery.

That brain fart comes back to haunt you everytime the show carter validating dictators election results I bet.

Be careful you don't have another when obama runs. :no:

Gunny
01-15-2007, 12:33 AM
I'm honestly hoping he won't do it in 08..IMO he is a black JFK.

I've voted republican since Nixon (cept for a brain fart with Carter), but I'll give this guy a good look if the republicans don't offer anything better.

I don't know about the JFK comparison, but I'll give him a look. From what I've seen so far, he sounds like a salesman. Lots of charisma and enthusiasm but little substance.

Mr. P
01-15-2007, 12:38 AM
You better give him a real good look. he's way left of hellery.

That brain fart comes back to haunt you everytime the show carter validating dictators election results I bet.

Be careful you don't have another when obama runs. :no:

Older and wiser..I'll give him a good look.

As far as Carter goes..he's a joke and I supported Reagan 100%.

Mr. P
01-15-2007, 12:40 AM
I don't know about the JFK comparison, but I'll give him a look. From what I've seen so far, he sounds like a salesman. Lots of charisma and enthusiasm but little substance.

There's the JFK..part.

avatar4321
01-15-2007, 03:31 AM
He wouldn't be my choice in a primary, but John F. Kennedy had the same level of experience before becoming president.

As for foreign policy experience, I'd say his is far greater, even at its minimal level that Dubya's when he took office, no?

and we all know the disaster JFK was. The only reason the guy is remembered as being anything more than a one term President is because he was killed. (Ive even heard it theorized that his Vice President may have been behind that).

Also, i think you are highly understanding the Presidents foreign experience.. He was the Governor of a border state for nearly a decade.