Durbin urges Obama to run in '08
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) is urging his colleague, Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) to run for president in 2008. He has started an online petition to build interest and support.
Durbin was elected in 1996 to fill the seat vacated by the late Sen. Paul Simon. He will become Senate Majority Whip in the Senate when Congress convenes in January.
There's no doubt Obama's talented, and charismatic. I'm not yet sold on an Obama 2008 candidacy though. The fact that he was elected by beating Alan Keyes for his Senate seat means he hasn't been truly tested outside of running for State Senate in Illinois, and losing a run for the House in 2000. That's not to say he wouldn't withstand the scrutiny that comes with running for president, but it's something to consider.
posted by Scott @ 6:32 PM
1 Comments:
The Obama campaign looks a little like the one highlighed in stories of Abe Lincoln when the machinery of politics pushed him into office, and may have originated from the same geographic area as Obama.
Of course, while all campaigns have some element of political machinery to endow their legitimacy, Americans might think about whether they desire a President pushed into the office as is likely from the Obama political collage, or a President pulled into office as is likely from many of the other candidates.
Should Americans resent having a candidate pushed onto them - as they did with the Bush 2000 election when the court thrust Bush onto the public state in that highest of public offices?
And, is there a real difference of who does the pushing?
Aren't elections about pulling people into office, not about pushng them into it?
Does democracy mean anything to people nowadays except trying to free themselves from the political machinery that would choose for them who is qualified to guide/advise/lead/steer, or rob them of their independence, their voice, and their taxes?
Under the Constitution, is there a reason to question such awesome machinery as politically unconstitutional?
Big League politics seems to get bigger each year using the disguise of grass roots as its calling card - but manipulated behind the scenes, not at the forefront of elections.
The last grass roots election for President might have been Bill Clinton in 1992, another dark horse, and one not invested by the powerful and mighty.
Today, America may lack that facility to elect a President without the expertise of modern political machinery, a loss that discredits the methods as well as the Democracy it seeks to serve.
Might we call this era one of the "spectacular campaign," an era of political glizt, not political choice?
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