It’s been a few days since I’ve been able to compile the Link Party. But, I want to start off with a very good article by David Brooks, which shows Obama to be a true deep thinker. But, the odd thing is the title (which is derived from the last line of the piece), which clearly conflicts with what Brooks writes about him. Totally gratuitous attempt at some kind of balance, it seems to me, but the piece is still very worth reading…

Obama Insightful or vacant?
By David Brooks, May 3rd, 2007

I was interviewing Barack Obama and we were talking about effective foreign aid programs in Africa. His voice was measured and fatigued, and he was taking …

I was interviewing Barack Obama and we were talking about effective foreign aid programs in Africa. His voice was measured and fatigued, and he was taking those little pauses candidates take when they’re afraid of saying something that might hurt them later on.

Out of the blue I asked, "Have you ever read Reinhold Niebuhr?" Obama’s tone changed. "I love him. He’s one of my favorite philosophers."

So I asked, What do you take away from him? "I take away," Obama answered in a rush of words, "the compelling idea that there’s serious evil in the world, and hardship and pain. And we should be humble and modest in our belief we can eliminate those things. But we shouldn’t use that as an excuse for cynicism and inaction. I take away the sense we have to make these efforts knowing they are hard, and not swinging from naive idealism to bitter realism."

My first impression was that for a guy who’s spent the last few months fundraising, and who was walking off the Senate floor as he spoke, that’s a pretty good off-the-cuff summary of Niebuhr’s "The Irony of American History." My second impression is that his campaign is an attempt to thread the Niebuhrian needle, and it’s really interesting to watch.

On the one hand, Obama hates, as Niebuhr certainly would have, the grand Bushian rhetoric about ridding the world of evil and tyranny and transforming the Middle East. But he also dislikes liberal muddle-headedness on power politics. In "The Audacity of Hope," he says liberal objectives like withdrawing from Iraq, stopping AIDS and working more closely with our allies may be laudable, "but they hardly constitute a coherent national security policy."

Oprah Endorses Obama
New York Times - New York,NY,USA
It’s a safe bet that Senator Barack Obama doesn’t mind playing second fiddle to the talk show icon, particularly when he has her endorsement at his disposal. …

Obama Reaches Out With Tough Love
Washington Post Wed, 02 May 2007 7:58 PM PDT
Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is delivering pointed critiques of the African American community as he campaigns for its votes, lamenting that many of his generation are "disenfranchising" themselves because they don’t vote, taking rappers to task for their language, and decrying "anti-intellectualism"…

Obama security stepped up
Guardian Unlimited - UK
Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama (l) and Hillary Clinton take part in the first televised debate of the of the 2008 presidential campaign in …

Obama: Make Debate Video Public
Guardian Unlimited - UK
Barack Obama was close behind with $25 million. Strategists from both parties estimated last September that the White House race in 2008 could cost each …

Ford: Obama can win in South
Chicago Tribune Wed, 02 May 2007 4:54 AM PDT
Tennessee Democrat says race not hurdle Before Sen. Barack Obama was the rising star of the Democratic Party, there was Harold Ford Jr. of Tennessee.

For Barack Obama, a careful courting of Jewish vote
Christian Science Monitor - Boston,MA,USA
‘Shoulder to shoulder with Israel’: Presidential hopeful Barack Obama, at a recent meeting of the National Jewish Democratic Council, pledged to defend …

Clinton, Obama to debate in NH
The Union Leader - Manchester,NH,USA
Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton yesterday agreed to participate in the June 3 Democratic debate sponsored by the New Hampshire Union Leader, WMUR and CNN. …

Obama and wife impressive, inspiring
Urbana/Champaign News-Gazette - Champaign/Urbana,IL,USA
Here it was, more than 40 years later, and she had just finished listening to Michelle and Barack Obama address 1200 women at the Chicago Hilton. …

Obama’s wife ‘commands a room,’ seen as an asset in ‘08
The Washington Times Sun, 29 Apr 2007 10:01 PM PDT
There seems to be an instant connection people make with the wife of Sen. Barack Obama from the first words she speaks.