The Case for Obama
FOX News - USA
And their answer has been the same: Barack Obama. So have their reasons. It is a case worth considering. It is not because Obama has been so successful as a …

It’s because what he’s selling, or saying, if you prefer, makes him so different from the other leading candidates.

He’s not out there explaining why he switched his position on this issue and that one; why he voted that way, but would or wouldn’t do it again; whether he’s sorry or not, was wrong then or right now, would do it differently if he’d known something different that he didn’t know or should have known or did or didn’t read. He’s not talking about how many inches we can move in this direction, about this bill he’ll vote for as opposed to that one he didn’t, or the other way around, about which compromise he’d make and which he wouldn’t.

He’s talking about hope and vision and change.

He’s talking about a different kind of future and a different idea of politics.

He is telling people, as more than one commentator has called it, "the inconvenient truths," whether to the black community about the need to stop denigrating those who speak well for being too white or the Jewish community about the need to recognize Palestinian suffering.

He is, at a time when people on all sides are disgusted with politics as usual, with all its negativity and toughness, the least political, most positive of all the candidates on both sides.

It goes beyond ideology. It is not, as my old boss and friend Michael Dukakis once said, about competence. It is about hope.

Crafting the Obama Brand
Chicago Tribune

One colleague who took note was the powerful then-chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, who later invited Obama on a trip through the former Soviet Union, inspecting projects to decommission Cold War-era weapons. The two ultimately worked together to pass legislation to control the spread of weapons.

"I like him, and I appreciate working with him," Lugar said. "It seems to me that he was adept in finding partners and coalitions and actually was able to achieve results."

In addition to a legislative accomplishment teaming with Lugar, the partnership gave Obama the added credibility he sought in an association across party lines. A former presidential candidate who has seen many fellow senators launch White House bids during his 30-year Senate career, Lugar offers unusually strong praise for Obama.

"He does have a sense of idealism and principled leadership, a vision of the future," Lugar said. "At certain points in history, certain people are the ones that are most likely to have the vision or imagination or be able to identify talent and to manage other people’s ideas. And I think he does this well."

Obama’s ‘quiet riots’ are for real
CNN - USA
Barack Obama’s speech to the Hampton University Annual Ministers’ Conference raised the combustible topic of the burning anger among the nation’s poor …

Conservative critics have been lighting up the airwaves and blogs for the last 48 hours after Sen. Barack Obama’s speech to the Hampton University Annual Ministers’ Conference raised the combustible topic of the burning anger among the nation’s poor African-Americans.

Much of this was the result of a terrible story written by Bob Lewis of The Associated Press, who wrote in his lead that "Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said Tuesday that the Bush administration has done nothing to defuse a ‘quiet riot’ among blacks that threatens to erupt just as riots in Los Angeles did 15 years ago."

After seeing the story I was stunned to read such a thing, and immediately sought the transcript of Obama’s speech. In reading it, Obama used the word riot nine times; the phrase "quiet riot" three times; and never suggested that America was on the verge of seeing African-Americans lash out like they did during the Los Angeles riots in 1992.

But what he did try to do was give the 8,000 attendees, and anyone else watching, an understanding of what is a real problem in America’s inner cities. And more importantly, his blueprint for fixing the problem.

Obama’s way is with words, not hugs
Los Angeles Times - CA,USA
NORTH CONWAY, NH — A busload of reporters and TV cameras awaits Barack Obama as he steps forward, notes in hand, and begins speaking in his sonorous …

A day later, George Hathorn is part of the sprawl covering a grassy swath at Dartmouth. But the 63-year-old architect is more curious that convinced. "I’m concerned about the hype," Hathorn says of Obama’s comet-like candidacy. "I haven’t seen the substance yet."

It is this question — involving the percentages of steak and sizzle — that dogs Obama, and it clearly irks him. Told of the criticism expressed by some in the crowd, Obama blames those covering his campaign. "One of the questions that I think I would ask back at you," he says, "is what do we need to do to get the national press to focus on those speeches we’ve been delivering in great detail?"

His tone, however, is even, not angry.

Suffering fools and reporters is very much a part of running for president and if that bothers Obama, if the atmospherics, the minute scrutiny and stagy photo opportunities ever get to him, he doesn’t let on.

As he stands on the porch of the Littleton Area Senior Center, making small talk with the gray-haired ladies, one of Obama’s two daughters, 5-year-old Sasha, pipes up and asks, "When are we going to do fun things?"

"This is fun things," her father replies.

McCain adviser admits call of Obama
Guardian Unlimited - UK
… told his campaign that if the Democrats nominate Barack Obama, he’ll leave McCain because he can’t see himself opposing the Illinois senator. …

Here’s the sort of campaign news you don’t often see: An adviser to John McCain has, according to Newsweek, told his campaign that if the Democrats nominate Barack Obama, he’ll leave McCain because he can’t see himself opposing the Illinois senator.

…

And now, McKinnon has apparently told his colleagues in the McCain campaign that "while he opposed Obama’s policies, especially on Iraq, he felt that the Illinois senator - as an African-American politician - has a unique potential to change the country."

Did I write that this is the kind of campaign news you don’t often see? Let me clarify: This is the sort of campaign news you never see. I’ve covered these things since 1988, more or less, and I’m confident I’ve never seen a consultant - not just any consultant, but a famous and high powered one - say to his candidate that he might have to bolt from the campaign so he can support someone from the other party. It’s completely unheard of (assuming that McKinnon said it; there are no actual quotes in the Newsweek item).

So it’s stunning news. But how significant is it? For now, I’d "reasonably," say for three reasons.

Barack Obama and the audacity of my hope (confessions of a former Republican)
BlueOregon - OR,USA
I started to get involved in volunteering, and today I find myself with an audacity of hope because of the candidacy of Barack Obama. …

I am a life-time Oregonian, born and raised in Portland, now back in Portland after 25 years in Salem (love this city!). I grew up in a VERY Republican home, and in a religion that virtually required “Republican” on your precinct card to be on the rolls. I was white, I was middle-class, and everyone in my family’s social circle was a dedicated conservative.

But I have hope in Barack Obama.

How did I get from “there” to “here”? How did a believer in uber-conservative Republican values and policies for over 50 years come to change her political registration three years ago? How did I get to this place wherein I proudly wear an Obama button, and plaster bumper stickers on my car for maybe the second time in my life!

Obama chooses shoe leather over TV ads
DesMoinesRegister.com - Des Moines,IA,USA
Barack Obama today launched what he touted as one of the largest and earliest nation-wide door-to-door efforts in presidential campaign history. …

Unlike some other candidates, Obama’s campaign has not yet started to run television ads, instead concentrating the effort on dozens of smaller and more personal stops such as coffee shops or restaurants.

His campaign staff today declined to say when or if they would begin to run television ads.

Obama spent about an hour and visited five homes in Dubuque, where he was followed by dozens of local and national newspaper and television employees.

Residents congregated on front porches to meet Obama and watched as the crowd ˆ which included Secret Service agents walked door to door. Obama handed out information about his health care plan and, generally, asked residents about issues that concern them most.

Dubuque resident June Manning spoke with Obama on her front porch. She described the senator as "cordial and friendly” and that his visit was like her "15 minutes in the sunshine.”

“I was up in the air between him and Hillary but I have chosen him,” Manning said a few minutes after Obama left her door.

Obama bringing new people into politics
Honolulu Advertiser Sun, 10 Jun 2007 7:27 AM PDT

Hawai’i Democrats believe Barack Obama’s presidential campaign may be an appealing recruiting tool among young people and independents, two coveted demographic groups that might be drawn to the party before the state’s caucuses next February.

Obama volunteers and other Democratic activists, including many who favor Obama’s rivals for the nomination, said they detect an interest in the Hawai’i-born Illinois senator among people who are not traditionally active within the party.

Many of the party’s key leaders are aging and, while Democrats have politically recovered, even thrived, under Republican Gov. Linda Lingle, they recognize a need to attract young people and the growing segment of voters who describe themselves as independents.

Will Grosswendt, of Kailua, an economics major at Georgetown University, saw something in Obama’s personal history that made him want to volunteer.

Obama’s success at Harvard Law School and his experience as a community organizer in Chicago were interesting. But there was something else. Obama, he believes, has an ability to bring people together.

"He doesn’t seem like he was groomed to be a career politician. It seems like it was something where he had a calling to make a difference," Grosswendt said. "I think Obama is able to bring new people into the fold."

Powell Gives Obama Foreign Policy Advice
ABC News - USA
Barack Obama speaks at a fund raiser Friday, June 8, 2007 in Chicago accompanied by his wife Michelle Obama. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green) The Associated …

Barack’s Wife Michelle Obama: Rock Star on the Campaign Trail
National Ledger - Apache Junction,AZ,USA
Which is pretty serious stuff for a speech in the park, but Michelle Obama brings it home: "We have a man, Barack Obama, my husband, who is stepping up to …

Kenya: My Encounter With Obama
AllAfrica.com - Washington,USA
When I first met Illinois Senator Barack Obama recently, I was full of expectation and excitement about the man whose father was born in Kenya but who now …

Although I myself do not understand the Luo language, I was excited about how an American presidential candidate could speak a local dialect.

This confirmed to me that Mr Obama is really originally from around Lake Victoria.

I felt proud and became the envy of the group. And out of ignorance, several journalists asked me to greet the great man in my "mother tongue," not knowing that I do not share my tongue with him and that the distance from Kisumu to my home district of Kilifi is about 1,000km.

To straighten things up a bit, I gave my country’s history, especially its 40-odd tribes united by a common language called Kiswahili, and the fact that I come from the Indian Ocean side of the country and Sen Obama originates from the west.

Despite my inadequacies, I became an instant hero among the group, and any time they referred to me, they called me "the man from where Obama comes from".

When the senator walked into the hall to address us, he did not repeat the erokamano by way of greeting because the journalists were from different countries, and I was the only one from Kenya.

The hall fell quiet, and each of us got ready to either take pictures of the famous man or jot down in our note books what he was going to say.

Dressed in a black suit and a tie to match, brown trousers and black shoes, Sen. Obama waved to the gathering as he got onto the podium and exclaimed how happy he was to address journalists from Africa.

Several of us were lost for words as we looked forward to listening to the man said to be sending shock waves among fellow presidential hopefuls due to his charisma, wit and eloquence.

Thousands of Obama Supporters to Take to the Streets on Saturday …
Business Wire (press release) - San Francisco,CA,USA
Barack Obama will kick-off the "Walk for Change" in Dubuque, Iowa and across the Hawkeye state more than 1000 people will door-knock in their communities. …

Barack Obama: EPA Endorses Obama Proposal to Eliminate Lead From …
All American Patriots (press release) - Taeby,NA,Sweden
June 5, 2007 — WASHINGTON, DC - US Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) today praised the Environmental Protection Agency’s announcement of support for his proposal …

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Since January 2007, the Barack the House Link Party has compiled news items that highlight the many reasons why Barack Obama will be the 44th President of the United States.

And it doubles as a resource for people working to ensure that accurate and positive information about Barack gets out to the public. If you’re interested in helping out with this effort, please consider joining the Obama Rapid Response group on my.barackobama.com.