Monday, June 30, 2008

BARACK OBAMA

Barack Obama Tells Rolling Stone How He Loves Town Hall Meetings

How do you define, "audacity"?

Some would say it's refusing to do any joint town hall meeting appearances with your rival on dates besides July 4 (when no one will be watching) and August (when everyone will be on vacation, if they can afford the gas prices), while at the same time, when asked, "What part of the campaign have you enjoyed the most?" responding with the answer...

I love the town-hall meetings, where I'm just interacting with voters, and they're asking me questions and making comments. There's an exchange there that's real. I hear their stories... [ellipses in original] that actually is what then informs my speeches and the message that I'm delivering.

... as Barack Obama says in the latest issue of Rolling Stone. (It's not online, but it's the issue that has his face on the cover with no headline or caption. I guess putting anything else on the cover would be "just words.")

But I would define audacity as making a counteroffer to do town hall meetings when no one is watching, suggesting that Obama cowers at the thought of an unscripted joint appearance with McCain, and then saying, in that same interview, "I don't do cowering."

Other highlights from that interview (short excerpt here): Obama says that he first began contemplating running for president in early 2004, before he even entered the Senate.

When did you begin to think you could or should be president? At what stage in your life did that idea first dawn on you?

I would distinguish between thinking that, in the abstract, I could make some better decisions being president than the current occupant, and believing that, in a very concrete way, being president was something I would pursue. I would say that it wasn't until I won my Senate primary and then went to the Democratic convention in 2004 that I had a sense that the message I was delivering might resonate with a broad cross section of the American people.

Yes, Obama concluded he could be president before he had been elected to any statewide office.

I also note that Rolling Stone's Jan Wenner shares the anecdote that his interview with Obama was strictly limited to 50 minutes, "which I think says a lot about him and his campaign. Most every other presidential candidate I've met and interviewed has tended to be gregarious, talkative almost to a fault, eager to please and eager to impress. Obama, by contrast, is quiet, collected and effortlessly precise."

Only with Obama is a time limit on an interview a demonstration that he is "effortlessly precise," instead of "controlled" or "handled" or "concerned with limiting access to the press."

06/30 02:29 PMShare