Friday, May 23, 2008

Obama in Billings

My take on Barack Obama's appearance in Billings is at the Outpost website.

Side comment: A few days ago, 4&20 Blackbirds noted that the Clinton campaign was better attuned to Montana concerns than Obama's. That certainly seemed to be true on Monday. While Bill Clinton's talk here was full of Montana and Billings references, Obama scarcely mentioned either place. What's worse, he recognized stalwart State Sen. Kim Gillan as "Kim Gillis." That's gotta hurt.

Side comment II: I found Obama slightly less impressive a speaker in person than in his numerous TV sound bites. His delivery slips into something close to mumbling at times, and he struggled a bit with his new material about McCain's ties to lobbyists. Still, it was something to see. It was the youngest crowd I have ever seen at a Montana political event, I believe, and it is difficult to overstate the importance of his appeal to the young. Some old hands object that the young don't really understand the issues, but that misses the point. What they do understand is that the system isn't working, and Obama is connecting as the guy who has the best chance to fix it. If he is elected, no matter by how small a margin, he will have a mandate that neither other candidate could muster.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

It may be true that young people generally don't understand the issues. Neither do older people.

Anonymous said...

Sand Shifting under Obama's Feet?

http://curmudgeonlyskeptical.blogspo...negatives.html

EXCERPTS

“My sense this morning is that Hillary will be the Democratic nominee.

Obama's negatives already make him unelectable, save in the minds of the Che' brigades.”

“... and this the Donald Young thing that I didn't even know about (I do not go looking for anti-Obama stuff).

Forget where the Super Delegates are today. By Denver, Obama will be the Party's Trotsky. That's my sense.”

Anonymous said...

This is what Obama thinks of us!
We are not in his league!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHhd1inexmk