Barack Obama Watch

Feb 5 2008 8:00 AM EST

John McCain Or Barack Obama? Some Young Republicans Actually Can't DecideViews 10,484
'It doesn't really make a whole lot of sense to be considering both of them. But I would put myself in that camp,' one young voter says.
By Alex Mar


http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1580922/20080204/id_0.jhtml

Book Excerpt: Barack Obama
Sunday, Oct. 15, 2006

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1546298,00.html

On the Issues

http://www.ontheissues.org/Social/Barack_Obama_Abortion.htm

The Audacity of Hope
Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream, by Barack Obama

BOOK REVIEW by OnTheIssues.org:

Who is the audience for this book? Most people buy it to keep it on their coffeetable to start conversations -- the typical voter would not read it through. Most political analysts know everything that's in here already -- there are no daring new policies nor deep personal revelations. I've concluded that the intended audience is the excerpter -- people like me. This book got excerpted in Time magazine, for example, and Obama got a big cover spread, with a presidential headline. The Time excerpts were pleasant to read -- a little uplift for a few pages. But the book is just so chock-full of respectfulness and understanding and consensus-building and bipartisanship that no excerpter can find anything BUT uplift in any excerpt (including me).

So my conclusion is that the book is INTENDED for that purpose -- a successful attempt to get Obama into the national spotlight by writing a political tome that everyone will like and few will actually read through. This book contains nothing but numerous uplifting anecdotes of building consensus based on understanding one's opponents' point of view, of bipartisanship based on mutual respect. Reading an excerpt or two fills one with an uplifting feeling. Reading the original in its entirety, however, feels like slogging through uplifting anecdote after uplifting anecdote, to the point where it feels formulaically forced.

http://www.ontheissues.org/Audacity_of_Hope.htm

Book Bits
The Monitor's weekly literary roundup.
from the January 30, 2007 edition

The Audacity of Hope, By Barack Obama
Obama takes on the most divisive topics in America, such as race and social issues, in a way that shows respect for alternate views. A constituent who has problems with Obama's pro-choice position on abortion receives a personal letter from the Senate candidate. On race, he's firmly in favor of affirmation action, but notes how "many Americans disagree ... arguing that our institutions should never take race into account. Fair enough – I understand their arguments."

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0130/p16s01-bogn.html

Saturday, January 05, 2008
Obama's abortion record
From Human Events

http://closedcafeteria.blogspot.com/2008/01/obamas-abortion-record.html

October 6, 2007, 2:22 pm
Obama Explores Abortion Issue
By Jeff Zeleny

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/06/obama-explores-abortion-issue/