the Messiah doesn't sweat

CHICAGO (AP) - Sometimes it's hard to tell if Barack Obama is running for president of the United States or Mr. Universe.

a distinct lack of visible sweat

Cast of 300 advises Obama on foreign policy

By Elisabeth Bumiller | Published: July 18, 2008 | International Herald Tribune

WASHINGTON: Every day around 8 a.m., foreign policy aides at Senator Barack Obama's Chicago campaign headquarters send him two e-mails: a briefing on major world developments over the previous 24 hours and a set of questions, accompanied by suggested answers, that the candidate is likely to be asked about international relations during the day.

One recent Q. & A. asked, for example, whether Obama supported the decision by Iraq's prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, to include a timetable for American troop withdrawal in any new security agreements with the United States. The answer, provided to Obama with bullet points, was yes — or "a genuine opportunity," as he put it in a speech on Iraq this week.

Behind the e-mail messages is a tight-knit group of aides supported by a huge 300-person foreign policy campaign bureaucracy, organized like a mini State Department, to assist a candidate whose limited national security experience remains a concern to many voters.

"It is unwieldy, no question," said Denis McDonough, 38, Obama's top foreign policy aide, speaking of an infrastructure that has been divided into 20 teams based on regions and issues, and that has recently absorbed, with some tensions, the top foreign policy advisers from Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign. "But an administration is unwieldy, too. We also know that it's messier when you don't get as much information as you can."

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Obama Whines About Wife Criticism

Barack Obama tells Glamour: "Debate me, not Michelle"

Glamacracy | Guest Blog: Cindi Leive

On Wednesday Senator Barack Obama talked to Glamour's editor-in-chief Cindi Leive and answered questions from our readers about his policies and about women's issues. (Thanks to the many of you who submitted those queries!) Here is an excerpt from their conversation, held at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana; the complete interview will run in the October issue of the magazine.

GLAMOUR: An AP poll shows that while the positive ratings on Michelle are higher than those of Cindy McCain, her negative ratings are higher as well. I'm curious about how as a husband that makes you feel. Does it mystify you? And what do you want to say to those Americans who don't know the woman that you know?

SENATOR OBAMA: It's infuriating, but it's not surprising, because let's face it: What happened was that the conservative press—Fox News and the National Review and columnists of every ilk—went fairly deliberately at her in a pretty systematic way...and treated her as the candidate in a way that you just rarely see the Democrats try to do against Republicans. And I've said this before: I would never have my campaign engage in a concerted effort to make Cindy McCain an issue, and I would not expect the Democratic National Committee or people who were allied with me to do it. Because essentially, spouses are civilians. They didn't sign up for this. They're supporting their spouse. So it took a toll. If you start being subjected to rants by Sean Hannity and the like, day in day out, that'll drive up your negatives.

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SEATTLE (AP) — Michelle Obama urged a Democratic crowd to elect leaders who will fight "for the world the way that it should be."

Washington Post: Obama's Iraq strategy 'irrational'

The Iron Timetable

Whether or not the war was a mistake, Iraq's future is a vital U.S. security interest. If he is elected president, Mr. Obama sooner or later will have to tailor his Iraq strategy to that reality.


McCain on Obama's war strategy:

“Today we know Senator Obama was wrong,” Mr. McCain said at a town-hall-style meeting in Albuquerque. “Senator Obama will tell you we can’t win in Afghanistan without losing in Iraq. In fact, he has it exactly backwards. It is precisely the success of the surge in Iraq that shows us the way to succeed in Afghanistan. It is by applying the tried and true principles of counterinsurgency used in the surge, which Senator Obama opposed, that we will win in Afghanistan.”

Obama to rid the world of nuclear weapons

Obama warns against 'fighting the last war'

Jul 16 01:47 PM US/Eastern | By GLEN JOHNSON | Associated Press Writer

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) - Democrat Barack Obama warned Wednesday about the danger of "fighting the last war" as he pledged to focus on emerging nuclear, biological and cyber threats if elected president.

Two goals of his administration would be to secure all loose nuclear material during his first term and to rid the world of nuclear weapons, Obama told an audience before a roundtable discussion at Purdue University.

Obama said adhering to nonproliferation treaties would put pressure on nations such as North Korea and Iran. North Korea has tested a nuclear weapon and Iran has an energy program the Bush administration warns could be a precursor to nuclear weapon development.

"As long as nuclear weapons exist, we'll retain a strong deterrent. But we will make the goal of eliminating all nuclear weapons a central element in our nuclear policy," Obama said.

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And from Hot Air -- feelgood utopian nonsense

Obama's 'Big Brother' vanishes from speech

'Civilian security force' excised from 'call to service' transcript

By Bob Unruh | © 2008 WorldNetDaily

"We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded."


Go 16 minutes into the speech (16:52) to hear him say the Civilian National Security Force idea.

What else Jesse Jackson said when he slammed Barack Obama

Top of the Ticket | LA Times Blog

The mystery has been cleared up about what else Jesse Jackson said last week when he made his crude remarks about Barack Obama.

The previously unreported comment, disclosed Wednesday morning by the TVNewser blog, was:

“Barack ... he’s talking down to black people ... telling [black people] how to behave.” Only Jackson used the plural form of the “n-word,” not “black people,” in the second part of his comment.

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Rush played some satire this morning

quotes

One of the most naive notions is that politicians are trying to solve the country's problems, just because they say so---or say so loudly or inspiringly. Politicians' top priority is to solve their own problem, which is how to get elected and then re-elected. Barack Obama is a politician through and through, even though pretending that he is not is his special strategy to get elected. ---Thomas Sowell

I am not aware of anything remotely comparable to Sen. Obama's recent reversals of positions. To my knowledge, it is without moral precedent in modern American presidential elections. It is an act of political cynicism, compounded in its audacity by Sen. Obama's explicit claim to being above politics as usual. ---Tony Blankley

Whenever Obama moves 'to the middle,' it is not to stay there, but to collect new voters and bring them back with him to the Left. ---George Neumayr

John McCain and Barack Obama both gave speeches at the League of United Latin American Citizens convention in Washington, and in the 4,600 words they spoke between them didn't mention assimilation once. Never mind that assimilation is the key to the historic success of American immigration. ---Rich Lowry

No matter the peaks we have climbed in life we are all midgets next to his majestic holiness, the Barack of Obama. ---Mark Steyn