I thought Senator Obama made a nice little stand today against Henrietta Holsman Fore (nominated to be the undersecretary of state for management):

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) said Thursday he was troubled by racially insensitive comments attributed more than a decade ago to a woman the Bush administration has tapped for a top State Department job, and he threatened to block her nomination until his concerns were addressed.

He needs to keep doing things like that, speaking truth to power, and not getting to caught up in any partisan bickering.  So far, I'd say he's done a nice job in the Senate...but as a previous comment noted, the Senate ain't no path to the White House.  The sooner he gets himself on a presidential ticket, the better.

He's a powerful orator, a man who can truly speak the language of patriotism in a manner that is inclusive rather than exclusive.  If the Blue/Red divide in the country continues to spark as much tension as it has in the past year, people might well be ready for a different kind of language, a different kind of candidate in 2008.  I think he's our best hope, outside of Edwards...and I still say that putting the two of them together on a ticket would be dynamite. 

Posted at June 10, 2005 2:01 PM in response to Hope Is On the Way?

To paraphrase something I read just yesterday: "Many people don't want to be truly informed - they just want the illusion that they are being informed".  Of course, this goes quite a ways towards explaining the rise of FOX news and cable news in general...but on a larger scale, I think it captures a good deal of the reason why we seem to be (as a country) in a state of either apathy or denial about the lead up to the Iraq war.

Posted at June 7, 2005 11:44 AM in response to Understanding our National Denial about Iraq