Monday, December 04, 2006

Obama "might" run

When I first heard Barack Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention I was impressed with him. I actually thought to myself at the time that this man had a presidential future. However, now I don't feel the same way even though it's obvious he's going to run, I can't say the idea of him becoming President is one that appeals to me.

He doesn't seem to be willing to make a stand, and from what few experiences I have had with him he's more concerned with appearances and how to get the best pr. Back when he was the featured speaker here in Ohio, bloggers were not given free tickets to the dinner as some of them wanted. The Democratic Party as well as a few of us felt that bloggers did not deserve special consideration above volunteers or others especially since they were not stating they wanted to cover this as journalists, they wanted free tickets to the event. A few bloggers paid to attend, Senator Obama paid for a table for other bloggers so that they could attend the event for free. There were some questions as far as how this would be reported/charged as well as the other personality conflict aspects that brought about some of what happened between the bloggers and a Democratic Party employee.

Two letters and a phone call to Senator Obama's office expressing concern and asking for details as to how from a legal standpoint as far as a donation standpoint this was going to be done were ignored. Still to this day I've never gotten a response from either Obama or his staff. I was also told that Obama never even checked with the person in the Ohio Democratic Party to find out all of the details behind this situation before he decided to buy a table.

Now of course that's all blown over and people are supposed to just forget about it but to me, it demonstrates one of my concerns that he is more interested in appearances than being able to make the hard decisions that are necessary to be a President. Not to mention I find the lack of response pretty discouraging, it's okay if he didn't agree with me but to totally ignore what were valid questions speaks volumes.

After all, he'll respond to a reporter who felt humiliated, though I think people were missing the point of why the reporter was saying his "game" was ruined, it was the humiliation of being asked basically if he was old enough to be a real reporter and have the crowd laugh at him. That's worthy of a response from Obama but questions from me aren't? Of course not, I don't have a newspaper and as a woman blogger not being one of the "big boys" in Ohio, I can be ignored.

So, Obama may have charisma but for me? The shine of that has worn off and without any real accomplishments or demonstrating the ability that he can lead? I'm not going to be one of those who sit there and say "Ohhhh Obama you are so wonderful".

:-)

2 comments:

Scott G said...

I like Obama. What I don't like is the way he has been used since even before he was reelected to help other Democratic candidates. He has been campaigning and raising money for others since he got elected.

I learned of him about a year before he was elected from a friend in Chicago and liked him immediately. I just wish he would do more focusing on issues and the good of the country instead of candidates and the good of the party

Hooda Thunkit (Dave Zawodny) said...

Lisa,

An interesting take on Obama.

I haven't followed him closely enough to pick up on this.

BTW, your points were valid, despite the snub.