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Obama: Bush Policy Tough and Dumb
 Barack Obama was in NH this weekend. I didn’t go to see him. The beauty of covering the NH primary is that there really aren’t any big crowds until the very end. And I’m not crazy about crowds. Especially the smitten variety.
It was a mob scene everywhere the junior senator from Illinois went. His book signing in Portsmouth jammed the Frank Jones Center, a largish convention hall. The NH Democratic State Committee event at the Radisson-Center of NH in Manchester sold out its 1500 seats in a week at $25 a pop .
Barack is undeniably a charismatic guy. The anti-war crowd loves him, the liberals adore him, the minorities yearn for him, the liberal Christians worship him, and the press sniffs after him as he were in heat. And he is – the man is hot. His book is number one, his stock is through the roof, and his crowds fill every room he enters.
I could have used my expired press card and gone to ask people why they like Obama so much, but what would they have said? He’s an unknown quantity. The people I have asked say he makes them feel hopeful; and when I ask why he makes them feel hopeful, they it’s say because they like him.
There’s no reason not to like him, and maybe that’s why so many people do. The other candidates have records that anyone could find fault with somewhere or other. By comparison Obama seems virginal and untouched. And that could be a good thing. No long-term coziness with special interests, no corporate masters he can’t shake, no institutional corruption weighing him down. But he’s untested, as was the last git we handed power over to, and that makes me wary. Irrational exuberance isn’t a good reason to vote for someone for city council never mind president.
Obama calls for universal health care, a raise in the minimum wage, and a measured withdrawal from Iraq. He wants a foreign policy that’s "tough and smart, because what we've seen is tough and dumb." Like I said – what’s not to like?
~Jack McEnany
Also see: Runaway Barack
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