Obama Sits Down With Israeli Leaders

[Hope And Change]

Obama Sits Down With Israeli Leaders

Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1825777,00.html">Obama drew an unusually warm welcome from Israeli President Shimon Peres Wednesday, who said his greatest wish is for a “great president of the United States.”

Earlier, the Senator ate a smoked salmon and local cheeses breakfast with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak at the King David Hotel.Barak’s office says they discussed “all the relevant issues.”

Next, Obama talked with opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, where they discussed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear power.

Netanyahu tells reporters Obama told him “he would never seek in any way to compromise Israel’s security.”


He’s also expected to sit down with Israeli Prime Minister Olmert.


http://thepage.time.com/2008/07/23/obama-lands-in-israel/">Link

[Gman]

1. This picture says it all

I posted the following last night on another thread. The more I see of this trip, the more impressed I am with Obama:

This trip is making a believer out of me.

I argued through the primaries that Obama was an empty suit and I had good cause to say so. During the primaries, his policy statements were pretty much cloned from Hillary's and very little in policy separated the two. Hillary had (and still does) have the experience, the presence, and everything else it takes to be an excellent president. Therefore, I've been fully expecting while completely dreading a complete Obama implosion. I feared he was going to move on to the Big Show and would completely collapse a la Michael Dukakis. I've been there and seen it all before.

But this trip is changing everything. I'm seeing substance in Obama I never saw before. I'm seeing a man that can stand on the world stage and have a commanding presence as well as articulate well thought out ideas that have a universal appeal. I'm seeing a man that can hold his own with world leaders.

Yes, Obama may well be The One.

...still, doesn't mean I don't think Hillary should be the VP pick!

[cali]

2. You saw Obama through a prism of extreme partisanship

you were so pro-hillary that your view of Obama was completely distorted by that. Sorry, it was quite clear that Obama was impressively well informed and thoughtful during the primary process. And that's no knock against Hillary- she certainly is qualified to be President. Glad you're able to view Obama more clearly now.

[Gman]

3. Nope... I was not alone in saying Obama was an empty suit

nor was I alone in saying there (isn't) wasn't a dime's worth of difference between Obama's positions and Hillary's positions. Hillary talked issues and solutions. Obama talked the nebulous "hope and change", or at least that's all that came through.

Although I may appear "partisan" to people here, I am essentially about who can win. My passion for Hillary was all about the fact that she was essentially the same as most all the other candidates on policy (except for Kucinich) and that I felt (and still do) that she could win in November. So I support who I think can win in the GE. My "partisan" view is never about "my candidate has a better ideology than your candidate" unless your candidate is a complete nut. I'm driven by getting a Democrat elected.

Prior to our primary, I had a conversation with a woman who is an African-American state legislator and a long time friend. She was trying to win me over for Obama. I asked her, "How do I choose? They're essentially the same on policy so how do I choose? Either way we go, ground-breaking history will be made. So how do I choose? A Black man on one hand and a woman on the other." She replied, "I know, isn't it great?!" I said it was fantastic. We never thought we would ever live long enough to see it.

But, I was completely disgusted with the local Hillary vs. Obama infighting this year which very much mirrored DU. (I got to see the usual snakes in the grass at their finest and found a couple I didn't realize were there.) Disgusted is a kind word. The only reason I even went to our state convention this year as a delegate was to help a couple of friends (one an Obama supporter, one a Hillary supporter) get elected to the positions in the party they were seeking. I pissed off my a lot of my county delegation which was overwhelmingly Hillary to get an Obama person elected, and we won it. I split off enough of the Hillary delegates that we were able to get this person elected. This person deserved to be there, had been there for a long time, and it wasn't about Obama vs. Hillary, it was about the party.

I got a bad impression about Obama from the very beginning of his campaign because it appeared (and still does) that his primary campaign was long on rah-rah and short on substance that was over and above what his other opponents had to say. The rah-rah kind of fluff doesn't cut it in the GE. Personality cults don't cut it in the GE. And a freshman Senator who was a state senator not that long ago would be chum in the water for the Republicans in the GE.

But Obama is now showing me he can articulate the policy message that most all the candidates in the primaries supported and he can do it very well and in an unwaivering way. He's showing that his leadership ability can command attention on the world stage.

I don't know if Obama has matured in this race or if he's being extremely well coached. Maybe both. But you reallly can't coach charisma and he has tons of that. Always has. And now he's looking better and better for the GE.

[Hope And Change]

4. Kick!