Obama the speaker...
Barack Obama is among the very best speakers I've heard. His delivery is excellent. His turn of phrase is excellent. His pace is perfect. His audience contact is solid. He appears genuine when he talks.
He will continue to out-speak his opponents no matter what happens or doesn't happen, and no matter whom he faces if he wins the Democrat nomination for President.
Obama the candidate...
Barack Obama, in my opinion, harmed his chances to become the Democrat nominee for President with his speech on race in America. The speech was one in which he attempted to put the Reverend Jeremiah Wright's bombastic sermons behind him. He contradicted himself by saying that he had heard these remarks while in the church, when he denied that very thing on the preceding Friday. He talked about his grandmother whom he, essentially, described as a racist for her remarks while he was a child.
He tried to dismiss the rants of his pastor, and that doesn't appear to be working for him. His poll numbers have slipped significantly since this 'issue' arose. He stands the real chance of defeat in Pennsylvania.
His wife is a net drag on his campaign, and isn't likely to be muzzled. Her speeches seem to reflect the anger that we've all heard in those sermon bits that have been aired ad nauseum.
Several writers have raised the question of how this was similar to the 'religion in America' speech of Mitt Romney. Romney continued to sink in the polls following that very solid speech.
Finally, Sen. Obama is up against the machine that is the Clintons. And, he played right into their hands by establishing himself as the 'black' candidate, saving the Clintons from having to find a better way to do that than Bill Clinton did in South Carolina a few weeks ago. Having said that, where did this 'issue' come from? Who found the tapes or DVDs of the sermons? Who posted those to the Internet? Maybe the Clintons, or their surrogates, did find the better way after all.
Remember the 'super delegates' that will decide the nominee for the Democrats. Hillary could very well be the nominee regardless of delegate counts from primaries and regardless of the popular vote.
Obama the President...
Beyond all this hoopla lies the very real concern that he is ranked as the most liberal Senator of all the senators we have today. That is quite a distinction! He will tax and spend like no other has. He wants to 'invest' in this and that and the other program designed to help the downtrodden. Those very programs will do little other than to create an economy that continues to decline. Those programs will result in an even greater sense of entitlement that will cause the downtrodden to remain the downtrodden forever. We will have national health care and that will prove that national health care is not the panacea some seem to think it will be. We will be taxed for many more billions and billions of dollars. Our military will be diminished. Constitutional rights such as the right to keep and bear arms will disappear. We will no longer have to be concerned about being the 'policeman for the world'. We'll have more than enough policing to do at home.
With that accomplished, we can then truly be made the socialist country that the extreme liberals desire us to be.
We are, I fear, on the edge of a precipice, and the wall beneath our feet is threatening to crumble and fall away.
