Obama - Imus

From the Post-Chronicle

"Many civic and government leaders called for Imus's resignation or termination. Many will give Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson credit. Truth be told, they had nothing to do with it.

If it were not for the words of Democratic Presedential hopeful from Illinois, Sen. Barack Obama, Imus probably would have kept his job. Sharpton and Jackson's credibility is shaky at best and their theatrics are well documented.

No, it was the word of a soft-spoken man, a black man, vying for the most powerful post in the world that is responsible.

Sen. Barack Obama is the only 2008 presidential hopeful from either party to say that radio host Don Imus should be fired over the racial slurs. Sen. McCain, a regular on the Imus show in the past, simply accepted Imus's apology and thought the issue should die there. Rudolph Giuliani said the same after basically being hunted down like a dog.

Hillary Clinton caught flat-footed as usual, said basically nothing. She simply stated that she was never on his show and never would be.

Obama On Wednesday told ABC News he thought Imus should be fired and that he would never appear on the "Imus In The Morning" show again. Obama said Imus' remarks fed "some of the worst stereotypes" his own daughters face in America. Obama called the comments "degrading."

Obama is the new voice of Black America and the Democratic Presidential candidate just flexed his muscle."

Obama on Gore

Senator Obama talks to CBS News about the prospect of former veep Al Gore squeezing into an already crowded race.

"Barack Obama concedes that Al Gore entering the presidential race would seriously alter the political landscape.

The Illinois senator told The Early Show national correspondent Tracy Smith that the former vice president would be an "extraordinarily formidable" candidate if he were to join the Democratic fray, adding, "He would have as good a resume as anyone in the field, better — uh — than anybody in the field."

Barack on 60 Minutes

A clearly enamored Steve Kroft interviews Senator Barack Obama on the Big Sixty.

White Man at the New Republic Explains...

(via CBS)

Peter Beinart begins the breakdown with analysis of the black man who got the most pre-Barack White love.

"No one was blunter about this than (Colin) Powell himself. Asked in 1995 to explain his appeal to whites, he volunteered that "I speak reasonably well, like a white person," and, visually, "I ain't that black."

Barack Obama would never put it that way. But he surely understands the uncomfortable subtext behind the adoration being showered upon him by white America. Obama, too, succeeded at a prestigious white institution: Harvard Law School. He, too, is a child of immigration, able to declare in his 2004 Democratic convention speech — in words that could have come from Michael Dukakis or Joe Lieberman (but not from a descendant of slaves, without heavy irony) — that "in no other country on Earth is my story even possible." And he, too, doesn't sound or look too black. Fifteen years ago, a State University of New York political scientist named Nayda Terkildsen doctored photos of a fictitious gubernatorial candidate to make him lighter- or darker-skinned and then showed them to Kentucky focus groups. "The dark-skinned black candidate," she noted, "was evaluated much more harshly than his lighter skinned peer." Powell knew what he was talking about."

McCain Yes, Obama No on Troop Surge

WATCH the two senators square off over Iraq on CBS' Face the Nation.

• Bush plan for Iraq swells '08 intrigue (New York Times)
• Obama, McCain: 2 War Views (Chicago Tribune)