1) Obama was leading Jack Ryan in the polls even before the scandal, largely due to unusually high support among downstate and suburban Chicago voters. If a black Democrat from Chicago can win over white rural and suburban Illinoians, I think he has a good chance of winning over the rest of the nation as well.

2) However I still don’t think there is any chance of him winning the Deep South States. But frankly, at this point, is there any chance of any Democrat winning down there? Even Al Gore couldn’t win his home state of Tennessee. But Obama can win without the South. I think he has a really good chance of picking up swing states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida.

3) I really like Obama a lot, primarily because he has real-world, first-hand experience serving the urban poor on the south-side of Chicago. He was a community organizer and civil rights attorney down there – which means he doesn’t just talk the talk. He walks the walk. I’d vote for any candidate who really understands and cares about the poor and doesn’t just pay lip service to the issue.

As for the unpopularity of atheists today (mentioned in this forum) much of it is our own fault. Lest we forget, that great atheist, Robert Ingersoll, placed James Blaine’s name into nomination at the 1876 GOP convention. He was unashamedly pro-American, pro-businessa and pro-expansionist of liberty. He was fervent in his disbelief yet was never rude or arrogant or hateful. Nor did he try to “prove” his case with science but instead used humor and reason. We could learn from his example today.

Avid Reader

Second, being black is one of the only things keeping his candidancy alive. While racism, in its most benign way, is still alive, there are enough conservatives and liberals that want to feel good about not being racist, thus Obama is the perfect candidate. Without his heritage and his skin color, this guy would be about half as charismatic.

I like Obama as a candidate simply because of his charisma and his supposed honesty. I like about half of his politics considering he is aligned with John Kerry about 97% of the time (see voting records). Good candidate, glad he’s running, American WOULD elect him, and probably will unless Hillary can figure out a new strategy.

Also, saying that Hillary Clinton is MORE qualified than Barack Obama is an inane argument. She has LESS public service experience, LESS experience running for office, but MORE association with a former president. Just because Barack holds most of his experience in the State senate for Illinois doesn’t make him unqualified, just as it didn’t for Abraham Lincoln who had about the same amount of experience in the state house.

bequeeththemasses@blogspot.com

I’ve never seen him take a stand on anything except to stand with Joe Lieberman.

He’s taken a strong stand against the war in Iraq from the very beginning – something no other Democrat currently in the race can say.