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November 22, 2008 8:23:45 AM CST

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Dr. Obama and Mr. Hyde

Posted Jun 20, 08 5:20 AM CDT in Politics,  Opinion 

(Newser) – Barack Obama has two faces: there’s the "high-minded" liberal “Dr. Barack” and the politically calculating, win at-all-costs “Fast Eddie Obama,” writes David Brooks in the New York Times. The split personality clearly emerged in Obama’s announcement that he won’t accept public financing—a money-making move that leaves his ardent support of campaign-finance reform in the dust.

Obama “speaks so calmly and polysyllabically that people fail to appreciate the Machiavellian ambition inside”—but Brooks admits he’s “ambivalent watching all this.” While Obama has shown himself to be a sell-out, we may need a cutthroat president, Brooks concedes. Either way, Obama shouldn’t be underestimated. “He’s the most effectively political creature we’ve seen in decades,” Brooks writes.

Source New York Times

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Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., center, greets people on his doorstep as he moves around his home in Chicago, Ill.,Thursday, June 19, 2008, during photo sessions.   (AP Photo/Russel A. Daniels)
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., speaks at Wayne County Community College District Downriver Campus in Taylor, Mich., Tuesday, June 17, 2008.   (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., addresses a rally at Kettering University in Flint, Mich., Monday, June 16, 2008.   (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)
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Barack Obama • campaign fundraising • campaign finance • public financing • political reform • political persona


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