October 12, 2008 3:46:39 PM CDT
(Newser) – Barack Obama’s trip to the DNC podium is expected to be the "rhetorical blockbuster of the summer," writes Sam Anderson in New York. But is the senator up to using his oratorical sophistication to expand his popularity among Americans hooked on a junk-food diet of low-brow stump speeches? Can a "Clinton-style natural who flaunts the artifice of his speeches and refuses to strategically hide his intelligence" score with an audience ambivalent about exactly those qualities?"
Obama is an eye of eloquence in the storm of American campaigning usually geared to the comprehension—and attention span—of a typical eighth grader. He can raise the level of discourse—but can't single-handedly change American anti-intellectualism or our impatience with long talks, writes Anderson. Nothing will test the mettle of his rhetorical gifts more than the DNC, where he “has to prove he’s not a talker by talking better than he ever has before.”
Source New York
8 hours, 4 minutes ago Angelina Jolie hasn't officially endorsed a candidate, but Barack Obama's positions "could move" her to vote for him, she tells the German edition of Vanity Fair. His determination to "intervene militarily in genocides abroad and close down Guantanamo Bay" are near and dear to her heart—as is his all-American multi-ethnic heritage that she so values. "Barack Obama would be great for my family,” she said. More »
Oct 10, 08 10:00 AM CDT Barack Obama received some $40,000 from obviously fictitious donors, the New York Times reports. After poring over both candidates’ records, the Times found some 3,000 donations to Obama from more than a dozen people with obviously falsified names —like “Test Person” from “Some Place, UT.” McCain had such donors as well, but far fewer than Obama. More »
Oct 9, 08 8:00 PM CDT The mainstream media is quick to pounce on Sarah Palin for being short on specifics, but it's happy to give Barack Obama a free ride for the same shortcoming, writes Carrie Lukas in the National Review. Obama’s stands on issues such as trade (what exactly will he do with NAFTA?), Social Security, and abortion are unclear, but reporters are too ga-ga to go for the throat. More »
Oct 8, 08 7:45 AM CDT Barack Obama "is the only possible choice to lead the country," says Esquire, though the magazine’s position is less an endorsement of Obama and more a treatise against John McCain. Obama has failed to define his key campaign theme of change “except as all those things encompassed by the phrase ‘Elect me’”—but he still represents a departure from George W. Bush that McCain does not. More »
Oct 7, 08 8:27 PM CDT Barack Obama and John McCain were hit with blunt questions tonight about how they would "bail out" Americans hurt by the staggering economy. In the second of three debates, this one a town hall-style face-off, the candidates fielded questions from an audience of 80 undecided voters and moderator Tom Brokaw. In one of the evening's few surprises, McCain said the Treasury Department should buy up all the troubled mortgages in the country, and help homeowners renegotiate them. More »
Barack Obama • Election 2008 • Obama 2008 • Democratic presidential candidates • DNC • presidential candidates
