davidbau.com

Presidential Qualifications

What qualifications should we demand of the leader of the free world?

Heidi says everybody should write an autobiography before they run for president. TV news shows provoke a laugh from her each time they report "Breaking News: We learned something new about Obama today.... Did you know that he consulted his wife before he ran for the Senate?!" It seems the reporters are taking a long time to get through those lengthy books.

We like Obama. His mastery of oratory is something we never realized we needed so badly until W took the world stage. Obama is very authentically American, with direct connections to rural Kansas, urban Blacks, practicing Christians, pacific Asians, east-coast Harvard and left-handed people everywhere. He seems equally comfortable among union workers and in Silicon Valley. And he has Kennedy and Lincoln's ability to set the right tone in the political debate.

In this bean-counting vote-counting rule-counting world, setting the right tone is more important than we give it credit for.

So Obama is announcing his candidacy tomorrow, and I imagine there is some excitement on his staff getting ready to kick off the campaign. Here is a behind-the-scenes clip of preparations for this important announcement:

Even when he is just joking, Obama reveals an ability to deliver the goods without breaking a sweat. David Posner sums it up well when interviewed by the Post: "It'd be nice to have a president who can kick some ass."

Obama's strength goes far beyond this sort of funny taekwandoe. There will be plenty of time to be serious about federal spending or energy policy or terrorism or healthcare or education or Iraq.

Obama's real announcement preview video is here.

A short and effective chronicle of Obama's rise in politics is here.

Obama's campaign website is now live this morning, here.

Posted by David at February 9, 2007 05:43 PM