What do you know about Barack Obama? What are the good things and bad things about him?

Question

I know he has been smart enough to be against this war from the start, and he dosen't change what he says just for it to be what the people want to hear (like hillary) but what are your opinions of him?

Answer 1

I am eagerly watching him and listening to him to find out more. What I like so far is his experience.

I know people say he is not experienced but look at what our big problems are today

1) Dealing with the Islamic world
2) poverty
3) race relations

It can easily be said that Obama knows more about each of those three areas than any of the other candidates.

Answer 2

I also recommend reading his book. It's a shame that the other user that recommended that didn't read farther because he would have seen Obama be fairly even handed towards the president.

You will hear many people talk about Obama as an unknown quantity, which is odd because he has been on the national scene for three years now (since his keynote speech at the democratic national convention), he served in the state government for eight years, and he has two best selling memoirs. It's hard to see why he should be considered an unknown, but he is.

These are the things that have been uncovered by opposition parties (either within the Democratic party or from the GOP):

1) He is a smoker and didn't publicize it. Upon deciding to run for president he decided to quit and his campaign staff has organized a Quit Smoking with Barack drive.

2) Prior to entering the Senate, he invested ~$100,000 of his money into a blind trust. The money was invested into stocks heavily invested in by a campaign supporter. Both stocks were the objects of legislation before the senate. Upon discovering he owned those stocks, he sold them (one at a loss of 15K, one at a gain of 2K, net loss of 13K) and stopped the blind trust from investing in stock issues, concentrating solely on mutual funds and debt funds. There is no evidence the stocks benefited from his investment or any Senate ethics violation.

3) During the exploratory phase of his candidacy, Obama paid off $375 (with his own funds) worth of parking tickets and late fees that he incurred during law school at Harvard. Critics look at this and see a desire to sweep Parkingticketgate under the ground to hide his illicit past. Normal humans look at this as someone forgetting he had parking tickets from law school and finding out during op prep.

He has a record, judge him on that. He has views, judge him on those. On 60 Minutes he was asked if he was disappointed because he was trailing in the polls to Senator Clinton amongst African Americans (He's not any more) ... he gave my favorite answer ever.

"Not at all," Obama says. "I think that there is a assumption on the part of some commentators that somehow, the black community is so unsophisticated that the minute you put an African-American face up on the screen, that they automatically say, 'That's our guy.' A black candidate has to earn black votes the same way that he's gotta earn white votes. And that's exactly how it should be."

That is respect for people. People that say Louisiana and Mississippi will vote for him just because he's black? That's disrespect.

Answer 3

I think he would be a good change for the country and it is not about skin color. He has been up front about his views and has not been a waffler. He knows what it is to compromise to get the things done for the people as his constituents in IL when he was state senator can attest to.
During his seven years in the Illinois state Senate, Obama worked with both Democrats and Republicans to help working families get ahead by creating programs like the state Earned Income Tax Credit, which in three years provided over $100 million in tax cuts to families across the state. YES HELPED TO PRODUCE OVER $100 MILLION IN TAX CUTS IN 3 YEARS IN IL. This fact will undercut any barbs thrown about him being a " tax and spend liberal' although I am sure the right wing pleebs will still say it.

Obama also pushed through an expansion of early childhood education, and after a number of inmates on death row were found innocent, Senator Obama enlisted the support of law enforcement officials to draft legislation requiring the videotaping of interrogations and confessions in all capital cases. This helped cover police in the event there was any question about abuse by the authorities.

He has been bipartisan and has sponsored 152 bills and co-sponsored another 427 with the opposing party because it was in the best interest of the people not the special interests.

He was up front about using drugs when he was a teenager. He put that in his books.

The only thing I heard negatively had been his smoking habit ( a habit he is trying to kick) and that he was a bit thin skinned especially about comments made about his mother but this race will toughen him.

Answer 4

It's funny that when a question like this is asked, the people for the candidate tend to give answers with outright lies or totally exaggerate the facts ....this hurts the very person your trying to support....for instance when one of the responders said yet again ' he has worked with Dems and Rebs'
Helloooo It's the Senate....... Nothing is done without all of them working....................... As for state tax cuts, Illinois certainly needed it...........I live in Florida we don't have all the income tax and Unions

Answer 5

The good and bad are the same in this man's case.

He is an unknown commodity. As I recall, Jimmy Carter was one of them also. IMO his Presidency was devistating. It damage nearly everything good in this country.

I doubt anyone will have much in the way of real information on the man until he either "eats" the competition or is "eaten" by them.

Let's face it, very few voters know much about any candidate aside from their Party affiliation and sometimes their gender. It really is terribly difficult to determine what's in a package until you actually open it. Then it is too late.

Answer 6

yes he does tell the people exactly what they want to hear, even if it means changing his position slightly. He's no Kerry, but this is one of his flaws. Other than that, he's in a strange position. I'd like to see how it would play out if he ran for president. Traditionally red states like Mississippi and Louisianna would vote for him soley because he is black. Which is kind of scary. If he won all of Kerry's states plus those two, he would win.

Answer 7

He is an empty suit with no record of accomplishment & no leadership experience since law school. The only positive is that he is NOT Hillary Clinton.

Answer 8

read his book...i read it because i liked his idealistic views...sadly, by reading it i found out he is a socialistic thinker, and by the 3rd chapter, instead of coming up with solutions, he was altogether bashing bush for all the problems america has.... i like the idealistic views of what america should be, but if you dont have any other solutions that to bash someone or another party, then to me you are sadly lacking in the great american virtue, which is compassion for the people, and solutions for the problems....to me he is just another socialist now witha good image......read his book...thats all i can say...

Answer 9

The site below has done a good job of talking about what he believes in and what issues he stands for.

Answer 10

He is in favor ofe ending partisan politics and while he was in the Illinois Senate, he worked with both Democrats and Republicans in getting legislation passed. Go to Wikapedia or Yahoo and type in his name and it will tell you all about his career and things he has done. He is very inspiring.

"The pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. But I've got news for them too. We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don't like federal agents poking around in our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and yes, we got some gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and patriots who supported the war in Iraq. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America."