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TOUGH OPERATOR

I used to think that Obama was a callow, inexperienced guy with good intentions.

Boy, have I had my opinion changed.

I now consider him to be a tough operator. A wolf in sheep's clothing.

I do not mean by this that he is a liar about his positions.

I think that he is dead serious about everything that he espouses. And that is the operative phrase. Dead serious.

In the 'thank you' speech to his Chicago office, he said that the important thing now is the people. The issues. The change. Not him.

And I think he believes that. I know that I do.

But I also see the steely politician beneath the surface that will make this happen around him.

Andrew Sullivan is on this today.

Here are some bits.

This guy is the whole Chicago package: an idealistic, lakefront liberal fronting a sharp-elbowed machine operator. He’s the only politician of our lifetime who is underestimated because he’s too intelligent. He speaks so calmly and polysyllabically that people fail to appreciate the Machiavellian ambition inside.
I never doubted his cunning or his charisma. It's the combo that's so lethal. Are the Republicans awake yet? The Clintons weren't.

As a Chicagoan who has watched Obama emerge on the national scene, I couldn't agree with you more about his cunning and charisma. Before things really started ramping up, people asked me whether he had a chance against the Clinton attack machine and I said "I look at all his opponents on both sides of the aisle and think, you poor, sad fools. You don't even know what you are getting into."
Every time I read articles about this I think about Herndon's statement about Lincoln:
"That man who thinks Lincoln sat down calmly and gathered his robes about him, waiting for the people to call him, has a very erroneous knowledge of Lincoln. He was always calculating, and always planning ahead. His ambition was a little engine that knew no rest."
That describes Barack Obama to a tee which is precisely why he is such an incredibly deadly politician.

Labels: Barack Obama