Sigh. What's Obama doing? I'll say that I've seen disappointingly little liberal leadership from the guy, though I've seen plenty of soaring rhetoric and powerful charisma. Obama's got the sort of human starting gun potential and raw political ability that would allow him to take a truly large cause -- universal health care, say -- and spend three years making it a palatable political reality, sort of what John Edwards is doing with poverty, but with more media attention, potential, and power.
I've a friend who interviewed Barack for an article and came back a true believer. Wait it out, said his wife. Read the transcript in a week, see how you feel then. He did so, and noticed that the substance on the page bore little resemblance to the impressions he had. This in Clinton territory, where Barack's raw ability makes him something of a political rorsach, and renders it all the more important to apply close scrutiny to the actual content of his speeches.
Update: By the way, I think David Sirota's Nation profile of Obama is about the best thing yet written on the guy. I highly, highly recommend it.
