Obama talks God
James Forsyth 9:34pm
Obama supporters hope that his comfort in talking publicly about his religious beliefs will both help Obama bridge some of the cultural gap that separates him from large chunks of the electorate and help him make inroads into the evangelical vote. This strategy suffered a huge blow with the Revered Wright affair which tied Obama’s faith up with a divisive, racialist world view; the new Newsweek poll shows that almost a third of voters state that Wright might stop them from supporting Obama. However, the Obama campaign clearly believes that talking about religion is still sensible politics. In this week’s Newsweek, Obama talks about how often he prays, his Bible reading habits and what he tells his children about faith.
One of the pluses for Obama in talking about his personal faith is that the subject encourages reporters to go a little easy. Newsweek calls Obama’s spiritual journey a “uniquely American tale” and write that “He found Christ—but that hasn't stopped him from asking questions.” The positive—almost hagiographic—tone of the piece is summed up by this sentence: “Always drawn to life's Big Questions, Obama embarked on a spiritual quest in which he tried to reconcile his rational side with his yearning for transcendence.”
We can expect Obama to talk about faith a lot more over the summer as he tries to introduce himself to voters. If all the coverage is like this, the Obama campaign will be very happy.
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TGF UKIP
July 13th, 2008 11:39pmWhile giving a flavour of mainstream media "balance," this image seems to chime in with his ads in normally no-go for Dems red states.
In those states he is not necessarily pursuing independents but attempting to give the evangelicals less reason to turn out for Mc.Cain. As the christian conservatives seem half hearted at best for McCain, he is attempting to ensure that what would have been a vote for "anybody but Hillary and Slick Willie" does not transfer to being a vote for "anybody but Obama."
Very clever, but very, very high risk if he is anything but squeaky clean. It guarantees the digging will continue ever wider and ever deeper.
August 29th let alone November 4th are still a long, long way away.
Craig Strachan
July 14th, 2008 6:39amIt worked for Tim Kaine in Virgina.
Chuck Unsworth
July 14th, 2008 7:55amAll well and good, but does God talk Obama? For that matter is God actually listening?
Ganpat Ram
July 14th, 2008 9:51amObama does not need God's help to defeat this idiot McCain. A veritable Democratic donkey could do the job.
McCain is so brainless that he is going around the country proudly proclaiming himself a "conservative Republican", in a year when the country is sick beyond words of right-wing Republicanism.
McCain is- incredibly - throwing away his pricelss lifetime's political capital as a maverick Republican who has a reputation of reaching out to Democrats and even the Left.
Given how suspicious the country is of Obama, sucha progressive Republicanism woul;d sweep Mccain to victory.
But no-one can help a purblind fool.
He is playing a second Dick Cheney.
Max Kaye
July 14th, 2008 11:54amChuck Unsworth: No. I'm not.
Familiar Clown
July 14th, 2008 12:07pmObama talks (to) God:
"Why have you forsaken me?"
The Lavish Carbon Footprint
July 14th, 2008 12:47pmFamiliar Clown - very bad taste.
Ganpat Ram - No. They're sick of Mr Bush, which other than Mr Reagan, is par for the course with American presidents. Towards the end of the eighth year, everyone hates them.
Republicanism is in robust health. (No need to write "right wing" Republicanism. Republicans are the right wing party. Democrats are the socialists.)
Familiar Clown
July 14th, 2008 1:39pmLCF, on second thoughts, yes, I agree. he's more a son of darkness.
murray
July 14th, 2008 5:31pmJames, Have you seen the Obama hit job in that notorious right wing rag The New Yorker?
The gild is off the lilly. Denver should be quite interesting.
Verity
July 14th, 2008 7:51pmWhoaaah! Have y'all seen what Obama wrote after 9/11? The lefty thinking, the absolute, unutterable ignorance. It was all due to "a failure of empathy".
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/30635_Obama-_9-11_Was_A_Failure_of_Empathy
This man knows nothing of the world, nothing at all, outside the Chicago political machine, from which he has done so well.
I think he honestly thinks if he gives a speech in front of the Brandenburg Gate, hordes of ecstatic Germans will turn out to cheer him. His self-delusions and sheer ignorance are very alarming.
Nu Porker
July 14th, 2008 9:09pmIt appears that the 'Obama hit job' is lampooning the right. Satire is often lost in translation, especially to Americans.
murray
July 15th, 2008 12:52amNu Porker,
It appears that Americans are not the only ones who fail to see satire :)
Verity
July 15th, 2008 1:42pmNu Porker - Why do you think satire is lost on Americans? What does this mean-spirited little envy-fuelled dig actually mean?
Have you ever seen any of the political satire on American TV? No? Some of it is very sharp and wicked - and funny. You wouldn't see it in Britain, of course, because political satire doesn't travel and the British aren't familiar with the American issues being satirised.
We're not the top nation any more. Cool your spite towards America and live with the facts.
Nu Porker
July 15th, 2008 3:25pmVerity, I know, I know. Things are moving so fast these days you cannot even jump off the same building once.