geokstr, he worked at Cantor Fitzgerald and inspired me to begin a career in finance. He loved his wife and two daughters very much, even as he worked 80 hour weeks. He wasn’t a distant counsin and no I don’t have enough proof for you, but that’s ok.
I wish you would get over the team Obama thing. I’m starting with the assumption that all politicians are bad, not liberal v. conservative. Also, policies are a bit of crap on either side. I’m look for pure horsepower, organization skills and foreign diplomacy. Those are big dimensions for me, which are definitely not for everyone. But I think Obama wins on all three.
Horsepower:
1. President of Harvard Law Review
2. Writes his own speeches, eloquent. It shouldn’t be a negative to be competent at that part of your job.
3. Educator and author (not ghostwritten)
4. McCain’s pick of Palin was ridiculous – purely political and it would be laughable if she were a Dem (c’mon be honest). Noonan criticized it. Hagel criticized it and Rove when he criticized Kaine for Obama implicitly criticized her. Her answers to questions look like Bush answering questions and I think we can all agree that he’s an idiot.
Organization:
1. Better campaign, more organized, better funded, and less defections and in-fighting (this is anecdotal) but I was talking to a very senior Obama staffer who happens to have been in politics for a LOOOONG time. I only know him because we’re in the same industry. He remarked that this was by far the best run shop he’s ever seen and he goes back to the mid-seventies.
2. Critical thinker, and listens to right-leaning guys like Paul O’Neil and Chuck Hagel. Why the right denigrates these men I don’t know. I don’t get the Lieberman scolding on the left either. He’s clearly a one-issue guy, Israel, it’s honest and it makes sense why he’s on team McCain.
3. Related to organization – he’s very even tempered and never gets too high or too low. I think he would be a responsible leader and yeah his vote against a pre-emptive strike on Iraq was correct both factually (no WMD) and corresponds with true conservative values to honor sovereign states.
Foreign Diplomacy
1. You got to give me this one. The whole world wants Obama to win. I think his anti-torture stances and charisma would definitely restore some of the luster lost during the Bush years.
