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The Wall Street Journal has a well written article by Stephen Haynes called “Obama and the Power of Words,” which discusses Barack Obama, and the interesting parallels between him and Ronald Reagan, and how they were pegged as lacking in substance during their campaigns. It quotes, for instance, this passage from Reagan’s inauguration speech – a passage which is eerily similar to the sentiments that Obama echoes today, a quarter century later:

“More than anything else, I want my candidacy to unify our country, to renew the American spirit and sense of purpose. I want to carry our message to every American, regardless of party affiliation, who is a member of this community of shared values . . . For those who have abandoned hope, we’ll restore hope and we’ll welcome them into a great national crusade to make America great again!”

Haynes does a good job illustrating that Obama is not the cartoonishly simple candidate he is painted by his opponents to be (of course!), and that he does in fact do an excellent job pivoting from soaring rhetoric to detailed and thoughtful positions on a variety of issues.

Of course, Haynes, who writes for the Weekly Standard, is probably not a Obama supporter, which means that the Republicans are formulating more sophisticated (and likely more effective) anti-Obama strategies than the ones that Hillary Clinton and others have deployed – all to such little avail! Let the games begin!

Well that wraps it up. One video for each of the candidates. This time, Mike Huckabee.

I am a Barack Obama supporter, so I may be biased, but I want you to consider these two videos, and you tell me who deserves to win the nomination. Here’s one pithy verse from the Hillary video: “This Lady knows how to lead, in this president’s race she will succeed.”
Hillary