AMERICAN IDOL--A REVIEW OF "THE AUDACITY OF HOPE" by Gary Hart

" The self-portrait is appealing. It presents a man of relative youth yet maturity, a wise observer of the human condition, a figure who possesses perseverance and writing skills that have flashes of grandeur. Obama also demonstrates a wry snese of humor His life has given him many reasons to be wry, ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/24/books/review/Hart.t.html?_r=1&ref=books&oref=slogin

12-24-06 NY Times--OBAMA TESTS HIS OWN LIMITS AS HE NEARS DECISION

"In the field of Democratic hopefuls, Mr. Obama stands apart from Mrs. Clinton largely because of his early and unwavering oppostitionj to the Iraq waqr, a position he took while still a member of the Illinois Legislature. Yet, as a senator, he did not deliver a major speech on the subject until he had been in office for 11 months. Now, he bleieves the United Stgates should beginrefucing troop strength in three to five months, a position shared by several Democrats.

"According to a ranking by National Journal, Mr. Obama's voting record is more liberal than 82.5 percent of the Senate, compared with 79.8 percent for Mrs. Clinton. The American Conservative Union gave him a rank of 8. By comparison, Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, received a ranking of 83."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/24/washington/24obama.html

"BARACK OBAMA IS NOT A MAGUC ELIXIR" SAYS FRANK RICH

"...Enter Barack Obama. To understand the hysteria about a Democrat senator who has not yet served two years and is mainly known for a single speech at the 2004 convention, you have to appreciate just how desparate the Democrats are for a panacea for all their ills. In the many glossy cover articles about Obamamania, the only real suspense is whether a Jack or Bobby Kennedy analogy will be made in the second paragraph or the fifth. Men's Vogue (cover by Annie Leibowitz) went so far as to say that the Illinois senator 'alone has the potential to one day be mentioned in the same breath' as Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King. Why not throw in Mark Twain and Sammy Davis, Jr.?

"That is a lot to put on the shoulders of anyone, even someone as impressive as Mr. Obama...

"What makes the liberal establisment's crush on Mr. Obama disconcerting is that it too often sees him as a love child of a pollster's focus group: a one-man Benneton ad who can be all things to all people. He's black and he's white. He's both of immigrant stock (Kenya) and the American heartland (Kansas, yet). He speaks openly about his faith without disowning evolution. He has both gravitas and unpretentious humor. He was editor of the Harvard Law Review and also won a Grammy (for the audio-book of his touching memoir, 'Dreams From My Father'. He exudes perfection but has owned up to youthful indiscretions with drugs. He is post-boomer and post-civil-rights movement. He is Bill Clinton without the baggage, a fail safe 21st-century bridge from a 'A Place Called Hope' to the 'Audacity of Hope.'

"...it's important to remember that on one true test for his party, Iraq, he was consistent from the start. On the long trail to a hotly competitive senatorial primary in Illisnoi, he repeatedly questined the rationale for the war before it began, finally to protest it at a large rally in Chicago on the eve of the invasion. He judged Sadaam to pose no immediate threat to America and argued for containment over a war he would soon label 'dumb' and 'political-driven.' He hasn't changed. In his new bood, he gives a specific date (the end of this year) for beginning 'a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops' and doesn't seem to care who calls it 'cut and run.'.....

"The Democrats may well win on Election Day this year. But one of their best hopes for long-term viability in the post-Bush era is that Barack Obama steps up and changes the party before the party of terminal timidity and equivocation changes him."

http://select.nytimes.com/2006/10/22/opinion/22rich.html?th&emc=th