“Feeling the wind at his back,” as Fox News puts it, Barack Obama announced today that he is filing papers for a presidential exploratory committee. Unless one counts his good looks, good speaking, and bi-racial status, it’s difficult to discern Obama’s qualifications for the presidency. Obama has never run anything of substance. His experience in national politics consists of two years as a Senate back-bencher. And he’s only 45 years old.
In my lifetime, neither party has ever nominated a candidate for president with credentials this thin. In 1960, the Democrats nominated 43 year-old John Kennedy. But he had fought in a war, and had served six years in the House and (by the time of his election) eight years in the Senate. In 1956, he had been a serious contender for his party’s vice presidential nomination. Moreover, he was a committed cold warrior whose seriousness about national security matters helped him overcome the charge that he was a pretty boy who, in Eleanor Roosevelt’s words, should show “fewer profiles and more courage.”
By running for president Obama will show plenty of audacity and hope. A serious country would not take his candidacy seriously. This country will.
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JOHN adds: I like this comment by mm43 on the Forum:
[T]he Obama phenomenon reminds me of the Julian Bond moment in 1968. The Democrats were so excited about Julian Bond that they placed his name in nomination for Vice President. He withdrew because he didn
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