WASHINGTON -- There have been enough Democratic presidential debates to conclude that White House hopeful Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) has not mastered the short answer format. Obama demonstrated at Tuesday's Senate Foreign Relations hearing with Gen. David Petraeus and Iraq Ambassador Ryan Crocker he also has trouble with questions.
The long-winded Obama, who bills himself as a consensus builder, wasted an opportunity to show how it could work.
Each member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee had seven minutes to question Petraeus and Crocker about the Iraq War. Obama used about six minutes of his time to lecture Petraeus and Crocker that the surge is of modest success given the cost and the Iraq central government is ineffectual -- points he has been making in speeches and debates. As Obama was wrapping up, he said, "That, of course, now leaves me very little time to ask questions, and that's unfortunate."
"That's true, Senator," piped up Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, the committee chairman and a rival for the Democratic nomination.
Petraeus never got to answer Obama's 266-word question. Rushed at the end, Obama asked about benchmarks not met. Crocker said, "Senator, I described for Senator Sununu a little bit ago some of the things that I think are going to be very important as we move ahead."
Obama tossed a softball: "Can you repeat those?
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Besides that, Dems and Reps both, set aside a specific set of senators that will do the actual questioning. Always been that way.
I'll take Obama's intelligence over your Mr Bush's any day.
Perhaps Sen. Obama just shouldn't have made an excuse for using up six minutes of his time, and used all seven instead to lecture the two like Sen. Boxer had done.
I agree with the poster above who mentioned Biden's long-windedness. I missed that little dig...what? Is he totally oblivious to his own speaking style and that he loves the sound of his own voice?
And Hillary, BTW, sounded like she was on Valium. I was hoping that she'd go right for the jugular...was she being nice because it was 9/11? Rudy seems to have been the only presidential candidate who took advantage of the day to put himself in front of the cameras. Pig...
He needs to practice delivery.
He needs to take that big 3 COUNT before opening mouth.
He needs to GET THAT "UH....UH.....UH.."out of speech pattern.
He needs to use that BASSO PROFUNDO voice MUCH more....his delivery is TOO LAID BACK and NOT DIRECT.
In otherwords...STOP THE BILL COSBY ACT.
About 2 intensive hours with a good coach, and he's "ready to go!"
But he won't.
They never listen.
Ow.
If he would, he would have waited until he had more experience and had mastered the issues more deeply to enter the race for President.
I'm tired of on-the-job-training presidents.
JoAnnCr
Hmmm. Hey JoAnnCr I would love for you to pick up the new issue of GQ. It makes an intelligent point about the issue of "experience" regarding Obama, Clinton and Edwards:
“Even on the much hyped question of experience, Clinton, Edwards, and Obama are roughly equal, each having no more than a decade of legislative experience and no executive experience. Given the historic opportunity of an electorate desperate for change and disinclined to elect another Republican president, the Democratic contest is really about who will be the most transformational president. Obama’s case is that to change anything in America, we have to begin by changing our politics, and he offers the kind of campaign he’s running as evidence that he means it”.
So JoAnnCr, what exactly is Obama not "experienced" in? Please explain.
But before you do that, go to www.obama.senate.gov and check out his command of the issues and see how the 50 plus bills he has written over the past three years easily debunks your uninformed notion of Obama needing to have "mastered the issues more deeply to enter the race for President."
Everybody has their opinions, but I would like to know straight up: what "experience" do you believe Obama doesn't have), and, what issues should Obama have "mastered more deeply"?
Because all you need to do is go to www.barackobama.com and click on ISSUES to see both how detailed his positions are, and, how he has "mastered" an understanding of the issues of deep importance to this country, and to the world.
Oh and let's not forget Bill Clinton-- I mean if there's one thing being governor teaches you, it's international diplomacy!
And John F Kennedy! yet another example of a youth taking office long before his time. Where would the world be without the Baby Boomers, I tell you!
I mean, if the past seven years have taught me anything, it's that.
You're so right! He needs to say things that make sense in my -gut-, not my head! Thanks for bringing this to light, Lynn! :)
Let have a play-off between the two "show-boaters."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ehzEgU-oVI
www.planforiraq.com
and please donate to Joe's campaign!
Nevertheless I am confident that Obama's ability to inspire is greater than Biden's by far... Which in no way discredits the genius Biden has, nor his experience.
An Obama/Biden ticket would have the Inspirational and experience qualities that would make it an unbeatable ticket.
Sorta like a Bush/Cheney ticket with 99% less hypocrisy and 99% more civil service.