Revealed At Last! Obama's Secret Weapon Against The Oil, Drug & Insurance Companies...

A WINNING SMILE!

"Listen, I understand the source of anger. The insurance companies, the drug companies, they do not want to relinquish their power. Oil companies, they're happy with the status quo. Folks in Washington, the insiders, they don't want the outsiders, of course they're going to resist change...

You can walk into a room with a sunny disposition, you can smile and say "Yes sir," "No sir," "Yes ma'am," and "No ma'am," and if they don't agree with you, you've got the votes, and you will beat them. And you can do it with a smile on your face...."

Senator Barack Obama
Lebanon, New Hampshire
Monday January 7th 2007

SOME OTHER WINNING SMILES

_______1968________________1972________________1980______

______1984________________1988__________________2000______

______2004_______

THE FULL TEXT OF SENATOR OBAMA'S REMARKS ABOUT HOW HE WILL GET THE OIL, DRUG & INSURANCE COMPANIES TO CHANGE

"I know there are some of my worthy opponents who will say, "Well, Obama's right about change but we need the anger and hotter rhetoric and not negotiating... you can't compromise with these folks. We can just beat them."

Listen, I understand the source of anger. The insurance companies, the drug companies, they do not want to relinquish their power. Oil companies, they're happy with the status quo. Folks in Washington, the insiders, they don't want the outsiders, of course they're going to resist change.

But when I talk about reaching out to people, it's based on this understanding: that if you know who you are, if you know what you believe, if you know what you care about, if you know who you're fighting for, those are principles that cannot be compromised. And you can afford to reach out across the aisle...

And some folks won't listen and some folks won't want to cooperate... but here's the thing. If you start off with an agreeable attitude, then you might be able to pick off some folks, you might be able to recruit the independents into the fold...That's how you get a working majority for change... That's the politics of addition, not the politics of division.

And if you've got a working majority, if the American people are behind you, then you can fear no man.

You can walk into a room with a sunny disposition, you can smile and say "Yes sir," "No sir," "Yes ma'am," and "No ma'am," and if they don't agree with you, you've got the votes, and you will beat them. And you can do it with a smile on your face....

We are happy warriors for change..."

Senator Barack Obama
The Opera House, Lebanon, New Hampshire
Monday January 7th 2007

Further Reading

• Obama May Be Ready -- But Is America Ready?

• Plus Ca Change!

• Obama vs Hillary: Read This And THEN Decide

• Real-Politik: Time For Democratic Primary Voters To Get REAL

Comments

[davidly]

I don't particularly care for either of the big two that get so much play here, that you'd think there were no other choices.

By the way, we all know that the smiles are irrelevant, and that you could easily put up the official shots of the GOP winner those years and it wouldn't indicate a thing. This post is specious masquerading as clever.

============MARTIN RESPONDS===========

No - my post is just specious. Alternatively - perhaps you didn't understand it.

==========­==========­=======

[DasBoot]

Dear Martin,

First off, I think you misunderstand Obama's speech. He only meant that if you know who you are, you can fight with a smile on your face. He does not say he will smile and not fight.

Second, how does taking millions of donations from the health care industry, a la Hillary, put a candidate in a stronger position to win this fight?

We all know, and Obama freely acknowledges, that it will take a gigantic effort to defeat the insurance industry. But the best way is not to polarize and get 50.1% of the vote, but to reach out and create the biggest coalition possible. It will take overwhelming force to create this change. That is why Obama is campaigning the way he does.

Please Martin, don't give in to the temptation of fratricide. If Hillary goes down, I pray that she and her supporters will not try to take Obama with them. Bill is already going there, which is a sad view. He is attacking Obama for a statement made at the day of John Kerry's nomination in 2004, when Obama was being a good team player and defended Kerry's vote for the war. This is what you get for playing along. No wonder Obama is campaigning against the party establishment.

[Lon]

I was actually thinking of you earlier today even before I saw this post. I remembered that you were the most prevalent of the bloggers arguing back when Clinton was in the lead that the differences between the democratic candidates was less important than that the eventual candidate win. And, as I remember, the rest of the argument was that democrats who did not favor Clinton should not use attacks on her that would later be echoed by the republican smear campaign.

I have generally liked your posts, but did not agree with that particular point, since I have had a fear that Clinton would be least able to get us out of Iraq. So I was wondering if now that Obama was the frontrunner you would be writing similar warnings about sliming Obama in ways that echoed likely Republican talking points. There is a story at Talking Points Memo that some Clinton supporters are thinking about forming an independent group to slime him without financial limits.

Instead we have this column which seems to misunderstand Obama's point in a way that echoes the future Republican talking point that Obama's is an empty suit behind his charm.

===========MARTIN RESPONDS===========

First of all - thanks for your carefully written comments.

I am still committed to one thing above all others - the Democratic Party having a candidate who can win AND KEEP the White House - AND the Congress.

And I continue to be against the candidates & campaigns (and that certainly includes Clinton) using negative attacks on their rivals. They should be promulgating their own skills and experience etc.

I think it is important that those who share the same greater goal about the Party and the cause make points that can be taken into consideration by primary voters who wish to make up their own mind - rather than be swept along on a tide to coronate a candidate (be it Clinton, Obama, or Edwards) - especially if any of that tide is being helped by media or others who have ulterior motives - be they political or simply a "good story"

See: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/martin-lewis/obama-may-be-ready-but_b_80257.html

==========­==========­==========­=

[Dem02020]

Thank you Mr. Martin Lewis.

That's a great appraisal of Sen. Obama's qualifications to the presidency.
And the greatest part about it is that it's in his own words.

Read Mr. Obama's words carefully, and you can easily see what it is he's talking about doing, and what it is he that will qualify him to do it:

"How to Win Friends and Influence People"

Dale Carnegie!
[Author of a book by that name, and "developer of famous courses in self-improvement, salesmenship, corporate training, public speaking, and interpersonal skills", according to his Wikipedia biography]

That's it.
That's what's truly behind corporate greed (defense corporations in particular), and the corrupting influence they have had on our Federal Government and Federal Laws, making America what it is today.

It's all about winning friends and influencing people!


That should do the trick, being of a sunny disposition and having an electric thousand watt smile, and being charismatic and having enough charm to overcome any snake...

That's what will impress the Joint Chiefs of Staff when it comes time (on day one of the next administration) to sit down with them, and determine what happens next to 150,000 of our Sons and Daughters in Iraq presently, as a military occupation there...

And that will manage and direct (and right) the Department of Justice also...

A sunny disposition and a smile.


Dale Carnegie would be so happy, if he knew that the American People had descended to the point, that they thought the Presidency of the United States was all about "How to Win Friends and Influence People"

[compelledto]

funny - Wasn't Bill Clinton revered as EXTREMELY charismatic? Wasn't he a newcomer to Washington? Obviously the argument for anti Obama - is shifting to he is "Too" good looking, inspirational, persuasive.

That does not preclude a leader from being able to get things done. In fact - I think it enhances that ability...

==========MARTIN RESPONDS==­==========

Charismatic is good. Eloquent is good. Inspiring is good. Those are among the many reasons I admire Obama so much.

The question is - what ELSE is required to persuade entrenched vested interests and Big Business to change? Apart of course from a smile...

==========­==========­==========

[shrake]

Brilliant. I agree 100% with your point. Watching the Democrats commit Obamacide is painful.

[darylkulak]

I am a little surprised at this direction in the H. Post. This is a continuation of the fear-based stuff that the Republicans have been using for so long, but with a Democratic flavor.

We do not need to be afraid of the oil companies and drug companies. We do not need to necessarily "fight" them to win. We can do truly amazing things just by sitting down and talking. They're people too, however hard it might be to hear that.

As a consultant, I get into situations all the time where the people around me are in this fear-based mentality, and I have always seen that it is possible to turn the situation on its head by assuming a posture of working together and being collaborative. Politics is no different.

[Principe]

Another compelling piece of evidence that this man should be President....later. That he's got a lot of learning and listening and thinking to do - and he's got the time to do it. But he wants the job NOW! Even though, surely, he knows he's under-ripe. Personally, all this black/female candidate stuff obscures the real big change - across the democratic world, the modern cult of youth has entered politics, and its the wrong place for it.
This guy will serve America better, later.