Senator Obama Off To An Interesting Start

I was very impressed watching Sen. Barack Obama tonight on 60 Minutes. The interview, coming on the heels of his official announcement that he's running for President, didn't have any really tough questions, but he handled himself very well -- he even admitted that he inhaled. It looks to me like he might have a legitimate shot at the Democratic nomination, or, failing that, the nomination for VP.

Personally, I don't think he has the experience needed to be President, and most of his policies are too far left for me, but I admire his openness (unlike Adam, who seems to let his dislike for Sen. Obama lead him to stray into territory that comes uncomfortably close to seeming to say something bad about Abraham Lincoln). I'll be interested to see how he reacts to problems, which I predict will come first from his decision to allow random yahoos to put up "blog posts" on his official campaign website. How he reacts to the firestorm from the right when someone posts something on the order of "All white southerners are racists" or "the Jews did 9/11" or "Bush/Cheney killed Sen. Wellstone" -- and how he reacts to the subsequent whining from the left when he's forced to remove and/or apologize for said posts -- will tell me a lot about the man.

Regarding the campaign overall, I'm looking forward to seeing how Democrats who, in 2004, claimed that their candidate was the best because he had combat experience, will explain how they changed their mind if the Republicans nominate someone like Sen McCain or Sen. Hagel who are war heroes (considering that none of the main Dem candidates have that particular block checked).

Update 0610 13 Feb: Speaking of Democratic candidates, it looks like Sen. Clinton is going with the "I didn't know I was voting to go to war" excuse that Sen. Kerry popularized in 2004. However, since essentially everyone (except apparently a few Senators) knew that the vote was an authorization for war, this means that Sen. Clinton is either 1) not telling the truth, or 2) so demonstrably naïve that she's not qualified to be President.