Barack Obama, a Boring Reincarnation of Richard Nixon?

I’ve been puzzled ever since Barack Obama first set foot on the national stage as to why people flock to hear his speeches, typically read from a teleprompter in the monotonous cadences of an evangelical preacher. I can only tolerate listening to his first few sentences before I tune out. Consequently, I could appreciate Heidi Li’s opening comment in her Aug. 3rd post: “For the most part, I find Senator Obama boring. So usually in this space I do not write much about him directly.”

Not only does Heidi Li consider Obama boring, he also reminds her of Richard Nixon. She writes, “There are any number of similarities between these two ambitious politicians. I won't even go into the entire ream of parallels between Senator Obama's tactics against Alice Palmer and Richard Nixon's treatment of Helen Gahagan Douglas, but it must be noted that Gahagan Douglas coined the best nickname ever for President Nixon: Tricky Dick.”

Heidi Li then explains Sen. Obama’s trickiness:

“After months of stalemating any representation of millions of voters from Florida and Michigan and then seeking a ruling that treated the voters of Florida as half-persons and the voters of Michigan as essentially pawns whose actual votes mattered not at all, today Senator Obama wrote a letter to the DNC's Credentials Committee Chairs, saying that now suddenly he has had a change of heart and wishes it to be known that, with his warm personal regards, he would like the Credentials Committee to seat the Michigan and Florida delegations at the upcoming convention in Denver. (You can read the letter here.)”

Read Heidi Li’s post in its entirety here.

Obama Flip-flops Again: Seeks Voting Rights for Michigan and Florida

Barack Obama has a genius for pivoting on an issue as soon as he’s sure he’s got what he wanted. Or maybe he’s just now realized he might need the electoral votes of Michigan and Florida in November and doesn’t want to anger voters in the two states. Recall that his campaign adamantly refused to budge on allowing the Michigan and Florida delegates to be seated when the DNC Rules Committee met last May. The Caucus (NY Times) reported minutes ago that the credentials committee has just received a letter from the One asking that the two states have full voting rights at the convention after all.

According to the Caucus:

“The request is likely to be granted since it comes from the all-but-certain nominee, who now controls the party apparatus.”

The Caucus also reported that later in the day, Sen. Hillary Clinton, who had fought hard for every vote to count, contacted the committee to back up Obama’s request.

Read the Caucus’ full account here.