I found a couple of interesting bits about Obama's day in the senate yesterday.
I wish the media could read these as it answers the leadership question. We all know that McCain provides zero leadership for the republican party and that they are now adrift with a lame duck president they no longer respect.
But, what about Obama? He is now the leader, the head of the democratic party after almost 20 years of Bill Clinton being at the helm.
How do they feel about this new leader who has only been around a few years and was audacious enough to run for president and beat the formidable Hillary Clinton? To grab the mantle of head of the party away after such a long time?
http://www.salon.com/...
To begin with, just a quick note on some information about the recent polls coming out:
Courtesy of the ever-vigilant folks over at RealClearPolitics, we now see that Barack Obama has led in the past 18 consecutive national or battleground states polls, with many of those leads beyond the margin of error. Overall, across the 10 most recent, his average margin is 5.7 points.
The media, rightly, has raised the questions this past week during the economic crisis.
Some tidbits from Salon's War Room gives some insight into how Obama is seen as the new leader and how the democrats react to him.
The first is about his coming into the senate and giving his speech on the floor yesterday. The title of the post is 'Senate Democrats Love Obama':
It would be hard for Barack Obama to have asked for a much more enthusiastic homecoming to the Senate than he got today -- at least from his Democratic colleagues, who flocked to the floor to hear his speech on the Wall Street bailout. Florida's Bill Nelson sat watching Obama with a rapturous grin on his face. High-school-age pages sat on the steps of the Senate lectern, far closer to Obama than the Secret Service would ever usually let anyone who hasn't been patted down, background-checked and watched closely at all times by heavily armed agents. He was swarmed after he finished talking; Vermont's Bernie Sanders gave him a hug, and they seemed to be talking about Brooklyn. (It sounded, from the press gallery, like Sanders at one point said to Obama, "Hey, I'm from Flatbush.")
I found a fun passage about when Obama was trying to be very senatorial and apply the formal rules to his speech in asking for a few minutes and Dodd's playful answer back:
When Obama ran over his allotted time, he made the standard request, using Senate rules, to ask "unanimous consent" for a few more minutes. Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd jumped to the mike. "I'd ask consent that he have as much time as he'd like," Dodd said, as the parliamentary procedure nerds in the chamber (read: the lawmakers, the staff and the press corps) laughed at what passed for a witty way of phrasing the request.
The Obama influence, or, I should say, Michelle's influence, was apparent on the floor by 'foes' of the new leader of the democratic party by this exchange by a republican, Ted Stevens, and a traitor to our party, Lieberman. The title is 'McCain and Obama Cross Paths in the Senate' (I did not include anything here about the handshake bit because I felt there probably has been diaries about this as it is getting around in the press and blogs).:
No, by far the most interesting, the strangest, the most truly Washington scene on the Senate floor Wednesday night was when Ted Stevens (currently on trial in a federal court a few blocks from the Capitol) walked up the aisle toward Joe Lieberman (currently campaigning for McCain/counting down until Nov. 5, when his colleagues are very likely to boot him out of the Senate Democratic caucus), lifted his arm and gave him ... a fist bump. Also known, of course, as a terrorist fist jab.
I found that not all republicans and democrats are at war. There was a surprising encounter yesterday on the floor. Kay Bailey Hutchinson proved to be a bit of a class act (and McCain proves his rudeness doesn't stop at democrats. Though, when it's Larry Craig saying hello...):
Each of the presidential candidates hung out with his allies -- for Obama, Joe Biden, Dick Durbin, Debbie Stabenow, John Kerry and Hillary Clinton, among others; for McCain, Jon Kyl, Lindsey Graham, John Thune and Mel Martinez. Obama stood and talked with Biden for a while, slapping him on his back during a conversation. At one point, Kay Bailey Hutchison, a Republican from Texas, walked over to schmooze with Obama. (Also, at one point, Larry Craig walked over to chat with McCain, who sort of edged away.)
Last, there was an account of how each of the candidates (presidential and vice presidential ones) and how they acted during the vote. I found our two guys to be the most fun and typical of their image. Obama is multitasking and Biden was busy talking and missed the first time his name was called...
By alphabetical order, Biden was the first of the three national candidates who would have voted, but he was in the Democratic cloakroom when they called his name. When the clerk called McCain's name, he stood briefly, softly said, "Aye," and sat back down. Obama didn't stand up to vote; he barely looked up from his BlackBerry when he answered "Aye." Biden showed up a bit later at his seat in the back row on the Democratic side and called out an "Aye" that they could probably hear in Sedona, Ariz., where Sarah Palin is prepping for their debate Thursday.
I just found these tidbits to be fun and cool to read about and how things are in the senate. It seems our presidential candidate is fully embraced and well liked by the democratic senators for real and this is very helpful.
And good to know. Especially in light of the reports coming out that John McCain is not liked at all by his fellow republicans on the hill.