The New Generation Of Banging Hardtechno

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She described Barack’s visit to New Hampshire, where he was greeted with “rapturous reviews, sold out fundraisers.” She wrote about Barack taping the introduction to Monday Night Football, where he sat behind a gleaming desk in flattering lighting, showing Barack as an actor who can absorb the script and knows by nature what a camera is. Barack, Noonan noted, has obvious appeal, has an uncompromised past, and is someone unburdened by a record and unworn by achievement. She also asked, “What does he believe? What does he stand for? This is, after all, the central question.” Barack’s rise in popularity, she wrote, isn’t about a stand or an issue or a question, but it is about Senator Obama himself, and people project their hopes on him. When Noonan asked a young Democratic college student why he liked Barack Obama, stating that obviously Barack had little experience, the student replied that that was part of what he likes, that he’s not an insider, not just a Washington, D.C., politician. Barack, the author decided, would eventually show who he is, that the man from nowhere of whom little is really known believes in the power of good nature, a need for compromise, and the possibil ity of comprehensive and sensible solutions achieved through goodfaith negotiations. 9 By December, despite not having formally announced a run, among the discussions and speculations, there were comparisons to other presi dential races and other politicians. And while Barack’s race was often discussed, his deemed inexperience to be president was also a matter of discussion. One comparison was to John F. kennedy. Theodore Sorensen, JFk’s speechwriter and political adviser, said, “He [Obama] reminds me in many ways of kennedy in 1960. The pundits said he was Catholic and too young and inexperienced and wasn’t a member of the party’s inner circle. They forgot that the nomination wasn’t decided in Washington but out in the field.”10 His style was compared to another former president, Bill Clinton: a natural ease with people and an ability to win people over. Like Clinton, Barack presented himself as “a new kind of politician who can rise above and bridge partisan differences.”11 Barack was also compared to other African Americans with fame and wider appeal, including Oprah Winfrey and Tiger Woods, and to other OBAmAmANIA AND THE ANNOUNCEmENT 91 African Americans such as Colin Powell, fellow Illinois politician Carol moseley Braun, Harold Ford Jr. from Tennessee, and Shirley Chisholm. But for Barack, unlike many of these other prominent African Ameri cans, the questions included speculation about whether he could meet the great expectations, especially after his electrifying speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. This, to some of his supporters and to detractors, too, was one of Barack’s biggest challenges. He was a celebrity candidate, and few knew what he stood for. Despite his race, his seeming inexperience, and his celebrity status, there was a clear intensity about the tall, lanky man from Illinois. “Obamamania” was rampant throughout the country, and the political and societal forces clamoring for new ideas, a new face, and politics of hope offering a less bitter brand of politics were gathering speed. In January 2007, Barack told U.S. News & World Report, “I think there is a great hunger for change in the country and not just policy change. What I also think they are looking for is change in tone and a return to some notion of the common good and some sense of cooperation, of pragmatism over ideology. I’m a standin for that right now.”12 By this time, former North Carolina Senator John Edwards had announced his candidacy, as had Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack. And by this time in the national polls, Barack was considered in striking distance of Senator Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination, even though he had yet to throw his hat into the presidential ring and despite being considered the most charismatic politician to come along in years. Ev eryone seemed to believe his announcement was imminent.