MB Civic

http://select.nytimes.com/2006/10/23/opinion/23herbert.html?pagewanted=print

Re Barack Obama’s admission that he is thinking of running for president, Herbert says, “With all due respect to Senator Obama, this is disturbing. He may be capable of being a great president. Someday. But one quick look around at the state of the nation and the world tells us that we need to be more careful than we have been in selecting our leaders. There shouldn’t be anything precipitous in the way we pick our presidents.”

And echoing something I said in an earlier post, Herbert adds, “The giddiness surrounding the Obama phenomenon seems to be an old-fashioned mixture of fun, excitement and a great deal of hope…But the giddiness is crying out for a reality check. There’s a reason why so many Republicans are saying nice things about Mr. Obama, and urging him to run. They would like nothing more than for the Democrats to nominate a candidate in 2008 who has a very slender resume, very little experience in national politics, hardly any in foreign policy – and who also happens to be black. The Republicans may be in deep trouble, but they believe they could pretty easily put together a ticket that would chew up Barack Obama in 2008.”