The other day I heard an interview of Obama by NPR. The interviewer commented that in a recent live TV debate, the moderator asked three leading candidates the question of "what's your biggest weakness." The question is BS, standard BS that would yield no substantive insights into a candidate since nobody would admit openly his/her own true biggest weakness. Sure enough, both Clinton and Edwards gave the standard BS replies, along the line of "I am too impatient/passionate to help people," something like that. Obama the natural born politician, on the other hand, actually confessed a real weakness -- that his office desk is disorganized. Hell, the NPR interviewer immediately fell into the trap by giving Obama the opportunity to claim that 1) the answers given by his rivals were not real weaknesses, but strength in "clever disguise"; 2) he is the most honest one out there since he showed a true weakness. This is what I call shrewd and phony. Everyone would basically laugh off the meaningless reply such as the ones told by Clinton and Edwards, since we don't expect "self-incrimination" in those situation. With his seemingly genuine weakness, Obama actually got away by eluding the essence of question the questioner aims to seek, that is, one's biggest weakness that may seriously impede his ability to serve in nation's highest office. Disorganized office desk is a weakness. We thank you Senator Obama for letting us to know this dirty giant secret of yours. We also want you to know a competent assistant/secretary or two would greatly overcome this great weakness.
^ lol, Obama is really getting your goat. Try to calm down wnes - Your negative campaigning really backfired on you yesterday.
I dunno, I kinda hope Obama will win, but I think America is not ready for him, so Hillary will make it...and she might actually lose to whoever will be the Republican candidate.
Shrewdish, but moreso because of the humor than the fake modesty. By framing it as a joke, he diminishes the validity of the question; and possibly that of Edwards' and Clinton's scholarship interview responses by association.
I feel the need to point out that Hillary has a pretty good working relationship with the Republicans in the US Senate and has co-sponsored a few bills with them. I'm not a fan of hers but she has worked with both sides of the aisle. I'm sure she did some of them for political gain with an eye on '08 but the point is she did it. I am sure Obaam has also, but I really haven't heard much about it.
Compared to his would-be predecessor, George W. Bush, who was a failed businessman and governor of a state where the governor has little to no power.
Come on, don't you think it is a little too much to criticize him for giving a better answer than Clinton and Edwards. You really don't expect him to say "Oh, my greatest weakness is I am no good in foreign policy", or stuff like that, right?
so you claim that obama is phony because he gave a real answer as opposed to the other genuine candidates who gave political answers?
LOL ... what do you mean this is a REAL answer -- that his BIGGEST weakness is merely a messy office desk? If that's what he believes a real answer, then he is seriously delusional, though maybe brutally honest. If not, then he is more deceitful than his rivals, but the media plays along to build the hype. Either way, the guy is not fit for President.
Did you hear the actual full answer? Or are you just going on what you heard on NPR? Because Clinton was more than happy to jump on it both in ads and campaigning as a huge Obama weakness. His actual answer went a tad bit beyond a messy desk.
No, I didn't watch the TV debate. I only caught the NPR segment on my way home. It was two weeks ago, about 5-6 days before I read the Obama-Rezko scandal on google news. I sure got the 80-20's email, but other than that, I had limited knowledge on Obama. To be quite frank, I was quite impressed with Obama's (scripted) answer at the time. Man, I was fooled.
