First of all, I should apologize for the horribly inconsistent posting. Jim hasn’t been able to follow up with me much and I personally haven’t had the inspiration to write anything good about the campaign. The last few attempts at humor and personal potshots fell flat and I never posted them in the end (I thought about making a crack at Obama and his 300, but THIS IS SPARTA jokes are getting old)

Anyway, on to the post - in the TIME magazine’s tribute to Nelson Mandela, author Richard Stengel listed 8 lessons of leadership. No.2 was; lead from the front, but don’t leave your base behind. I can think of two ways where this can apply to Obama.

The first and most obvious is the implicit lesson of “dancing with those who brought you”. The far left has been seriously riled by Obama’s perceived moves (more…)

I mentioned it in passing that Obama’s greatest challenge would be to hold his disparate coalition together long enough to win. As the campaign wears on, he’ll be forced into more concrete positions that will almost certainly alienate a portion of his current base.

That seems to be what’s going on right now with FISA and the faith outreach.

Tacking to the center would seem the safe route for any politician, but in Obama’s case, it may merely be one of two exceptionally risky routes to the Presidency. He’s (more…)