Dinner with Barack

Obama's website has his "Dinner with Barack" video up...

This video from the candidate's website, which we've posted below, is Obama breaking bread with four donors who gave over $5 (none of them gave over $25) over the last five weeks and won a contest to have dinner with the candidate. The video is interesting in light of yesterday's post about Obama's political style. He comes across, really, as the anti-Hillary in the sense of not being the polished political pro. Yet he's able to have the best of both worlds in that he seems very intelligent and serious. So Jay Cost really had it right when he spoke about Hillary's over-professionalism, such that, because of her history, we are programmed to think of her as saying what she has to say to get elected, while with Obama it is much easier to suspend our disbelief that he is speaking his convictions.

However, the advantage one politician has is also at the same time also a possible disadvantage. When the political context changes, what previously gave a political leader cache now does the opposite. John Major's government by consensus was hailed initially as just what Britain needed, but after Black Wednesday it was seen as weak and vacillating.

What now excites so many people about Obama's style might give some of them second thoughts later on. Right now, the general election is on the distant horizon. As it approaches and primary voters start thinking about who they actually want to be president, experience will count for a lot, just as it did for John Kerry. In the video, Obama spoke about Chicago's experience with gambling. Hillary has such a wealth of experience in a governor's mansion and the White House that the intro line "When I was in the State Senate..." is one Obama should avoid. He certainly did in the video.