Still going

Workout notes 3.5 mile walk (easy 13:30 mile, then 12:40 (1 lap quicker, 1 slower), then 10:40. Then yoga, then 2 mile treadmill run, .5 cool down, 2000 yard swim (ok).

The routine seems to work as a “before class” routine.

Other: Barack Obama: he is campaigning hard, and people are noticing.

I will be more than upfront when I say that, from time to time since this campaign began and since he has entered the Senate, I have been somewhat critical of Barack Obama. Much of this criticism came about for me the way it came about for many people – he seemed far too cautious. However, in the aftermath of the YouTube/CNN debate in which he was attacked for saying he would engage in rigorous diplomacy, he has been nothing short of stellar. It seemed as if, on that night, he finally realized that Clinton was running away with this thing and that he needed to show the differences between them.

Ever since that debate, the race for the Democratic nomination has more or less been a two-on-two contest between Clinton and Obama. The back and fourth between the two has been electric: she called him “naïve,” he called her “Bush/Cheney light.” She scolded him like an angry mother for his judgment on Pakistan, he showed her up for judgment, or lack thereof, on the vote to authorize Iraq. And so on.

* scanman1722’s diary :: ::
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Yesterday, Obama really came out of his shell in an interview that appears in today’s Washington Post. One of the major concerns for many Democrats, myself included, is that Hillary may be too polarizing largely on the account of her last name and the various Clinton battles of the 90s. In this interview, Obama finally makes the case for what we’ve all been thinking for months:

“I think it is fair to say that I believe I can bring the country together more effectively than she can,” Obama said. “I will add, by the way, that is not entirely a problem of her making. Some of those battles in the ’90s that she went through were the result of some pretty unfair attacks on the Clintons. But that history exists, and so, yes, I believe I can bring the country together in a way she cannot do. If I didn’t believe that, I wouldn’t be running.”

Obama went on to sum up the theme of his campaign that perhaps now will start to resonate louder with American voters as he steps up to distance himself from her unlike earlier in the campaign:

“Her argument is going to be that ‘I’m the experienced Washington hand,’ and my argument is going to be that we need to change the ways of Washington,” he said. “That’s going to be a good choice for the American people.”

Obama then gave his take on Hillary’s overall campaign compared to his:

“I think it’s very clear what their political strategy is,” he said of the Clinton campaign. “They want to project Senator Clinton as the seasoned, experienced hand. I don’t fault them for that. That’s the strategy they’re pursuing, and my response is that what the American people need and what the Oval Office needs right now is good judgment. Experience can be a proxy for good judgment, but it isn’t always.”

He then repeated what he said during a debate in Chicago last week:

“All the people who were on that stage in Chicago talking about their experience and criticizing me for the lack of it were the same people who went along and displayed incredibly poor judgment in going along with a war that I think has been a disaster.”

[...]

I had wondered if he were “too nice” for a rough and tumble campaign. I don’t wonder anymore!