Analysis: Obama a 'Courageous Leader'?

I'm still holding with my policy of voting for ABH (Anybody But Hillary)

Monday morning quarterbacking is easy, Obama had no vote in the matter so his views really make no difference. He may be my senator, but his beating this matter into the ground, when he had no vote makes me real irritated. If this is all he has to offer, which looks to be the case, my vote goes to Hillary...!!!

Speaking of Monday morning quarterbacking .... Obama was behind 20 points in this Senate race at a time when the move to war was increasingly popular in this country. Speaking as he did showed clarity and judgment and that's what I'm looking for in our next President. And, no, judgment on the war is not all Obama has to offer ... not by a long shot. He offers the wisdom on foreign policy that will once again find us as a leader on the diplomatic front. He is *the* serious candidate who understands that the power of words is so much mightier than the blast of a bullet. He offers a new perspective that will get us out of the revolving mind set that has left us with the same policies and methods of action we have been mired in since the '60's. Anyone who thinks that "all" Obama has to offer is his clairvoyant position on the Iraq war hasn't been listening.

Hold up.
Check the headlines, polls, videos from Oct, 2002.
I remember it well. I am from Iowa, an intelligent and liberal person, and my son ws a highschool senior planning to enlist. Our senator, Tom Harkin, who burst onto American consciousness when he (courageously) exposed the 'tiger-cages' in the South Vietnamese prisons, was up for re-election THE NEXT MONTH .
The Republicans had manoevered the vote to be pre-election, and couched it in the incontrovertible terms "as determined to be necessary ...to defend National Security against Iraq." (I mean, who could defend voting against something that was DETERMINED TO BE NECESSARY? I say, for all posterity, MAKE YOUR DAMN DETERMINATION and THEN bring it up for the War Powers Act.)
I watched with horror as Tom Harkin voted for this resolution. Yet I understood that to vote against would cost Democrats his seat. I wanted him to do the right thing-- lay down his career to keep us out of an unnecessary war. Yes, I later would pray that Secy. State Colin Powell would sacrifice HIS career to do the the right thing. But, it seems that only enlisted soldiers, like my now buck sergeant son, are expected to give their last full measure of devotion for their country.
So, let me just say that yes, it TOOK COURAGE for senatorial candidate Barack Obama to oppose the war in 2002.
Durbin wasn't up for election till 2004 and by then, things had changed. My son was enlisted and went into combat 4 months later.