Obama: Not ‘the un-Hillary’
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By Rick Pearson
Chicago Tribune political reporter
December 14, 2006, 4:00 PM CST
Saying he finds himself at "an interesting moment in time," U.S. Sen. Barack Obama said today he believes he would be a "viable candidate" if he runs for the presidency but said he is not going to let public hype dictate his decision.
Meeting for more than an hour with the Tribune editorial board, Obama (D-Ill.) also said he has no interest in being "the un-Hillary" — a reference to Democrats who may be looking to coalesce around a single opponent to challenge New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is considered the early front-runner for the 2008 Democratic nomination.
Neither Clinton or Obama has announced a presidential bid. Obama, a Chicagoan who was elected to the Senate in 2004, said he expects to announce a decision next month after a family vacation in Hawaii.
Obama said he has been "flattered" by the attention he has been receiving, but also said he realized that hype was "transitory" and that he would face extreme levels of scrutiny in a presidential run.
Currently, he said, he believed he was the beneficiary of being "a stand-in for a lot of America's desire to turn the page and see a new kind of politics." At the same time, he said by virtue of his books and his voting record, he has not been "hiding the ball" on where he stands on issues.
Still, Obama rejected efforts by conservative critics who contend his voting record is overtly liberal, saying the grading of Senate votes by special interest groups only provides a measure of bills "specifically structured to polarize as much as possible."
Obama said his self-evaluation for running for president involves his viability as a candidate, family considerations and whether he has what he called "a unique capacity to change the country at this point in time."
"Do I have something that is sufficiently unique to offer to the country that it is worth putting my family through a presidential campaign?" he said.
"Politically, I think I would be a viable candidate. That's a threshold," Obama said. "I wouldn't run if I couldn't win." He said a presidential victory was "conceivable."
He called Sen. Clinton a tough, disciplined and smart politician who would make a "capable president." But he said her campaign money and infrastructure advantage was "not my concern" and expressed confidence that he could raise money and assemble a potent campaign team.
On the Republican side, Obama said he considered Arizona Sen. John McCain to hold a position similar to Clinton as the early GOP frontrunner based on name recognition and resources, though he called former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney an "attractive candidate."
In a matchup with McCain, Obama said he was under no illusions how a GOP presidential campaign would be run against him.
"War hero against snot-nosed rookie," Obama said.
Obama also acknowledged discussing a potential presidential bid earlier this week during a private meeting with Mayor Richard Daley, but declined to discuss specifics.
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