Steve Clemons has sources. Deep behind friendly lines in occupied Chicago. They say: No VP for Evan Bayh, Tom Daschle, Jack Reed, or Wesley Clark.

A sampling:

But sources close to Obama report to me that after the "surge of concern" on the net about Evan Bayh, he has not been selected as Obama's VP running mate.

I have been informed that the decision has been made, and I don't know who that person is.

I also have been told that Tom Daschle is not the running mate. I also happen to know that it is not Wesley Clark.

I just received word that it is not Senator Jack Reed either, though Obama thought very highly of him.

In my estimation, that leaves Joseph Biden, Chuck Hagel, and Sibelius. I don't think that Tim Kaine would be the nominee given the elevation of Mark Warner as the keynote speaker at the Dem convention.

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The Obama campaign has often summoned the spirit of John F. Kennedy. That evocative association is finally and forever severed in "Ask Not! Why Obama is No JFK," a new Washington Monthly article by Ted Widmer -- who Steve Clemons calls"one of the most insightful historians of early American political history and Director of the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University. ..." 

[Image top right: Kennedy's book, Why England Slept. Widmer writes: "[Kennedy] had acquired travel experiences that most people take a lifetime to accumulate, richly detailed in
By susanunpcbiographies like Robert Dallek's An Unfinished Life. His father was ambassador to the United Kingdom in the pivotal year 1938, and young Kennedy was in the audience of the House of Commons as the Munich deal was furiously debated (the experience shaped his first book, Why England Slept).]

"Ask Not! Why Obama is No JFK" points out that:

[T]he comparison falls short when voters consider the key question for 2008: foreign policy experience. It's true that Obama, like Kennedy, is a youngish senator (at 46, three years older than Kennedy when he ran for president), but the parallel falters after that. The more one looks into Kennedy's lifelong preparation for the job, the more one realizes how misleading it was, then and now, to describe him as inexperienced. Everyone who has stressed Kennedy's youth, from Dan Quayle in 1988 to Obama today, has bumped up against the uncomfortable fact that JFK was an extremely well-informed statesman in 1960.

Ted Widmer provides"rich detail on key points of comparison between JFK and Barack Obama,"says Clemons. Widmer then examines Obama's claims, and finds them wanting, as have former ambassador Joseph Wilson, Larry Johnson, and others.

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I keep thinking about those early December CBS Evening News candidate interviews I mentioned. Each was asked which country scares them the most. Sen. Clinton correctly responded, "Pakistan" (CBS video). Sen. Obama said "Iran," (CBS video).  

It hit me that Obama has drunk the Bush/Cheney/Neo-con "Kool-Aid" exaggerating the threat of Iran -- like he bought GOP talking points on Social Security -- and hasn't thought out real global concerns. Partly, it's that he hasn't traveled much; Steve Clemons is still trying to get an accurate statement from Obama on his travel history.  Nor has he done the hard work: He hasn't held a single hearing as chair of the Foreign Relations' subcommittee on European Affairs (which includes NATO and therefore Afghanistan, which Obama loves to bring up as neglected due to Iraq, but which he hasn't done any "executive decision making" about -- more on NATO/Afghanistan below the fold).

Dr. Reza Aslan, in a WaPoop-ed today, hits Obama's weakness head-on. Obama's besotted fans, like "conservative pundit Andrew Sullivan" (it's so odd that there are so many conservative fans of Obama) who "imagine" that "it is Obama's face -- just his face -- that 'proves them wrong about what America is in ways no words can'." Democratic voters had better sober up. It's "naive, well-meaning, amateurish." Dr. Aslan, author of No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam, continues:

[It is that Obama fans are] convinced that everyone understands the goodness of U.S. intentions -- that worries me again these days. That's because a curious and dangerous consensus seems to be forming among the chattering classes, on both the left and the right, that what the United States needs in these troubling times is not knowledge and experience but a "fresh face" with an "intuitive sense of the world," and that the mere act of electing Obama will put us on the path to winning the so-called war on terror.

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PREFACE: Former ambassador Joseph Wilson has posted his commentary, "The Real Hillary I Know -- and the Unreal Obama," at No Quarter.  It's powerful testimony, and full of examples from the foreign policy expert.

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    I know some of you have been unhappy with my posts of late -- and one of the dearest regulars over at No Quarter blog (it's Larry Johnson's blog, but he asked me a couple years ago to post there) telephoned me about it last night. I care very much what you think. You deserve a short explanation: I'm scared to death the Democrats are going to nominate a smart young guy because he's a "symbol" -- who isn't vetted sufficiently, doesn't have enough experience (yet), and doesn't get nearly the press scrutiny that Sen. Clinton gets. Joe Conason writes vividly about the scrutiny.  And the WaPo's Howie Kurtz cites examples galore in "For Clinton, A Matter of Fair Media," and it's a must-read in full:

"She's just held to a different standard in every respect," says Mark Halperin, Time's editor at large. "The press rooted for Obama to go negative, and when he did he was applauded. When she does it, it's treated as this huge violation of propriety."

Then there's that Barack Obama is Karl Rove's dream candidate. To beat. Radio show host Taylor Marsh analyzed this brilliantly in "Why are Karl Rove and the Neocons Endorsing Barack Obama?." Taylor Marsh, nobody's fool, gives example after example -- all must-reads -- of why "in Republican back rooms everywhere, the wolves see a lamb coming to slaughter and they're licking their chops."

Then there's Steve Clemon's Washington Note post this morning, "Times of London on Obama's Europe Void" ...

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"Medicare is a disaster and needs to be scrapped." - Senator Bob Bennett
"We need to consume less" - Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Advisor to John McCain
"We have a lot of protectionism in our economy, it's just for people around this table." - Dean Baker

One of the compelling aspects of the blogosphere is how it can bridge all sorts of different worlds.  The discussion of diversity and black consultants has drawn in bloggernista, the discussion on trade has brought in Skeptical Brotha and David Sirota, and we're able to connect Iraq, habeas, and trade into a freewheeling chat with thousands of readers and hundreds of participants.  One group that isn't in our conversation, though, is a very important one.  The decision-making global elite.  And so, today I went to a public event put on by my friend Steve Clemons, a self-described radical centrist, from the New America Foundation on whether the Economic Sky is Falling.  The event has economists, writers, businessmen, Senators, and thinkers on how the global financial system is working.  And if there's a consensus, and there really isn't a substantive one, it's one of tone.  Everyone except for a few outliers is really worried about possible areas of instability, including the trade and budget deficits, and entitlements.  And former Senator Bob Kerrey, who moderated, kept bringing up the difficulty of politics and the challenges facing public opinion as a public official when trying to make good public policy decisions.  Public opinion is fickle, which is something Kolbe worried about as well.

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