Lisa Schiffren quotes a friend of hers on that nice young Senator from Illinois:
...the question keeps on being asked whether the Wright affair is a sign of Obama's insincerity or his lack of judgment. I think it's both, and I think it's all part of a bigger problem with Obama: He's not yet a full adult. What I mean by this is that he's still working out, in full view of all of us, his issues with his family (including that poor grandmother), his race, his religion, etc. (less so, alas, his far-left politics). It's all very interesting, I guess, if you have any affinity with him to begin with (count me out), but it's all so undergraduate. He conveys the notion of still being that bright college kid (although not as bright as advertised), asking all those big questions and making all those big speeches at the dinner table. Moreover, as a corollary, he's a youngish overachiever who, like many of them as they age, doesn't handle very well the issue of what to do when his precociousness isn't sufficient to recommend him for further advancement. His wife, of course, seems to be permanently stuck between the pages of her undergraduate thesis, written while she was black at Princeton, on the subject of being black at Princeton.Read it here.
This strikes me as being right on. There is something soft and unformed at the core of Obama, a youthful quality that might be appealing to children or to the perpetual adolescents who wander the groves of academe, but which I find off-putting. He really doesn't seem to know just what he thinks about the big things and is receptive to a wide range of opinions, some of which I find absolutely abhorrent. When considering a candidate for the Presidency I look for understands fully and deeply where he stands. I may not agree with him [Lord knows, I have my differences with McCain] but I can understand and respect his positions. With Obama, there's just too much tentativeness and mental play. That is an appropriate stance for a university professor, whose responsibilities extend to getting his grades in on time and receiving adequate student evaluations -- it is not what we need in the person who assumes the awesome responsibilities of the office of President of the United States.
