Obama's backers see experience as relative

Obama's backers see experience as relativeFebruary 11, 2007
With only two years in the Senate under his belt, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois acknowledged yesterday when he announced his candidacy for president that some skeptics may find it premature
I recognize there is a certain presumptuousness, a certain audacity, to this announcement," Obama said in front of the historic Old State Capitol in Springfield, Ill. He is the youngest candidate in the large field of Democratic hopefuls for 2008, but he hopes to turn that into an asset, as John F. Kennedy did.
Obama's supporters also do not seem to consider his short time in Washington a liability. To answer people who question whether Obama has enough experience to be president, James Torrey, chairman of the New York investment firm Torrey Associates and a financial backer of the senator, said, "I'll say what Barack says: Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney have a great deal of experience."
In poker and politics: Know how to play your cards right In 1997, Obama was not instantly embraced as a new member of the Illinois General Assembly. Some members were skeptical that the law professor and Harvard graduate could master the pragmatic side of politics.
Obama went to work but found time to make the rounds at Springfield social gatherings. He also joined a weekly poker game with legislators and lobbyists in which the ante was a dollar or two.
One regular player , former Democratic state senator Larry Walsh, said Obama was competitive yet careful -- and always hard to read.
"One night, we were playing and things weren't going very well for me," Walsh said. "I had a real good hand and Barack beat me out with another one. I slammed down my cards and said, 'Doggone it, Barack, if you were a little more liberal in your card playing and a little more conservative in your politics, you and I would get along a lot better.' "
Clinton reminisces during visit to the Granite State In Berlin, N.H., yesterday, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton reminisced about the warm welcome New Hampshire voters had given the Clintons in 1992 and said her husband envied her weekend visit to the state.
"The only thing I will try to do differently from my husband is not to make so many Dunkin' Donuts stops," she said to laughter. "Bill gained about 20 pounds in the New Hampshire primary and I cannot afford that."
She called her husband a "full-time political counselor" but nodded as a voter named Evelyn described waiting hours for Bill Clinton to autograph a copy of his book. "I've waited for him a lot myself," the senator cracked.
If the climate were right, Gore might run for presidentHis staff says the only campaign former vice president Al Gore is interested in running is the one to stop greenhouse gases, but some groups think he may be warming slightly to the idea of a presidential race.
"He certainly has the right political climate. How many political candidates are being nominated for Nobel prizes and winning Oscars?" said Dylan Malone, cofounder of AlGore.org and an organizer of a political action committee trying to draft Gore.
His work on global warming has earned Gore a Nobel nomination and two Oscar nods for his documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth." He is a popular guest on late-night television.
In 2002, Gore asked Malone to stop a draft effort he had begun; Malone did. Malone started up again, and Gore hasn't waved him off. "The difference is dramatic. His time has come," Malone said. "We're raising tens of thousands of dollars fairly easily. Our mailing lists are growing so quickly we have to buy new computers
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