Obama Inexperienced? Not at Poker...
From the U.K.'s Telegram come these tidbits on what sort of a poker player Barack Obama was during his time in the Illinois legislature:
When he was a young state politician in Illinois, Barack Obama played his cards right. "He had the stone face," said Senator Terry Links, who hosted weekly poker games at his home. "He didn't stay in hands if he didn't think he had a chance of winning."
"Barack wasn't one of those foolish gamblers who just thought all of a sudden that card in the middle was going to show up mysteriously. He's as competitive in politics as he is in poker. It's not like he's going to go into something without a course of action mapped out."
And later in the article, this:
But Mr Obama was a hard-headed operator rather than a mere wordsmith or academic. "You find out a lot of things about a guy from the way he plays cards," said Mr Jacobs. "Number one, Barack's conservative with his money, which is always good.
"It's hard to tell when he's bluffing. In fact, I never could - that's why he usually beat me. Also, he never threw good money after bad.
"I'm one of those players that they say chases flies. He was more disciplined. He had to have something going in and he was in control of what he was looking to do. And as president I'd rather have somebody who's in control than flying by the seat of their pants."
Obama's highest-stakes game yet begins tomorrow morning at 9:55 Central time, when he will officially launch his presidential campaign in Springfield, Illinois. This afternoon he sent me and few hundred thousand of his closest supporters an e-mail linked to this video explaining how the announcement will work and what changes will be evident tomorrow on his campaign web site. I wouldn't bet against him.
Friday, February 09, 2007
