Obama=Poker Player

[jpoker11]

Obama's poker face comes into play
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...xml&page=1

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."
"But after folks got to work with him, they saw that he had a regular family, an interesting childhood, drank alcohol, smoked cigarettes and played basketball and poker," said Mr Dillard. "We learned he was a real guy."

Denny Jacobs, a blunt-speaking former state senator who was also part of the poker group, said: "Anybody right now that can offer as much hope to a people as Baracks does, that's a phenomenon we should not waste.
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."
Mr Jacobs believes his poker opponent, who would often win up to $150 at his expense while simultaneously borrowing cigarettes from him, has the necessary acumen and guile.

"When you're very open, it's easy to conceal things," he said. "And you know that Barack is such a good, open person, he wouldn't bluff you in a game of cards. Or would he? Yes, he would."

So would Mr Obama beat Mrs Clinton in a game of poker? "Yeah, he'd kick her ass."

[bisonbison]

Unless he could beat Nixon he's sucking hind presidential poker teat.

[iron81]

Nixon was huge at poker. I heard that he paid for his law school or financed his first campaign or something like that with money he won playing poker in the Navy. And he was only playing one table.

[Dr. Strangelove]

I believe most of Nixon's poker money was from the rake. He had cards and dealt a game while in the military; in return he got to rake the game.

[pvn]

[ QUOTE ]
"Number one, Barack's conservative with his money, which is always good.

[/ QUOTE ]

How is he with my money?

[almostbusto]

i am glad there is a candidate out there who is going to bring the poker player's perspective to Whitehouse.

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=s2006-249

[ QUOTE ]
109th Congress: Roll Call Votes: Senate Vote #249 (Sep 14, 2006)
H.R. 4954 [109th]: SAFE Port Act (Vote On Passage)
Aye IL Obama, Barack [D]

[/ QUOTE ]

[AngusThermopyle]

You know that vote wasn't on the internet gambling amendment.

[almostbusto]

[ QUOTE ]
You know that vote wasn't on the internet gambling amendment.

[/ QUOTE ] no i didn't know that. at any rate the point remains despite my ignorance on which vote it was [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[EvanJC]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
You know that vote wasn't on the internet gambling amendment.

[/ QUOTE ] no i didn't know that. at any rate the point remains despite my ignorance on which vote it was [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

not really, it doesn't. not voting for a port security bill would be political suicide

[Bill Murphy]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
You know that vote wasn't on the internet gambling amendment.

[/ QUOTE ] no i didn't know that. at any rate the point remains despite my ignorance on which vote it was [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

not really, it doesn't. not voting for a port security bill would be political suicide

[/ QUOTE ]

Why? Nobody but an ultra-liberal is going to vote for Obama anyway once they see what he really believes, so why not try to attract some libertarian votes by standing on a principle; e.g. "I can not & will not support Sen. Frist's disgraceful pandering to religious extremists with his cynical inclusion of secret, last minute amendments of unrelated, unimportant social legislation to a critical national security bill for selfish political reasons."

Note that adding the gambling amendment did precisely zero for Frist's POTUS ambitions. Conservatives were sick of him for his overall poor leadership, esp. on judges.

FTR, I hate just about everything Bush has done, except for Roberts, Alito, JRB, Pryor, and a couple of other judges. Obama says in his book that he supports filibusters on judges and super-majorities for confirmation, as well as legislating from the bench, so he's dead to me politically.

As a bit of a hijack, on abortion specifically, back in November the S.D. voters overturned the no rape or incest exceptions law, and Cali voters overturned a mild parental notification law, so I don't see what all the cryin' about Roe is (which is what all the cryin' over judges is about).

Obama seems like an aight guy personally, and I like that he used to smoke dope, snort blow, and play cards, and still sneaks cigs behind his wife's back after telling her he quit, but no way I want him for POTUS.

But at least he was against the Iraq war before he was against it. However, he wants to vote to complain about having to vote for continuing to fund it, rather than vote directly against continuing to fund it, although he's hardly alone in this.