Is there something just a little bit amusing about the Obama “inexperience” concern?

Ellen Goodman thinks so…

Somehow I do not think that Barack Obama gets up in the morning, brushes his teeth, looks in the mirror and says, ‘Wow! A fresh face!’ It doesn’t happen at 45. At 45, you count the crow’s feet and measure the circles under your eyes.

If you are a woman, you start reading the fine print on the Oil of Olay Regenerist label. After, of course, putting on your new reading glasses. If you’re a man, you start swiping eye cream from your wife’s stash.

While you are inspecting your not-so-fresh face, you remember that when Mozart was your age he’d been dead 10 years. Albert Einstein published the big theory of relativity at 36. Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence at 33. It begins to occur to you that you will never be a prodigy or the youngest anything, not even the youngest president of the United States. Teddy Roosevelt had that sewed up at 42.

…

Most of the green-talk is indeed from boomers, a generation that was just coming of age — teen-age — when Jack Kennedy was killed at 46. Is it possible that the same generation that famously didn’t trust anybody over 30 when they were 20 doesn’t trust anybody under 50 now that they are turning 60?

One of the charms of the boomers, the watermelon in the demographic python, is how they are managing to age without getting old. My favorite factoid comes from a Yankelovich study showing that boomers define “old age” as starting three years after the average American is dead. It’s a new wrinkle on the 1965 song by “The Who”: “I hope I die before I get old.”

…

Obama was technically born at the tail end of the boom, but places himself politically outside the “psychodrama of the baby-boom generation,” which he describes in his book “The Audacity of Hope” as “a tale rooted in old grudges and revenge plots hatched on a handful of college campuses long ago.”

The “new generation” of network anchors leading the green-talk — Brian, 47; Katie, 50; and Charles, 63 — are all older.

Well, it’s a shock when the people you went to high school with start ruling the world. It’s another rite of passage to acknowledge juniors as your superiors. But boomers are now turning 60 with a life expectancy of 82. It’s an early sign of memory loss to forget that at 45 you were wise or foolish, or both — but you weren’t young.

That master of the last word, Oscar Wilde, said, “Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.” He figured that out at 39.

A lot of folks, both in the media and in the public, were very taken with Jim Webb’s response to the State of the Union.

I was, too…

It’s what many have come to expect, or to at least hope for, from Barack Obama. Yes, Obama is often able to hit Webb’s level of no-nonsense candor about the Iraq War and other issues, combined with obvious intelligence and knowledge. All in a manner that is appealing , undeniably patriotic, and non-threatening to a majority of Americans.

But, if Barack Obama is to win the Democratic nomination, and ultimately the Presidency, it will be because he fully embraced these instincts. For the alternative may really end up being nothing more than Hillary-Lite, a rather uninspiring prospect.

Ladies and Gentlemen… Senator James Webb of Virginia…

Obama/Webb 2008 has a pretty nice ring to it.

I got word of a press release yesterday from a website calling itself ObamaTruth.org. So, of course, I checked it out. Didn’t take more than a second to realize that it was almost certainly a secretly funded, Swift Boat-style astroturfing project.

Is it from Club for Growth? McCain? A shadowy group of Democrats? Perhaps, we’ll never know. But, like with all of these sinister projects, there is very little "truth" to be found.

For example…

The first item — posted below a four part YouTube video, which attempts to reinforce the claims below and includes some suspiciously professional voice work — is from a September 26th piece at the Sun-Times entitled "Senator’s family rakes in nearly $1.7 mil. in 2005."

In it, we learn that Obama earned $1.2 million from his book deals. And that Obama now makes $154,047 as a Senator. Both extremely shocking.

We also learn that Michelle Obama earns $316,962 in 2005 in role as Vice President for Community and External Affairs for University of Chicago Hospitals. She also earned $45,000 serving on the board of a foods company called Treehouse, Inc. (More on Treehouse below.)

Barack Obama explains…

She was promoted to the hospitals’ vice president for community and external affairs in March. Obama said that his wife, who, like him, is a Harvard law school graduate, was deserving of the promotion and raise.

Her previous position was less demanding, he said, and because his Senate campaign had ended and she had more time to devote to her work, she was more marketable with her educational background and other strengths.

”You can’t fault her for being smarter and better qualified for all sorts of jobs than I am,” he said.

Now, for comparison, according to Salary.com, the "median expected salary for a typical Dean of Medicine - Higher Ed." in Rockford, Il, where a branch of the UI College of Medicine is located, is $364,688. Hey, at least with her Treehouse board position, Michelle Obama was able to gain a little compensation parity with those fancy deans in Rockford.

Oh yeah, and in 2005, the Obamas donated a generous $77,315 to charity.

Next up is an article from the Chicago Tribune about the now discarded Tony Rezko land deal "scandal." And then we move down the page to a link to a site called WhereTheMoneyGoes.com, which includes quite a few circular references back to ObamaTruth.org. More research needs to be done there, I think.

And then there’s an article from December 17th, which the site gives it’s own breathless headline "Chicago Sun-Times Columnist Carol Marin reports on Obama and Pork." In it, we find out that Obama once secured $100,000 for a museum project while he was a state senator.

Shocking, huh?

At the bottom of the page, they feature the now completely debunked Dick Morris story, followed by a right-wing blog posting that desperately tries to connect Obama to Chicago-area corruption.

OK, so what about the La Hunta, CO story, which seems to be the real purpose of this site. The attack, you see, is not so much on Barack Obama, but on his wife Michelle. And she’s being cast here in the same negative light as was used against Hillary Clinton in ‘92, also a lawyer with her own career.

Her sin? Well, she was on the board of Treehouse, Inc., which apparently shut down a pickle plant in Colorado, laying off 153 workers.

Now, assuming this La Hunta story is true, it may be interesting to have a converstation about the role of corporations — and their social responsibilities. But, unlike the likely people behind this bogus site, I suspect that the Obamas are more than willing to discuss these issues as indicated by their responses…

The Harvard University Law School graduate says she’s not cashing in on anyone’s fame. "My income is pretty low compared to my peers," she says, meaning other Harvard Law grads. "You wouldn’t ask that question if, like some people in politics, we had trust funds and were rich."

Mr. Obama also rejects any suggestion that his family is improperly benefiting from his fame. Although a recent land deal with political insider Tony Rezko raised such questions, Mr. Obama has spent the bulk of his career working as a civil rights lawyer, not as a partner at a lucrative LaSalle Street firm.

On the question of whether there’s any hypocrisy in his bashing of Wal-Mart while his wife draws pay from a company that does business with the retailer, he says his views on corporate reform and social justice remain the same regardless of what happens at TreeHouse. Until those views are implemented, he says, "Michelle and I have to live in the world and pay taxes and pay for our kids and save for retirement" just like anyone else.

And, just for added perspective, it’s important to note that, according to OpenSecrets.org, Barack Obama is ranked 50th in terms of net worth of all members of the U.S. Senate.

So, what have we learned from ObamaTruth.org? That, in 2005, both Barack Obama and Michelle Obama were paid at a level that is rather unremarkable for people who share their educational background and professional stature.

Sure, it’s far more than I make in a single year. But, I’m not a graduate of Harvard Law School, or a best-selling author, or a Vice President of a massive medical instituion, or a U.S. Senator.

And, in the end, ObamaTruth.org simply screams the question: Is that all you got?

UPDATE: RunObama.com pointed me to this find on AlterNet that suggests that “Low Blow” Joe Novak, a Chicago-area dirty tricks politico, may be behind the site.

FURTHER UPDATE: According to this article, Joe Novak was the editor of the (now dormant) FollowTheMoney.org, a name remarkably similar to the above-mentioned WhereTheMoneyGoes.com. Coincidence? Highly unlikely.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: JHC at Obamarama.org has his own excellent, and well-researched, version of the Truth About ObamaTruth.org.

Here is the letter from religious leaders that accompanied Obama Communications Director Robert Gibbs’ official response to the fake Madrassa story…

January 23, 2007

An Open Letter to the Religious Community:

Many of you have seen hateful emails, blog postings and reports circulating on the Internet and in the media about Senator Barack Obama and his religious upbringing. These outrageous charges began as reports of his potential candidacy for President emerged and, as has become a shameful custom of modern politics, it has swirled through cyberspace with a vengeance and now has been picked up as fact by Fox News and some partisan commentators.

We are writing to deplore this despicable tactic and set the record straight. We have had enough of the slash and burn politics calculated to divide us as children of God.

We must come together as one nation, and see our stake in each other as Americans. The bitter, destructive politics that have so riven our country in recent years cannot stand. As American leaders of different faiths who have worked cooperatively and greatly respect all of the 2008 candidates in both parties, we do not offer this statement as an endorsement of any individual candidate. However, certain moral standards should infuse our national dialogue, and the recent attacks on Sen. Obama violate values at the heart of this dialogue. The false and malicious attacks levied at him are anathema to all of our faith traditions, and we condemn them outright.

The facts below are no mystery. Senator Obama wrote openly about his life in his autobiography, Dreams from my Father. We take Senator Obama’s long-cited and uncontested description of his educational and faith journey at face value.

• Senator Obama never attended a radical Madrassa nor was he ever educated in a wahabi school. In the years he lived in Indonesia as a child, from ages 6 to 10, he attended a neighboring Catholic school for two years and then a public school.
• Senator Obama was not raised in a religious household.
• Senator Obama became a Christian long before he entered politics. While working as a young community organizer in the mid-1980s, working with a consortium of churches in a depressed neighborhood of Chicago, he became a Christian and became active in Trinity United Church of Christ. He, his wife and family are still active members of Trinity today.

It is important that we take a stand today against this willful, malicious attempt to mislead and inflame - and against any further attempts to use political attacks to divide the religious community. We ask that you share this letter widely, and help us beat back these hideous tactics, whatever their source. As people of faith, we cannot allow divisive attacks like these to stand.

Dr. Robert W. Edgar
General Secretary
National Council of Churches USA

Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner

Salam Al-Marayati
Executive Director
Muslim Public Affairs Council

Rev. Stephen J. Thurston
President
National Baptist Convention of America

The Rt. Rev. Preston W. Williams
President, Global Council of Bishops
African Methodist Episcopal Church

Sister Simone Campbell, SSS
Executive Director
NETWORK, A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby

The Rev. John H. Thomas
General Minister and President
United Church of Christ

Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy
President
Interfaith Alliance

Rabbi Jill Jacobs
Director of Education
Jewish Funds for Justice

Alexia Kelley
Executive Director
Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good

Dr. T. DeWitt Smith, Jr.
President
Progressive National Baptist Convention

And here’s the text of a good piece from the local ABC affiliate in Chicago. There’s also video that includes a response from Obama himself.

Barack Obama
Prospect Magazine - London,UK
His unusual background and his ability to use it to articulate a hopeful version of the American dream have turned Barack Obama into a political star. …

Santorum Picks Hillary Over Obama
NewsMax.com - West Palm Beach,FL,USA
"I just don’t think Barack Obama is ready for prime time,” Santorum said. "You can’t put a man like that in a situation where the country is in the state …

Obama-mania may backfire
Yahoo! News - USA
Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record) (D) of Illinois announced he is officially considering possibly running for president in an election almost two …

Could Bush ‘beget’ Obama?
Ocala.com - Ocala,FL,USA
Could George Bush in 2008 "beget" Barack Obama? The Illinois senator, unlike the incumbent, is not the child of privilege or power. …

Madison Shockley: Barack’s Racial Balancing Act
Truthdig - Los Angeles,CA,USA
Now that Barack Obama has taken his first formal step toward the White House, America is downright giddy with the possibility of electing its first black …

Media treatment of Obama shows ignorance
LSU The Reveille - Baton Rouge,LA,USA
When I first heard "Barack Obama," I immediately went to my computer and tried to do a little research on his background. The name Barack is very similar to …

Hillary Clinton Staffers Denies Hit Job on Barack Obama
MetroPost - New York,NY,USA
Reports that Hillary Clinton’s staffers were behind recently surfaced evidence that Barack Obama attended a Muslim “madrass” are being vehemently denied by …

Obama: The Democratic Messiah?
TPMCafe - New York,NY,USA
… opined that “the Democrats are looking for a political messiah, and many of them think they’ve found one in Illinois’s junior senator, Barack Obama. …

Draft Obama! Why Bother?
The Nation. - New York,NY,USA
Barack Obama has filed papers to explore a presidential bid, and several political operatives are already building him a national campaign. …

~For every 1 point gain in the polls by Obama, an additional 7,500 troops will be withdrawn from Iraq.~

~Obama seems to study an issue and then follows his convictions… Can you really trust someone like that?~

~I think the American people know that my support for the war has always been insincere.~

This kind of thing can be tough to enjoy. Funny to mock Clinton, sure, but as SNL continues to reinforce some perhaps unfair Clinton stereotypes, it could certainly be detrimental to the ability of the Democrats to win the Presidency in ‘08.

Amusing take on the old drugged-out spider films…

(h/t to Jim in S.F.)

Press the big triangle in the audio player below to listen in, as Governor Jim Douglas and Lt. Governor Brian Dubie face a powerful foe — the notorious Shum-Lin Warrior — in…

Episode Two: Crouching Douglas, Hidden Shumlin…

Here’s to Alex Ball and Philip Baruth for being, well, Alex Ball and Philip Baruth.

(h/t to commenter Nat at Obamarama)

Michelle Obama: Ground Support
Newsweek
Michelle Obama has seemed ambivalent about Barack’s ‘08 run. But she’s provided the entree for him to give it a go …

One spring break, she and her two roommates tagged along with a Jewish student group on a ski trip to Vermont. "We were three black women on a trip with all of these white Jewish kids," one roommate, Angela Acree, recalls. "We stuck out like sore thumbs. But we had a great time."

The woman behind Obama
Chicago Sun-Times - Chicago,IL,USA
Barack Obama’s credentials have become familiar to millions: first African American president of the Harvard Law Review; University of Chicago law professor …

Crazies doing best to smear Obama
Chicago Sun-Times - Chicago,IL,USA
I was wondering what slur the lunatic fringe was going to try to nail onto Barack Obama, and with his quasi-official presidential bid only a few days old, …

The Swiftboating Begins - The Right Smears Obama
Huffington Post - New York,NY,USA
The minute Senator Barack Obama had traction, the right starting emphasizing his middle name. "Barack Hussein Obama", they sneered. …

Smearing Barack Obama
Yahoo! News - USA
The Nation — Today a friend forwarded me an e-mail that a friend of his had received with the subject "Let Us Remain Alert!" the contents of which are …

Is Barack Obama the new father of our country?
Town Hall - Washington,DC,USA
Senator Barack Obama has said that too many fathers "engage in childish things. (They) are more concerned about what they want than what’s good for other …

America’s baggage is Obama’s burden
Miami Herald - FL,USA
Barack Obama, Democrat of Illinois, to move toward that goal seems clear with this week’s news that he is forming an exploratory committee to raise money …

Obama may be just what the nation needs
Toledo Blade - Toledo,OH,USA
Barack Obama’s long-shot race for the presidency could be an exciting shot in the arm for the nation, boosting the political adrenaline of Republicans, …