Obama makes sparkling New Hampshire debut

Race a factor only for some voters
At his Sunday press conference in Manchester, Obama took on the question of whether voters won’t support him because he’s an African-American with a name that will sound foreign to many Americans.

Some voters wouldn’t vote for a candidate because of his race, he acknowledged, “but those are the same voters who probably wouldn’t vote for me because of my politics.”

NBC VIDEO Obama, eyeing '08, visits New Hampshire Dec. 11: As New Hampshire crowds flock to see Sen. Barack Obama during his first visit to the key '08 state, other candidates gear up for the race to the White House. NBC's Norah O'Donnell reports. Today show

And asked about his middle name, “Hussein,” Obama said, “The American people are not concerned about middle names.”

At this stage, before he has formally declared that he is running, Obama is minimizing his Democratic label and almost looking over the heads of the Democratic primary voters to speak in non-partisan language to the general electorate.

Examples:

• “I don’t think it was a partisan message” that voters delivered in last month’s elections, Obama opined in Portsmouth. “I don’t think it was as much a vindication of the Democratic agenda as it was an insistence on the part of Americans that we take the challenges that we face seriously.”
• After calling for higher pay for teachers and development of fuels from corn and other crops, Obama said, “That is not a Democratic agenda, or a Republican agenda. That’s an American agenda.”
• “My obligation (is) to make sure I am willing to partner with the American people on the common-sense, pragmatic, non-ideological agenda that they are hungry for….”

His stump speech is still quite non-specific, with little grit and mostly non-controversial policy proposals, with no details on how he’d pay for them.

But some New Hampshire Democrats are captivated by Obama.

“There’s an excitement about somebody who as created a spark again,” said retired teacher Deb Chase from Gilmanton, N.H. She was wearing an “Obama for president 2008” button. “We were all big Dean supporters; there was all this energy coming out from the Dean campaign… I think Obama has the same kind of spark to him and helps people feel energized and excited about the potential.”

Lack of experience
Is Chase surprised by the fact that a politician with relatively little experience in national politics is being taken seriously as a potential president?

“No, because look at the fellow who’s been in there for the last eight years,” she said. “I am surprised he was taken seriously.” She added, “We didn’t know much about Bill Clinton before he became president either – and he proved to be a very good president.”

She said she would prefer Obama to Hillary Clinton “because I was very opposed to the war. And he was against the war. And she sort of rode the fence and tried to figure out which camp she wanted to be in. But I have respect for Hillary.”

With Obama almost surely in the race and Clinton making phone calls to prominent Democrats in the state, New Hampshire voters are about to be treated to a historic clash.

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