Rick Archer wrote: > Cathleen Falsani of the Chicago Sun-Times interviewed Barack Obama in 2004 > on his faith and spirituality. She's now published the > <http://blog.beliefnet.com/stevenwaldman/2008/11/obamas-interview-with-cathl > een.html> entire interview. Here are some highlights. > > FALSANI: Do you pray often? > > OBAMA: Yeah, I guess I do. > > It's not formal, me getting on my knees. I think I have an ongoing > conversation with God. I think throughout the day, I'm constantly asking > myself questions about what I'm doing, why am I doing it. > > One of the interesting things about being in public life is there are > constantly these pressures being placed on you from different sides. To be > effective, you have to be able to listen to a variety of points of view, > synthesize viewpoints. You also have to know when to be just a strong > advocate, and push back against certain people or views that you think > aren't right or don't serve your constituents. > > And so, the biggest challenge, I think, is always maintaining your moral > compass. Those are the conversations I'm having internally. I'm measuring my > actions against that inner voice that for me at least is audible, is active, > it tells me where I think I'm on track and where I think I'm off track.... > > It's interesting, the most powerful political moments for me come when I > feel like my actions are aligned with a certain truth. I can feel it. When > I'm talking to a group and I'm saying something truthful, I can feel a power > that comes out of those statements that is different than when I'm just > being glib or clever. It will be interesting to see if after he takes office becomes more himself and not the image he needed to project to get elected. I remember the interview a little over a year ago where Michelle Obama was saying her biggest problem him Barack was getting him to stop smoking. Guess he was a bit of a chain smoker.
OTOH, that "light worker" video was a bit over the top. I couldn't tell if it was a joke or the person was serious. If serious that person definitely would fit in with the TMO kool-aid drinkers here. :-D Obama can't walk on water. He isn't a "super hero." He can only do limited things for the economy which IMO is in a worse position than it was in 1929. I totally see the US going into a depression and taking the world with it. Capitalism has failed because the greedy took over and such a system is basically chaotic in nature. In a high populated world you need a socialist infrastructure and limited small business. BTW, many economists point to what happened in Russia after the fall of communism to what will happen here when capitalism finally falls. Get ready for extreme chaos or "every man for himself." Good film I watched dramatizing some of that is "Transsiberian" with Woody Harrelson, Emily Mortimer, Ben Kingsley and directed by Brad Anderson (who was credited for directing last night's "Fringe" episode). Excellent thriller: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0800241/
