All You Need Are Friends

Earlier this weekend, something by Charles Krauthammer caught my eye. Unfortunately I now can’t find the exact article but I clearly recall his question; Where are Barack Obama’s friends?

I have read a lot about Obama, seen two different biographies on him and watched him during the DNC Convention. Yet I don’t recall ever seeing any mention of or interview with his friends. Whenever a man runs for president there have always been interviews with old high school friends, basketball teammates, college roommates, and past girlfriends. But I don’t think I have seen any of these in regards to Obama. Have you?


Doesn’t that seem a little bit strange? Even now, other than his wife, who would he call his best friend? In direct contrast, John McCain seems to have made friends in every stage of his life. In the Senate, he has friends on both sides and though his Democrat friends may strongly disagree with his politics, they still like him as a man. But where are these friends for Barack Obama?

Yes, this man does give wonderful, warm and stirring speeches but that is not out of character. When you give a speech there is this invisible wall separating the speaker from the audience. Plus the speaker is in complete control and is speaking prepared lines. On the other hand, Barack does not do at all well in Town Hall forums. This forum requires that the wall separating him from the audience is gone and instead he has to interact with people and do so extemporaneously.

Not surprisingly, John McCain is the exact opposite. He does very poorly when giving speeches because there is that invisible wall separating the speaker from the audience. Instead he is wonderful in a Town Hall or one on one forum. John is definitely a people person who truly enjoys being with people and talking to them. (This must have made all those years as a POW and in solitary confinement so much worse for him.) Senator McCain comes across as someone you would enjoy having a drink with but I am not so sure the same could be said about Obama.

So to repeat my question, where are Barack Obama’s friends, roommates, teammates or even old girlfriends? I have often thought that he appears aloof and even cold at times. That he is not a people person, and is more comfortable dealing with law or procedures or strategies than dealing one on one with people. Yet it is one thing to be a loner and self sufficient but not to find anybody who was his friend is ridiculous. What does that say about how he would govern or interact with other leaders?

Ironically, the one man who has been found to be his friend was Reverend Jeremiah Wright. We know how voters thought of that friend! And was Obama really a closer friend to that 1960’s radical and former Weathermen, Ayers? Are there more “friends” like this out there but keeping quiet for fear of doing further damage to Obama’s image?

It does make you wonder. Here is this candidate for President who seems to have very few friends and the only close associates found so far are extreme radicals. Someone needs to do some more digging into Obama’s life. Either through out his entire life he never made any close friends, or his friends are like the two discovered, Wright and Ayers, who are so radical that Obama had to disown their friendship. In either case, it doesn’t bode well for someone who wants to be the next President.