The Madison Capital Times has named Barack Obama man of the year for 2004 despite that Obama has said he could favor bombing Iran (and the Chicago Tribune reports similarly). I think it would have been wiser to wait to see what Obama does while in the US Senate, at the least; placing a higher value on championing bombing people into democracy should be chastised too.

The Madison Capital Times has an interesting quote on why he recently won in Illinois:

“Obama beat more prominent Democrats for his party’s Senate nomination because he was more courageous politically – opposing the war in Iraq, criticizing the Patriot Act and promising to battle corporate special interests.”

I disagree. I think Obama won because Illinois’ most densely populated counties are gerrymandered to support the Democratic party, and because Obama had no real opponent. Initially Obama faced an opponent whose divorce secrets were leaked–taking Jeri Ryan to sex clubs around the world–then Obama had no opponent for a while. Later, Obama faced Alan Keyes who had little time to prepare a campaign and (more importantly) had poor positions and appropriately wasn’t taken too seriously.

It’s not hard to win when one faces such disorganized opposition. This is not worthy of celebration because it is a coronation.