Presently in the Past ( 1st impressions of the Obamessiah)

Just for fun I thought I'd search the archive on Free Republic to see what kind of comments were made on their 2004 Democrat Convention thread during Obama's debut as keynote speaker.
This was when the nation was first introduced to the future Dem. Presidential 'hopeful', Barack the-candidate-formerly-known-as-Hussein Obama.

(Presented in no particular order. Although I saved my favorite for last.)

"This kid is smooth..."

"He's a duded-up Kirby vacuum cleaner salesman."

"Don't ignore this guy......he is THE FUTURE STAR of the Democrat Party."

"Barack Obama is going to run for President someday."

"Or ..... is this guy a Muslem brother?"

"He kind of reminds me of one of The Nation of Islam guys"

"God, it will be funny calling him Osama when he does run for Pres. (It will happen. The dems are grooming him now.)"

"Every black preacher in America could get up on that stage and be just as dynamic as this guy.
He hasn't yet been co-opted by the Rainbow Coalition, but that's inevitable. He'll make it to the Senate, and be the great black hope for the Democrat Party.
But, if he stays in that party, he'll be Al Sharpton in 10 years."

"Obama spoke well and represented the beliefs and ideals of 40% of the country.
Hopefully that % won't grow, because those ideals are more Socialist than Democratic."

"The guy is a really good speaker, if you believe that the delivery counts more than the actual words said. ...but thankfully, there are very, very few people who would vote for an OBAMA. Sounds too much like Osama."

"If the media and the party get behind him, the world may be his oyster. Wonder what Hillary thinks of him?

BTW, IS he a Muslim? Just wondering."

"We have to find the dirt on this guy.
No worries...Hillary's on it!"

"Danger signals coming off him in waves. That's why I wish we could recruit him to our side; it would be a coup. VP for Hillary in '08?"

"Obama is probably as far left as they go. But he's telegenic, he's a good speaker and he's educated. In today's political environment, that makes him dangerous to the GOP."

"If Obama made a strong lurch to becoming a centerist instead of hardcore Liberal....the country would be well served by him. At least he is an articulate idiot."

""How and why does Obama come from nowhere and end up speaking at the convention? Someone has plans for him!"

This is the Great Reinvention part of the convention. Preaching unity, we're ALL Americans, there's no difference in idology (BS!!) We must all stand together, yada yada....He'll probably be the most quoted. Then people will start looking at him more closely. And there had BETTER be someone there.

BACK TO FEAR, FEAR, the only thing we havw to FEAR is FEAR ITSELF...SO BE AFRAID!!!"

"He sure is trying to cover all the bases tonight. Even got the crowd to chant once. Hope, hope, hope.... he needs to take a breath."

"they are actually saying that he will be running for PRES in 2008....Yeah, seriously!!"