Guess Who I'm Talking About?

I'm running out of good titles for posts that are entirely devoted to Barack Obama.

Now, it's become pretty standard for idealistic young liberals like me to jump on the Obama bandwagon. You could find that demographic raving about Obama all day. But did you expect to see accolades by Condi Rice?

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice finds Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama appealing and says it won't be much longer before race isn't a barrier to becoming president.
[...]
Rice noted that Obama is a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where the secretary often testifies.

"I think he's very appealing and a great person. He's on my committee. And we've always had good exchanges. I think he's an extraordinary person," she said.

Rice declined to say whether she thought he had enough experience, especially in foreign policy, to be president.

"Oh, I'm not going to make that choice. The American people are going to make that choice," she said.

Intriguing.

Meanwhile, a new Zogby poll has Obama running ahead of all three top Republican contenders for the 2008 GOP nomination (Giuliani, McCain, and Romney). Hillary Clinton and John Edwards only beat Romney (whom Obama smokes). Polls this early are practically worthless of course, and even with the supposed demise of the "Wilder effect" (Black candidates run a few points behind the last polls because some White voters don't want to admit they won't vote for a candidate because he's Black), it probably has some saliance when voters are still forming early impressions. Also, I've seen polls that have all three Democrats every-which-way with regards to their Republican counterparts, so I don't know why this one is special. Still, it's better news for Obama than if it weren't released.