Obamarama!!!

Rich Miller takes some highlights from his syndicated columns on The Capitol Fax Blog today. What I want to focus on is how Sen. Obama fares after the recent Chicago municipal elections and if you believe Miller, not very well.

Here's some highlights from his Sun-Times column...

Speaking of Obama, it might be interesting to watch what the presidential candidate does in next year's primary. Obama refused to endorse any of the insurgent candidates this year, sticking with the Daley Machine and openly endorsing faded hack Ald. Tillman in her losing race to Pat Dowell, who is truly a breath of fresh air.

It's more than a little ironic that a self-styled ''new politics'' guy like Obama has no strong ties to the newly elected aldermen who seem to share so many of his self-professed political values. He's just lucky that no national political reporter has covered this hypocrisy angle yet.

Ouch and this is a good point. I have talked him up as a new generation of black leadership, but he definitely has some work to do. And how about his column in the Daily Southtown...

Barack Obama, who styles himself as the epitome of a young, black "new politics" candidate, did not endorse a single one of the bright, new, independent-minded aldermen who will be taking the helm of black wards on the South and West sides. Count him as a big loser.

Ouch again. Senator Obama probably did a good thing in endorsing the current state treasurer Alexi Gianoulis for election last year. Unfortunately he didn't do much in his own backyard. Well only time will tell.

One other thing but not from Rich Miller, he looks at Lynn Sweet's column from the Sun-Times. She looks at the debate last night of eight Democrats running for their presidential nomination in Charleston, South Carolina...

If you've been on Mars for a while and did not know the names of the Democratic White House frontrunners, you could have thought after the first presidential debate Thursday they were Sen. Joe Biden, Gov. Bill Richardson and Sen. Chris Dodd.

The 90-minute nationally televised debate on the campus of South Carolina State University -- the first of the 2008 season -- was dominated by criticism of President Bush and the Iraq war in a session smartly moderated by NBC anchor Brian Williams.

On the level playing field of the debate stage, the frontrunners -- Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, with former Sen. John Edwards behind them -- did not come out of the debate looking or sounding obviously more "presidential" than their second-tier rivals.

In that sense, they were upstaged by Biden, Richardson and Dodd, who showcased their years of experience.

Another ouch, but a double ouch on Sen. Obama and Sen. Clinton. Perhaps after all this time they were being hyped up and now both are being cut down to size. Still we have along way until it is determined who is the Democratic nominee. Sen. Obama has plenty of time to get his act together.