PokerMoments is a poker blog, not a political blog, and hence not generally in the business of making political statements. However, as Barack Obama moves past Hillary Clinton in the primaries, and could very well become the Democratic Presidential Nominee for 2008, I feel compelled to add my two cents into the political pot. While Obama, if elected President, might be good for the game of poker, as he is supposedly an avid poker player, I cannot vote for him. Here are 3 reasons why.

1. Obama’s Legislative Accomplishments:

2. Obama’s Position on his Spiritual Advisor:

Obama’s spiritual advisor is the Reverend Jeremiah Wright Jr. According to a report by Ed Lasky in the American Thinker, Wright has a real bad attitude about Jews, white people and Israel, which he calls a racist state. He believes that black values are superior to middle class American values and that blacks should isolate themselves from the wider American society. He is a long-time friend of Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam, who called Jews bloodsuckers.

Does Obama disavow this nutty minister’s nutty views? No.  But why? Is it because he was married by the nutty minister? Perhaps. Or is it because his daughters were baptized by the nutty minister? Perhaps. But what ever the explanation, it is no justification for his silence on the matter, a silence that suggests that Obama might share some of his nutty minister’s nutty views.

3. Obama’s Position on Iran:

As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Obama opposed defining Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist group. And he supports opening relations with Iran even if they continue to enrich uranium.

Not terrorists? Come now. The Guards arm and finance Hezbollah, which is certainly a terrorist group. What sort of mark of terrorism is Obama looking for?

Even if you plan on having negotiations with Iran, a country run by evil thugs, I don’t see the wisdom of going around saying this sort of thing. If this sort of foreign policy thinking reflects the way Obama plays poker, then he’s the biggest fish at the table.

About a week ago, I wrote to the presidential campaigns of Mike Huckabee, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards, John McCain, Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, Dennis Kucinich, Fred Thompson and Ron Paul to find out about their views on poker (see here).  Specifically, I wanted to know whether they play poker and how they feel about the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) preventing banks and other financial institutions from allowing people to use funds to pay for online gambling.  So far I’ve received emails from the campaign teams of Clinton, Obama, Edwards and Huckabee, but haven’t learned anything about their views on my questions.  What then did I learn?

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These two paintings above can be purchased at Scott Frame and Art

What do poker and presidents have in common?  Presidents Roosevelt  (both), Harding, Eisenhower, Truman, Nixon were all fans of the game (see here).  Now I have just learned that Obama is a poker player (see here).  In fact, he is the founding member of a group of poker players, lawmakers and lobbyists, that would on a regular basis play low stakes poker, smoke cigars and drink beer.   Hmmm….poker, beer, and cigars.  Fortunately for Obama he no longer considers himself Muslim, since poker and beer are haram from an orthodox Islamic point of view.  I’m not sure about the cigars.   

Here are some historical poker tidbits about some of the presidents I mentioned above.

Warren Harding

Warren Harding (the 29th US President) loved the game so much that he had a poker game twice a week and his cabinet was called “the poker cabinet” (see here).  I don’t know whether Harding had any poker skills, but I have suspicions that he wasn’t that good.  According to Michael Gladwell, the author of Blink, “most historians claim that he was one of the worst presidents in American history.”  

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