Sen. Pryor: Obama 'Exactly the Right Guy,' 'There Is A Destiny About Him'

Sen. Pryor: Obama 'Exactly the Right Guy,' 'There Is A Destiny About Him'

Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor is widely considered the most vulnerable Democrat running for reelection next year. So, it isn’t surprising that he tries to distance himself from President Obama in an interview published Monday by Politico. Pryor even said publicly that he doesn’t support “a lot” of Obama’s agenda. When Obama was first running for President, though, Pryor sang a different tune, telling Arkansas delegates to the party’s convention in 2008 that Obama was “exactly the right guy for this moment in history.”

All Barack wanted to talk about is his little girls. He is a very rounded person. He is someone you would think what he’s been through in the last four or five years that has a big ego, has a big head, not at all. You know, he’s the kind of guy that is exactly the right guy for this moment in history.

If this just seems like the standard, boilerplate support-the-nominee remarks, consider that Pryor also though Obama had a “destiny” about him. 

Obama’s done several things throughout this campaign that are very unorthodox. And that, by the way, that scares Republicans, but he has done several things that are very unorthodox, and he’s been able to pull it together. My sense is there is a destiny about Barack Obama. I think there is a destiny about him.

One wonders if Pryor still thinks Obama is “exactly the right guy” for the job or is still surrounded by an aura of destiny. He certainly did get one thing right in his remarks.   

You know, the bottom line is, and this is something we should never forget. One of the lessons that we learned from President Bush and his office over the last eight years is elections have consequences. You know why we are in Iraq today? Because elections have consequences. Look at our federal deficit today. Elections have consequences. Look at our economy. Elections have consequences. Gas at four dollars a gallon. Elections have consequences. And this election, and we are looking at it right here in 2008, is going to have huge, huge consequences for the future of this country. I think when Barack Obama is sworn, when he takes that oath on January 20th of 2009. I think you’ll have a president that is not just a new face, and has new ideas, that’s great, but I think you’re going to have a president who is focused on America for the first time in eight years

Yes, elections do have consequences, as the economic debris around us can attest. As President, Obama certainly did focus on America. It just wasn’t the kind of attention the country needed. 

One wonders if Pryor still talks this way among Democrats, when the doors are closed. After all, when his vote has been critical, he’s lined up behind destiny-tinged Obama every time.  

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