The Sunday Chicago Tribune had this:OMAHA -- Warren Buffett sits on the edge of a soft brown sofa, closely watching as Barack Obama navigates the well-appointed living room. He moves his square glasses closer to his face, unfolds his arms and springs to his feet when the time comes to welcome his guest to Nebraska.Oh, brother.
"There he is," Buffett says with a wide grin, pulling Obama toward him with a hearty handshake. "You're the hottest ticket in town today."
The sage of money and finance, America's second-richest man, seldom becomes invested in politicians. But he has made an exception for the junior senator from Illinois, which is precisely why Obama has arrived here on a frosty fall morning, without an overcoat or an entourage.
No television cameras record the moment. No oversize crowds gather. Rather, a mere 16 people--most of whom Obama was meeting for the first time--finish a breakfast of eggs and fresh fruit in the home of Warren Buffett's daughter, Susie Buffett.
"I've got a conviction about him that I don't get very often," Warren Buffett explained later in an interview. "He has as much potential as anyone I've seen to have an important impact over his lifetime on the course that America takes.
"If he can do an ounce better with me," Buffett added, "fine."
Had the billionaire investor delivered such a glowing appraisal of a stock, his words surely would have sent shares soaring on Wall Street. But unlike the world of finance, where he never succumbs to speculation, Buffett is placing faith in Obama well before the senator establishes a record of performance.
Following his lead, the men and women sitting near a grand piano have come to hear Obama's prescription for the Democratic Party. And while he had come to accept their contributions, he also had hopes of cultivating some long-term investors in his
political future.
By year's end, Obama will have collected about $1.2 million as he builds a coast-to-coast army of backers. At a seafood lunch in Beverly Hills, Calif., a dinner in Austin, Texas, or through events in more than a dozen other cities, Obama is creating a network unlike any other freshman senator since Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Celebrity cachet.
Eric Zorn, meanwhile, thinks Obama will run for president in 2008.
If you are interested in Obama-wear or Obama gear go here (where I stole the Obama Oeight bumper sticker image).
Rock on.
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