Why I Like Obama for President

Barack Obama is perhaps the most intriguing of the "undeclared" candidates for the 2008 US presidential race. He was first propelled into the national spotlight after his speech at the 2004 Democratic convention. It was by far the best speech at that convention. It was smart, it was genuine and showed a sense of balance that was lacking in Kerry's contrived speech. It was certainly better than the idiotic bluster coming from the sitting president of the United States.

I, like many others who listened to his speech took an instant liking to the man. I loved the whole speech but what I loved most is a single sentence: "If there's an Arab-American family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process, that threatens my civil liberties." Here is a man with principles, I thought, unwilling to fall victim to the post 9/11 Arabophobic and Islamophobic hysteria. This was a sincere statement; he was not pandering to a particular constituency.

What is not to like about Obama? He is a self-made man, eloquent, sincere, compassionate and reasoned; in other words not your average politician. His father was Kenyan and his mother, white American. His father returned to Kenya when Barack was very young and he was raised mostly by his mother in the United States and later, when she remarried, in Indonesia. He was raised as a Christian by his mother though his father was Muslim. He attended Columbia University and then Harvard Law School. He worked as a community activist in Chicago before eventually entering politics and being elected Senator from Illinois. His first book, Dreams from my Father, is a very revealing account of his life and his journey to Kenya in search of his father and his identity. You cannot but develop an affinity for the man by the end of the book.

He is quintessentially American but is also someone who, because of his background, will have much broader perspectives on issues of national and international interest. What a change that would be to the parochial tunnel vision of GW Bush.

Because of the American public's thirst for change, Obama has aroused the interest of disgrunteled democratic voters. His primary rival is Hillary Clinton who is seen by many as a political opportunist who changes her position according to the prevailing winds. That became first evident to me with her about face about the Palestinian issue when it came time to run for the Senate in New York. She was also a hawk on Iraq when it suited her and is now changing her tune. Obama's charisma and appeal seems to cross over conventional political boundaries as his speech to an evangelical church last week demonstrated. That worries some conservative pundits, who in typical form, are in process of unleashing their xenophobic dirty tricks. One commentator called him Barack Osama before correcting himself. This was at best a Freudian slip and at worst a deliberate act of subliminal subversion. More recently, some commentators have pointed out that his middle name is Hussein. Never mind that he was raised Christian, the fact that he was born Muslim somehow taints him for life; as if he has some incurable disease or an unshakable genetic defect. Such drivel will not phase most reasonable people; unfortunately in the post 9/11 paranoia many will still buy into such nonsense.

But despite all the current interest in Obama, does he stand a chance in 2008? Frankly, no. And it has nothing with his political inexperience. He can easily make up for that with his intelligence and his insight. But I think what it will come down to is color and name. Americans in 2008 may be willing to consider a mocha-colored candidate with a name like Colin Powell for the presidency, but a black man named Barack Hussein Obama? I doubt it.