Barak Obama: The Audacity of Hope or Glitter of Illusion?

Mrs. Hillary Clinton did not appear notably distressed when she heard of the slim, brown, oddly-named Senator’s decision to enter the race for the next American president. Indeed, Senator Barak Obama was newly acquainted with American politics, he didn’t have any mentionable experience in the field of foreign politics, he lacked the support of the Democratic Party machine to which they both belonged, and he lacked her formidable monetary resources.

Perhaps Hillary thought that his candidacy would deny her some of the black vote, but the thought was only fleeting – surely the Clinton name still had an undefeatable charm in minority circles. But several months of the primary elections were more than enough to sow doubts in the mind of the former lady of the White House as to the efficacy of running her election campaign based on tactics of fear of the obscure newcomer and suspicion of his goodwill, honesty, and famed relationship with a controversial pastor.

Blessing from Kenya

When the Kenyan authorities were informed that young Hussein Obama had been chosen to study in America, it was thought to be a joke. But it was obvious to those responsible for him that, when the University of Hawaii had agreed to give him a scholarship, the gates of heaven had opened in front of him and his life would change in undreamed of ways. He did not know that the world’s life would also change as a consequence of this scholarship.

Hussein took leave of his family and their simple pastoral life, left his friends and goats, and moved to the United States to begin his studies on the island of Hawaii. There he met Ann Dunham, a young white woman from Kansas. They fell in love and were married, and in August 1961 they had a child whom they name Barack – a Swahili word related to the Arabic for “Blessed.”

The couple divorced when Barack was three years old. His father left Hawaii to enroll at Harvard University and obtain his doctoral degree, and then returned to Kenya, leaving their son “the blessing” with the white lady to be raised. Barack’s mother met and married an Indonesian engineer. In 1976, she traveled with him to Jakarta, where Barack’s half sister, Maya, was born. Barack attended Muslim school for two years in Indonesia. But then his mother divorced her second husband, putting an end to Barack’s Indonesian life. He returned with her to her family’s home in Hawaii to attend Catholic school.

Where is my Father’s Grave?

Obama attended a secondary school in Hawaii where there were only three black students, and he graduated in 1979 with honors. He began university in California before transferring to Columbia University in New York where, in 1983, he obtained a diploma in political science and international relations.

Barack had only seen his father after the divorce once, in 1971. But when he learned of his father’s death in a car accident, he undertook a journey to Kenya to meet his relatives. There were no ceremonies when he went before his father’s grave, but everyone there remembered his insistence on visiting the grave. After he graduated college, Obama worked in the national employment field, helping the poor and marginalized as a writer and financial analyst.

In 1991, he graduated from Harvard Law School. In the course of his studies at Harvard he was appointed Editor in Chief of the Harvard Law Review, becoming the first black American to hold that position. After graduation, Barack lectured in the law department at University of Illinois. In the summer of 1989, he met a young black woman named Michelle Robinson and so began their love story. They were married October 18, 1992. Their two children are Malia and Sasha.

A Young Man in the Senate

Affiliation with the one of the two major American parties is the first step for any young man aspiring to a political career. Obama was no exception to this rule, and so he volunteered to register voters. In 1992 he became director of voter registration in the State of Illinois , where he helped over 150 thousand poor people gain the right to vote through voter registration. And in 1996 he entered a fierce political battle in which he ran for and won a seat in the American Senate, becoming the first black Senator in U.S. history, and one of the youngest.

His victory was astounding by all counts, as he captured 70% of the electoral vote, and from that moment on his star ascended as no other, until at last the Democratic party chose him in 2004 to speak at the party convention. Indeed, that speech granted all the opportunity of considering his oratorical talents and ability to convey a spirit of enthusiasm to his listeners.

A Black Kennedy!

“Since the death of Robert Kennedy, I have not seen a candidate transmit such enthusiasm as Obama.” This is what the leftist American writer Rachel Banks said in commentary of the American campaign. “Who else could bring together both rich and poor, young and old, black and white, as this man has. This man has presence and charisma.”

Many observers shared this sentiment with Rachel. These characteristics made the comparison between Obama and Kennedy inevitable. Theodore Sorenson, who had been an aide to President John Kennedy, said, “There are common links between the two men,” pointing to both of their youth, charm, oratorical skill, and ability to arouse enthusiasm and admiration in so many Americans and particularly in American youth.

It appears that the resemblance between the two men does not end at oratorical ability, quit wit, charming personality, or even in their ideas. Obama wrote a book, published under the title “The Audacity of Hope,” and in it he invites leadership and American society to a new path for fixing American political life and facing the real problems of concern to American society: to build new ties between the solutions and the politics that seem at odds with American life as it is really lived, to imagine the facts, respect tradition, and benefit from studying the past. This book echoes Kennedy’s thinking and it is an earnest courage of thought and emphasis on hope that also distinguishes the two men.

Hope or Illusion?

Soon the primaries will end with the Democratic Party convening to choose their candidate to face John McCane in the 2008 election. Then Obama and the world together will learn if the abundant American public will leap into the future and share in Obama’s dream, of if the preference is to remain in the politics of the past, content that the time for change has not yet come.