Obama Strides Towards Victory

Four years ago, Barack Obama was campaigning to be a senator from Illinois. While attending a meeting at the White House that summer, an Illinois Congresswomen, Jan Schakowsky, was wearing an “Obama for Senate” campaign pin on the lapel of her suit jacket. After shaking hands with Bush, she noticed that he did a double take in order to get another look at her campaign pin. Schakowsky immediately knew what was going through Bush’s slow, dim-witted mind, and said with a smile, “That’s Obama, not Osama!’ Bush replied. “I have never heard of him.” Schakowsky then replied, “Mr. President, you will know him.”

Four years later, Bush has now not only heard of Obama, but it is becoming increasingly clear that when he steps down from office next year on January 20th, that Obama will most likely be his successor.

In the past few weeks, data from the various opinion polls have shown that Obama is set to enter the White House. In the remaining few days, unless some unexpected news or massive change of opinion occurs, Obama will most likely seize the moment and become the first African-American President in American history. Robert Kennedy predicted in the 1960s that within fifty years the United States would elect a black president. Unless something similar to opinion polls predicting Dewey’s victory over Truman occurs, this year we will see it happen.

Political observers in the American mainstream media almost all believe that Obama will win the 2008 general election against his opponent, 72-year-old McCain. Moreover, due to the resonating impact of Obama’s message of hope, Bush dragging the Republican Party towards collapse and the impact felt from the financial crisis, the Democrats will gain seats in both the House and the Senate, and control both Congress and the White House. The Democrats’ greatest hope is that they would be able to gain 60 seats in the Senate (they currently hold 51), so that they can avoid the Republicans from using the filibuster to block legislation.

Obama continues to call on voters not to be complacent and is reminding everyone, “Don’t forget New Hampshire!” During the primaries at the beginning of this year, opinion polls predicted that Obama would win, but in the end he lost to Hillary Clinton. Obama is a product of the times, but he is also creating the times. His vision, wisdom, coolness and vitality have given many voters a look towards the future and a feeling of hope. He also makes voters, who have undergone Bush’s incompetent governing and extreme policies for the past eight years, yearn for a new national leader. America has been ravaged by Bush and the Republican Party to the extent where staying the course is not an option.

Obama has striven for both efficiency and consensus in running his campaign. Since his campaign began two years ago, he has not changed any political advisors or staff at any level. This is in contrast to the incessant infighting that took place between Hillary Clinton’s top advisors and the repeated replacements and firings of staff in the McCain camp, or more recently, the news that has come out in the past few days concerning the friction between McCain’s advisors and Sarah Palin. After Obama comes his chief political advisor, David Axelrod, himself of Jewish origins. Axelrod grew up in New York and later worked in Chicago as a reporter. He has known Obama for 16 years and has been the brain trust behind Obama’s path to victory. He follows in the steps of James Carville, who was Bill Clinton’s campaign advisor and inventor of the catch phrase ‘It’s the economy, stupid’; and always at Bush’s side, the deceitful political advisor Karl Rove, who turned a mediocre slacker into the governor of Texas and then on to serve as president of the United States for two terms. Axelrod has said that after Obama enters the White House, he will continue to reside in Chicago and keep working as an advisor at his political consulting company.

At the beginning of this year, Obama pulled off a surprising upset in the Iowa Democratic Party primary (John Edwards placed second and Hillary Clinton came in third) when this rural, largely white state (whites comprise about 94% of the population, while blacks comprise only about 2.1%) threw its support around Obama. This was a wonderful beginning to the 2008 election which, when looking back, was only comparable to the Kennedy-Nixon campaign of 1960, so well-documented in Theodore White’s classic work, “The Road to the White House, 1960.” After this year’s election is over, a similar book will come out.

Obama has not only encouraged millions of young volunteers to campaign for him, but has created a campaign that is unprecedented in terms of it organization and mobilization strategy. Starting in the primaries, Obama’s call for change has been the key phrase of this year’s election, one which was later plagiarized by Clinton and copied by McCain. Earlier, Obama had maintained a lead in the opinion polls, but when the financial crisis hit, his lead steadily increased– a lead McCain will likely be unable to overcome. A number of swing states, including those red states that chose George W. Bush in the election four years ago, already appear to be leaning towards Obama. McCain is an old timer in Washington, but when the financial crisis hit and he announced he was suspending his campaign, he came off as rude, crass, often flustered and with no brains. At the same time, many senior leaders of the Democratic Party were calling Obama to advise him to do the same, break off his campaign, fly to Washington and join the meetings taking place to discuss the financial bailout. Obama resolutely refused, feeling that there was no need. He said that a leader must be able to do two things at the same time, otherwise how would he be able to solve the multiple crises that the next president will face?

McCain’s biggest mistake was choosing Sarah Palin as his running mate. She is someone whose views on foreign and domestic issues defy logic. How can she be a candidate for vice president? McCain’s choice is like having a load of bricks fall on your feet. Choosing Sarah Palin is proof that McCain has mental problems.

In the last remaining days, Obama has been giving a series of summary speeches in a number of extremely hotly contested areas. The 27th issue of the New Yorker magazine has Obama on the front cover in the midst of battle.

The American people must now wait for history to turn the page for the outcome.