Writing about Barack Obama’s candidacy with a focus on the issues is something of an impossible feat, not because the candidate has not taken strong positions on a wide array of issues—he has, and I will discuss them—but because his candidacy is very much about the character and story of the man himself.
Call this a cult of personality if you will, but to supporters and detractors alike his story is no less harrowing.
Obama has said that his story and indeed his existence is only possible in America. His father was a black Kenyan, his mother a white American.
He has said grandmother is still living in a hut in Kenya. His formative years took him from Honolulu and Indonesia to Los Angeles, New York and Chicago.
In Chicago, Obama took a job aiding the poor. Driven by his experience there and his conviction that he could not do enough at his job working for a Catholic charity group to, according to BustedHalo.com, “solve major domestic problems,” he pursued a law degree from Harvard University and became a noted figure and lawyer in Chicago.
Out of this Obama became a distinguished politician in the Illinois state legislature. While still a state senator, he delivered what could arguably be called the greatest speech in a decade, the keynote address to the 2004 Democratic National Convention.|
For one moment in one of the most divisive presidential campaigns in recent memory,
Americans came together and stood in awe of one man’s vision for the nation. Hardened pundits, conservative and liberal alike, recognized the power of his message.
In his speech, Obama praised “the audacity of hope” and the promise of America, and those themes have been at the heart of his presidential campaign. Since 2005, Obama has been serving as a U.S. senator from Illinois.
Despite being called inexperienced by Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaign, he has already established a record that rivals that of many of his seniors. He serves on several high-profile senatorial committees, including the Senate Committee for Foreign Relations and the Senate Committee for Homeland Security and Government Affairs.
In 2006 he introduced an initiative that expanded U.S. policies that combat the proliferation of nuclear weapons to also combat the proliferation of conventional weapons, such as those used by insurgents against U.S. forces in Iraq.
Unlike Sen. Clinton, he did not support the authorization of the use of force that allowed President George W. Bush to go to war, though now Clinton has joined him in calling for a phased withdrawal.
This perhaps is his most clear advantage over Clinton: unlike her, he can credibly say he was never part of the political mechanism that manipulated the United States into the Iraq War. Sen. Clinton, on the other hand, gave Bush a standing ovation in praise of his so-called surge as lately as the last State of the Union.
Obama has said that while the “surge” has “[made] a difference in certain neighborhoods... the overall strategy is failed because we have not seen any change in behavior among Iraq’s political leaders.” He has said he believes the solutions in Iraq are no longer military ones but political and diplomatic.
It is true that Obama’s official stance on the issues is very close to that of Clinton’s. However, Obama, with his charisma and energy has the potential to finally bring to fruition staples of the Democratic vision that have been on the back burner for decades.
No Democratic nominee for president has had the opportunity Obama has to ensure that all Americans have health insurance. Nor has any nominee been better poised to establish a new energy policy for the United States that would reduce its dependence on foreign oil and reduce the damage the United States’ current energy practices do to the environment.
And in the same way that he offers a chance to take on challenges that others, including Sen. Clinton, have taken on unsuccessfully before, Obama offers the United States a clear path to disentangle itself from the quagmire in Iraq.
In November, Barack Obama will not be running against Hillary Clinton but against John McCain. However, before he can do that, Democrats need to make clear that they want to take the high road rather than the dark encumbered path of Sen. Clinton’s empty promises.
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