In 2004, a young snazzy, fast-talking senator from crime-infested Chicago won the hearts and minds of an entire planet when he dismissed those pitching against his chances by pointing at his off-white skin colour telling his critics: “There is not a liberal America and a conservative America — there is the United States of America. There is not a black America and a white America and Latino America and Asian America — there’s the United States of America.”
He made powerful arguments about a new America, a brave new world, chose to go against the military-industrial monolith and swore to bring back every last US soldier serving in Iraq.
He never served in the US military and could not brag a roomful of wartime medals like his then erstwhile opponent John McCain who never hesitated to remind anyone that cared to listen that he was a decorated former Prisoner of War in America’s Vietnam outing. Obama sounded sober, conciliatory, worldly, wise, sophisticated and not encumbered by race like Sarah Palin.
He did not appear to have a famous cousin, uncle, neighbour or college professor to whom he could attribute his meteoric rise in school and politics.
Obama was just a maverick from a poor Chicago suburb who had made it and radiated this to everyone he met, saying, Yes, You Too Can Be Someone !
And with that, he grabbed the world’s attention!
He bared his soul in two books about his journey of discovery as he sought to travel to Kenya to visit the land of his father. They went on to become bestsellers overnight and obviously caused his bank balance to be flattered.
Mr Obama is half Caucasian and half Kenyan. Although he was born in Hawaii, his mother Ann Dunham is from Kansas, primarily of English heritage. His father Barack Obama Snr was a Luo from the Nyanza Province.
Yesterday, America’s 44th President Barack Obama hit the campaign trail on the last day to seek re-election in the face of a resurgent Republican challenger Mitt Romney.
Between them, a combined $2 billion was raised, the highest in the history of the US even as the race again made an ugly entrance.
Bitterness and recriminations about a record federal deficit, US’s perceived foreign policy weaknesses, a long recession that has seen thousands lose their jobs, and thousands more lose their homes, a seemingly unbreechable manufacturing gap with a fiercely competitive China and an energy crisis that has seen the US tap into wind, solar, increase fossil fuel exploration, throw money at nuclear and geothermal energy producers, while encouraging more Americans to buy hybrid and electric cars.
President Obama’s solid lead among women, Latinos and African American voters, compared to Romney’s popularity among white voters, swing state unpredictability, and gun lobby groups is worrying.
But placed on the scales against grateful immigrants who have secured jobs, the majority, dirt poor Americans, who would have benefited from the universal medical scheme Christened ObamaCare, his handling of various national disasters, the killing of Osama bin Laden and numerous Al Qaeda terrorist leaders using unmanned drones and Black Operations troops could see Obama and the Oval Office reunited.
fabric of society
He has proved that race, power and privilege no longer force the hand of the ballot. Obama has shown that the world can still spin on its axis despite our religious differences, international megatrends and various pro-choice groups can be accommodated without necessarily staining the fabric of society and public decorum.
Family values can again enjoy pride of place in a mad, mad world.
The Republicans’ relentless barrage about Mr Obama being the architect of the crumbling of America’s economic and social structure, sexism, homophobia and how to contain Iran’s nuclear ambition will cost the democrats votes. A lot of votes! The race will go down to the wire over an inescapable so-called “fiscal cliff” composed of spending cuts and the prospect of tax increases.
The ‘legitimisation’ of illegal immigrants, the balance of power in Congress considering Democrats have a narrow Senate majority while Republicans are angling to retain control of the House of Representatives at all costs will also be an issue tonight.
Clearly, tonight or tomorrow night, after the exit polls scroll across our cell phones, billboards, ticker tape, newsrooms and TV screens, this is not the feel-good election victory that the world watched and celebrated in November 2008. Chicago, the city made famous by gangland leader Al Capone made every newspaper headline in the world when she produced the first African-American president.
And Kenyans went on to claim a slice of the legend that was created. And just for that little fact, is excuse enough for this corner of the globe to root for the boy that carried his grandmother’s cabbages to a Siaya market, cycled through the streets of Chicago and addressed auditoriums in Nairobi, and even took an HIV test in Kisumu.
Yes, We Can afford to take sides in US Election 2012. Good luck Barack.
