Obama: A man with a dream

Visit Barack Obama's website and images of the Senator and his family dominate the opening page. Yet recently, if you were to check out the Hillary Clinton site you would've been confronted with a flickering banner 'Elton, Hillary - one night only. Get your tickets now.'

Browse further and you would've discovered that the former First Lady's surname is conspicuous in its absence. She's referred to as Hillary, for purposes only too obvious.

Obama has a name that's rarely mentioned too. It's his middle name, Hussein.

Last year, allegations were raised that Obama was a Muslim, given that his Kenyan grandfather practised Islam and that between ages of 6 and 10, Barack lived in Jakarta, Indonesia, the country with the largest Muslim population in the world.

There according to his book The Audacity of Hope, he attended a Catholic school and later a "predominantly Muslim school".

Insight, a US conservative online magazine that started the sensation, claimed Obama had spent at least four years in a Muslim seminary in Indonesia. It accredited this information to Clinton aligned researchers, a claim that was denied by the Clinton team.

It turns out Obama had never been a practicing Muslim, but had spent time in the local Islamic centre as a child. The Senator's line has remained consistent throughout. "I was not raised in a religious household," he wrote in his book.

His American mother was secular and he describes his Indonesian stepfather as "skeptical" about religion. His Kenyan father, who was separated from his mother when Obama was two years old, was an atheist. Issue resolved, for now.

Ironically, it was Obama's association with the Trinity United Church of Christ that caught the media's attention this year. When the comments by his former pastor, Rev Jeremiah Wright, were aired, it was time for Obama - who had largely escaped controversy until that point - to talk the talk.

In a 2003 sermon, Wright criticised the US's treatment of African Americans and other ethnic groups. "When it came to treating her citizens of African descent fairly, America failed. She put them in chains, the government put them in slave quarters," he said.

But the soundbite that got the most coverage was: "God damn America, for treating her citizens as less than human. God damn America, as long as she pretends to act like she is God, and she is supreme. The United States government has failed the vast majority of her citizens of African descent."

The comments were a curve-ball for even the most astute political advisor. Yet Obama's reaction was to write and deliver a speech that tackled head-on the perceptions of blacks and whites that are rarely addressed directly in public.

He criticised Wright's divisive statements, yet affirmed the disadvantaged position of many African-Americans. Yet he called on them to take responsibility for their future, not play the blame game.

At the same time, he explained perceptions many whites have of black neighbourhoods and their association with crime.

He described the resentment within the white community over programmes intended to improve the lot of African-Americans, many of which commenced when the living standards of the white working class were in decline. He spoke frankly about the "racial stalemate", the gap in black and white perceptions of reality.

And although Obama condemned Wright's remarks, he refused to leave the church, citing strong links to the community and the man who married his wife and him.

But the coup d'etat was that Obama presented his own personal story - the son of a white woman and black man - as a bridge. "It's a story that hasn't made me the most conventional candidate," he said.

"But it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts - that out of many we are truly one."

Bridging differences

Obama's former professor at Harvard Law School and a leading authority on US constitutional law, Laurence Tribe says this ability to bridge differences is typical of Obama's approach.

"Barack Obama is extremely brilliant, enormously empathetic, invariably ethical and profoundly far-sighted," he told 4Men.

"He listens well, has an open mind, follows reason where it takes him, avoids bitterly ideological stereotypes and has a remarkable capacity to heal and unite people of dramatically different and even diametrically opposed backgrounds, assumptions and aspirations."

Yes, you guessed it - Tribe is an Obama supporter. However, his endorsement of his prize student suggests that Obama has a quality that may not only help in resolving domestic concerns, but also international issues.

Foreign affairs is a key issue in the primaries and the election will be no different. Clinton's line is that she and McCain and are more seasoned in international relations than Obama.

It's not the first time she's elevated McCain's experience at the expense of her fellow Democrat. And more likely than not, the division may play into the Republicans' hands. Only time will tell.

But if Obama does win the contest and ultimately, the White House, what does this mean for foreign affairs and the Middle East?

Candidate with a world view

Having only spent three years in the Senate, Obama lacks experience in the political sense. However, his academic background in constitutional law and life experience hold him in good stead.

Having lived in Hawaii and Indonesia and with strong links to Kenya, he's leagues ahead of George W. Bush's grasp of the international community when he came to office.

"A lot of my knowledge about foreign affairs is not what I just studied in school. It's actually having the knowledge of how ordinary people in these other countries live," Obama told a rally last year.

"The day I'm inaugurated, I think this country looks at itself differently, but the world also looks at America differently," he said.

"Because I've got a grandmother who lives in a little village in Africa without running water or electricity; because I grew up for part of my formative years in Southeast Asia in the largest Muslim country on earth."

With the US facing challenges on multiple fronts in the Middle East, surely a president with some practical understanding of the outside world would project a better image of the country?
And in such testing times, it's conceivable that an Obama Administration would be a welcome break from George W. Bush's belligerent style.

"I believe that the international community would react with great enthusiasm and hope to the election of President Obama," says Tribe.

Iraq and troop withdrawal

The handling of Iraq is of mounting concern in the US and thus far Obama has clean hands as far as this is concerned.

And although it remains to be seen whether it'll be a vote winner, the one issue that separates Obama from the other candidates is his consistent opposition to the invasion of Iraq.

Barack Obama told 4Men in an email: "Senator Clinton says that she and Senator McCain have passed a 'commander-in-chief test', not because of the judgements they've made, but because of the years they've spent in Washington. She made a similar argument when she said her vote for war was based on her experience at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue."

"But here is the stark reality: there is a security gap in this country - a gap between the rhetoric of those who claim to be tough on national security, and the reality of growing insecurity caused by their decisions.

"It is time to have a debate with Senator McCain about the future of our national security. And the way to win that debate and keep America safe is to offer a clear contrast, a clean break from the failed policies and politics of the past. Nowhere is that break more badly needed than in Iraq."

Obama vows to remain firm on his troop withdrawal policy, but is short on details on how Iraq can be stabilised. Perhaps that's because he's in election mode and views the troop withdrawal primarily as a means of guaranteeing US security.

"Fighting a war without end will not force the Iraqis to take responsibility for their own future. And fighting in a war without end will not make the American people safer.

"When I am commander-in-chief, I will set a new goal on day one: I will end this war. Not because politics compels it. Not because our troops cannot bear the burden - as heavy as it is. But because it is the right thing to do for our national security, and it will ultimately make us safer."

Obama's campaign manager David Plouffe says Clinton and McCain are not dealing with the ramifications of a war they both supported. Plouffe told 4Men in an email.

"After five years of overwhelming evidence that we are less safe, less able to shape events abroad, and more divided at home, Senator Clinton and Senator McCain are failing to address the consequences of a war they both supported that should have never been authorised and never been waged."

But Obama's trump card is his position on returned servicemen, a sure vote-winner.

While in the Senate, he sponsored an amendment to the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to provide one year's job protection for family members caring for seriously injured soldiers - an amendment that was vetoed by President Bush.

Obama's grandfather was a US-returned serviceman, which is possibly a personal motivation behind his commitment. Tribe says Obama's actions on this issue illustrate his commitment, saying: "No-one has manifested greater concern with the rights and welfare of soldiers returning from battle than Senator Obama."

Campaign two

It all sounds promising. But all Obama's rhetoric will amount to nothing if he fails to get over the line against Clinton and then later against McCain.

While Obama's speech on race was inspiring to many observers, polls in March showed Obama lost ground to both Clinton and McCain due to Rev Wright's comments.
And despite the Republicans vowing there would be no mud-slinging this election, the issue is likely to re-emerge should he face McCain in the presidential contest.

But if Obama does become the Democrats' presidential nominee and is faced with a new opponent, his campaign will invariably change course.

So far in the primaries, the Obama campaign has experienced extraordinary success by charting an innovative new course combining online networking and volunteer mobilisation.

Rolling Stone magazine recently blew the lid on the Senator's social networking campaign. Partially internet-based, it encourages online supporters to move beyond the internet and mobilise volunteers and potential supporters at grassroots.

Many of the initiatives start at my.barackobama.com - the campaign's social networking site, which one of the founders of Facebook helped engineer.

On the site, events are announced and volunteers are encouraged to form their own Obama groups and organise their own rallies without any 'top-down' micromanagement. (One group's even known as AlamObama.) It's all about empowerment.

Participants are 'organisers', not 'volunteers' - they call the shots.

It has worked remarkably and many commentators point to this as an important factor behind Obama's impressive polling in the primaries. And volunteers are already organising ways of ensuring "core supporters" go to the polling stations for the presidential election.

Register with Obama's website and you'll soon be bombarded with emails like the following: "Spread the word. Introduce your friends, family, neighbours, or co-workers to Barack Obama. Let them know why you support Barack and encourage them to join our movement for change: http://my.barackobama.com/invite."

It's the 2008 equivalent of door-knocking... and no messy baby drool, either. The article attributes this grassroots style to Obama's former job as a social organiser - he worked in community housing in Chicago in the 1980s - and contrasts this with Clinton's traditional "top-down, broadcast TV" campaign.

Although this style has paid dividends against Clinton, in the presidential race it could have the added advantage of targeting people who don't usually vote - a section of society most analysts predict are more aligned with the Democrats than the Republicans.

If these people take to the polling booths, it could have a huge impact. Most studies have shown that a slight increase in voter participation would be of considerable benefit to the Democrats.

In the meantime, if Obama's to be the next president, he must maintain a squeaky-clean image and build on his reputation as a unifier, having already made inroads to white and Hispanic voters. The words 'unify' and 'come together' are standard fodder in the Senator's speeches.

"We are at a defining moment in our history," Obama told 4Men. "This must be the election when America comes together behind a common purpose on behalf of our security and our values."

At the Obama website, if you make a donation to the campaign, you'll be in the draw to have dinner with him. (With humble pie on the menu, you'd presume.) It's a far cry from the razzle-dazzle of 'Elton, Hillary - one night only.'

And although Obama's 'break the bread together' tactic is probably more style than substance, it at least projects a wholesome image. And that's what counts.

If the election comes down to ethics, Tribe sees Obama as unassailable, "Barack Obama is one of the most deeply ethical people I have ever met," he says. "I believe that a government whose ethics would be beyond reproach would be a hallmark of his presidential administration."

Brave words. Interestingly, Tribe has been in line to get a position on the US Supreme Court for some time now. And should his favourite ex-student become president, who knows what'll happen?