The U.S. Senate Historical Office lists Senator Barack Hussein Obama, of Illinois, is the fifth African American Senator in U.S. History and, if elected to the presidency in November 2007, will be the first African American president as well as one of the youngest presidents to gain this office. Obama was born in August 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Barack Obama, Sr. and Ann Dunham. Obama’s parents separated when he was two years old and later divorced. His father returned to Kenya and died in a car accident when Obama was 21 years old. His mother married Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian foreign student, and the family moved to Jakarta, Indonesia in 1967, where Obama attended local schools until he returned to live with his maternal grandparents from fifth grade until his graduation in 1979.

While some media sources strut Obama’s racial ethnicity as important, I believe that his success is not just a matter of racial pride for one group and should not be stressed as thus. Obama is a man with ideals and principles that have been sadly lacking in the previous administration and he would serve to help all American citizens not just a chosen few such as the big oil companies. His integrity is obvious when he does not try to hide the fact that, as a teenager, trying to reconcile his multiracial heritage, he experimented with alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine. He was an early opponent of the Bush Administration’s policies on Iraq. Obama stated at a 2002 anti-war rally in Chicago that, “I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of al-Qaeda. I am not opposed to all wars. I’m opposed to dumb wars. You want a fight, President Bush? Let’s finish the fight with Bin Laden and al-Qaeda, through effective, coordinated intelligence, and a shutting down of the financial networks that support terrorism, and a homeland security program that involves more than color-coded warnings.”

In February 2007, Obama announced his candidacy for the 2008 U.S. presidential election emphasizing his intention to end the Iraq War and to implement universal health care. When questioned about the Iraq War, Obama asked,”Are we serving Seamus as well as he is serving us?” Then he continued: “When we send our young men and women into harm’s way, we have a solemn obligation not to fudge the numbers or shade the truth about why they’re going. We need to care for their families while they’re gone, tend to the soldiers upon their return, and to never, ever go to war without enough troops to win the war, secure the peace, and earn the respect of the world.” On the Internet, I have also noted some individuals trying to instill fear in the masses by purporting that Obama is a Muslim and, as such, cannot be trusted. The fact is that his father, who Obama had little association with after his parents’ divorce at age two, was raised a Muslim and had shunned such beliefs before Obama was born. In fact, a theme of Obama’s keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, and the title of his 2006 book, The Audacity of Hope, was inspired by his pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. In Chapter six of the book, titled “Faith,” Obama writes that he “was not raised in a religious household.” He describes his mother, raised by non-religious parents, as detached from religion, yet “in many ways the most spiritually awakened person that I have ever known.” He describes his father, “raised a Muslim,” as a “confirmed atheist,” and his Indonesian stepfather as “a man who saw religion as not particularly useful.” The chapter details how Obama came to understand “the power of the African American religious tradition to spur social change.” Obama writes: “It was because of these newfound understandings that I was finally able to walk down the aisle of Trinity United Church of Christ one day and be baptized.”

Obama’s U.S. Senate Web site lists “creating programs like the state Earned Income Tax Credit”; “an expansion of early childhood education”; and “legislation requiring the videotaping of interrogations and confessions in all capital cases” as his most notable accomplishments. In Obama’s 2004 Democratic National Convention keynote address, he said: “No, people don’t expect government to solve all their problems, but they sense deep in their bones that with just a slight change in priorities, we can make sure that every child in America has a decent shot at life, and that the doors of opportunity remain open to all. They know we can do better and they want that choice.

Obama took an active role in the Senate’s drive for improved border security and immigration reform and in September 2006, Obama supported the Secure Fence Act, authorizing construction of fencing and other security improvements along the United States - Mexico border. President Bush signed the Secure Fence Act into law in October 2006, calling it “an important step toward immigration reform.” As for foreign affairs Obama has traveled to Russia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan with Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN), Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to discuss strategies for controlling the world’s supply of conventional weapons, biological weapons, and weapons of mass destruction. In Ukraine, they toured a disease control and prevention facility and witnessed the signing of a bilateral pact to secure biological pathogens and combat risks of infectious disease outbreaks from natural causes or bioterrorism. After visiting Kuwait and Iraq in January 2006, Obama traveled to Jordan, Israel, and the Palestinian territories where he met with both the Israeli Foreign Minister, Silvan Shalom, and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Since 2004 Obama has fought to solve the problems facing our communities such as the need for expanded children’s health care, tax cuts for the working poor, and welfare reform. Another issue of great importance is embryonic stem cell research, which Obama supports as seen in the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act that he co-sponsored in 2005 (which was vetoed by President George W. Bush). Obama condemned Bush’s veto, saying “Democrats want this bill to pass. Conservative, pro-life Republicans want this bill to pass. By large margins, the American people want this bill to pass. It is only the White House standing in the way of progress - standing in the way of so many potential cures.” How does Obama fare? Overall, I think that he is a conscientious individual who will do everything within in power to make America a fairer and better place for all Americans and now with a Democratically controlled Congress he may have a chance to make a real difference.

[tags]barack obama, presidential candidate, ethnic candidate, pro-choice, antiwar, universal health care advocate, embryonic stem cell research, immigration, foreign policy[/tags]