I believe that Barack Obama is the best candidate to succeed George W. Bush as President of the United States. I wanted to highlight three recent articles on Barack that I found interesting. (Then again, it’s easy to find an article interesting when it shows “your” candidate in a positive light.)
Vanity Fair recently ran an article called Raising Obama, which discussed the important role that both his mother and his grandmother played in his life. Largely a background piece, it really focused on his family and his upbringing in Hawaii as well as the beginning of his political career.
Newsweek ran an article called Barack’s Rock, which discusses his wife Michelle and their relationship. She certainly seems like a strong woman herself, rising from a South Side of Chicago childhood to Princeton and Harvard Law School, only to be coaxed into community work through Barack.
While those are both interesting reads, there is one article that I found truly fascinating. It talks about Obama hopes to achieve through politics, and how his community organising has directly impacted his philosophy and the kind of campaign that he hopes to run. The kicker? It was written over ten years ago, as he was running for Illinois State Senate in 1995. Check it out on the Chicago Reader website here.
I think it is absolutely remarkable exactly how consistent Barack Obama has been in his political career, from when he first ran for office to his current run for the presidency. Certainly his scope has changed, but the philosophy is the same. In order to build a better life for our country and our society, we all need to become involved.
The popular criticism of Obama is that he’s just a great speaker, and hasn’t “done anything.” “All hat and no cattle.” That sort of thing. (Which ignores some very important legislative accomplishments both as a member of the Illinois State Senate and the US Senate, by the way.) These critics say that idealism won’t get the drug companies and insurance companies to give an inch on any health care bill.
I think there’s more to him here than many believe, and it can be shown in a short segment of a speech I found on YouTube. He speaks directly to how he will solve political problems as President; hope inspiring people to action, and that action overcoming tremendous opposition. Check it out here:
Jed Christiansen 