Obama launches presidential bid

[Neo]

Saturday, 10 February 2007

Obama launches presidential bid

Mr Obama is a frontrunner for the Democratic nomination.

Democratic Senator Barack Obama has launched his presidential campaign with a speech in which he pledged to "build a more hopeful America".
He began his official campaign with a call for the Iraq war to end, saying US troops must withdraw by March 2008.

Mr Obama, 45, is considered by many to be the first African-American candidate with a realistic chance of winning.

He, along with Senator Hillary Clinton, is leading the race for the Democratic Party's nomination for the 2008 vote.

A large crowd of supporters braved the sub-zero temperatures in Springfield, Illinois to watch Mr Obama make his announcement.

In the shadow of the Old State Capitol, where Lincoln once called on a divided house to stand together, where common hopes and common dreams still live, I stand before you today to announce my candidacy for president of the United States

Barack Obama

He spoke to the crowd of his working life in the state over the last 20 years, first as a community worker, then as a civil rights lawyer and finally as a US senator.

He said it was the lessons learnt watching the daily struggles many faced that had ignited in him a desire for change.

"That is why, in the shadow of the Old State Capitol, where Lincoln once called on a divided house to stand together, where common hopes and common dreams still live, I stand before you today to announce my candidacy for president of the United States," Mr Obama said.

Changing politics

As he made the announcement the crowd cheered and chanted his name.

But having served just one term as a senator and with no experience of executive office, many have questioned whether Mr Obama's skills match his ambition.

As he declared his candidacy Mr Obama acknowledged that fact saying:

"I recognise that there is a certain presumptuousness in this, a certain audacity to this announcement. I know that I have not spent a long time learning the ways of Washington, but I have been there long enough to know that the ways of Washington have to change."

Mr Obama said the first priority was ending the conflict in Iraq.

"America, it's time to start bringing our troops home," he said. "It's time to admit that no amount of American lives can resolve the political disagreement that lies at the heart of someone else's civil war."

Mr Obama was elected to the US Senate after Congress voted to support President George W Bush in his decision to go to war in Iraq, but in 2002 made a speech opposing the conflict.

He went on to criticise the current administration for what he called a failure of leadership to address issues like America's dependence on oil and a failing educational system.

Race issue

Mr Obama burst on to the national scene in July 2004 when he delivered a stirring keynote speech at the Democratic party convention.

His declaration that there was no white or black America, but a United States of America helped him win a seat in the Senate that year and subsequently set him on a fast track to vie for the White House.

Time magazine has dubbed Mr Obama "America's hottest political phenomenon" and US chat show host Oprah Winfrey urged him to announce his candidacy on her programme.

But instead he chose to launch his presidential campaign on the very spot where Abraham Lincoln once denounced the divisions caused by slavery.

However, unlike previous black presidential candidates, Mr Obama was not part of the civil rights movement, which correspondents say makes some African-Americans wary of him.

His mixed race heritage - with a white mother from Kansas, and a black father from Kenya - has led some observers to suggest that he is an African and an American, but not an African-American.

Though undoubtedly ambitious and charismatic, with relatively little national experience and formidable opponents, including Mrs Clinton, many question whether he can really secure the Democratic nomination, and whether he has the depth of policy to match.

Mr Obama has tried to answer critics in recent weeks, introducing a bill that calls for the phased redeployment of US troops from Iraq.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6349081.stm

 

[Neo]

Saturday, February 10, 2007

Obama’s Muslim connection
By Saleem H Ali

Obama’s connections with Islam could be a means of improving America’s strained relations with the Muslim world through empathy and erudition. Sadly the American political landscape is still not ready to break the glass ceiling for a truly multicultural candidate

Never before has the middle name of a US senator gained as much print coverage as that of Senator Barack Hussein Obama of Illinois. For the past several months the US media has been obsessed with the potential connection between Mr Obama and Islam, even though he has adamantly declared his credentials as a Christian.

The auditory similarity between “Obama” and “Osama” has led to all kinds of jokes and media slips that are quite revealing of the continuing apprehensions about Islam that so many citizens continue to feel across the land. Of course, the US Congress now has a bona fide Muslim member, Keith Ellison, from the state of Minnesota, and his decision to take an oath on the Quran instead of the Bible created an uproar as well. However, the significance of Mr Obama’s Islamic connection is far more consequential because of his national prominence.

Obama is already the front-runner among the democratic candidates in terms of overall popularity, despite being dismissed by some conservatives as a political novice with “oddity appeal”. The roots of Obama’s Muslim lineage and its potential implications, if he were to become the next American President, have only received polarised coverage. His opponents have pounced on the connections to discredit him while his supporters have been quick to dismiss the lineage as remote and of little relevance.

The reality is perhaps more complex and Muslim countries and Americans should have a more mature approach to understanding his multicultural identity.

Barack Obama’s paternal lineage is important for us to consider as it clearly has played an important part in the crafting of his personality. Mr Obama’s father was a Kenyan Muslim who separated from his American mother when the senator was only two years old. However, his mother soon remarried another Muslim, from another corner of the world — Indonesia. Obama’s stepfather Lolo Soetoro, was an important presence in his early years, specially since the family moved to Jakarta. His longing for a connection with his cultural roots, and his sense of loss at being separated from his father is perhaps best articulated in his first book (written twelve years before his presidential aspirations), which is titled Dreams from my Father.

However, because of the political rumblings, the poor senator has been cornered into distancing himself from his connections with Islam and pandering to pristine patriotism. The mere possibility that he might have attended a madrassa in Indonesia at the tender age of six suddenly became more important than his Harvard law degree.

In his recent book The Audacity of Hope, Obama presents a more secular cadence about his early years: “During the five years that we would live with my stepfather in Indonesia, I was sent first to a neighbourhood Catholic school and then to a predominantly Muslim school; in both cases, my mother was less concerned with me learning the catechism or puzzling out the meaning of the muezzin’s call to evening prayer than she was with whether I was properly learning my multiplication tables.”

While such a resolute commitment to objective knowledge on his mother’s part may well be commendable, the exposure to foreign cultures and traditions which Obama experienced should always be considered an asset by all. Indeed, his connections with Islam could be a means of improving America’s strained relations with the Muslim world through empathy and erudition.

Sadly the American political landscape is still not ready to break the glass ceiling for a truly multicultural candidate. In the last election, the complex African-Portugese lineage of Senator Kerry’s wife Teresa Heinz Kerry became the talk of the town. At least as a result of the Kerry caper, a large number of my fellow Americans were able to locate Mozambique on a map.

America is not alone in its fear of minority dominance. Pakistani politicians are always suspicious of non-Muslims climbing up the ladder in political circles, which is just as unfortunate. Occasionally we may have individuals such as Jamshed Marker or Justice Cornelius rising to major posts of authority. The same occasional nontradiational outliers in the US government, such as Zalmay Khalilzad or Shirin Tahir-Kheli may also be found. However, nationalism is still the game of dominant players in most polities.

In Israel, there was divisive rhetoric this week hurled against the first Arab member of the cabinet, Raleb Majadele, who remains without a portfolio because of entrenched discrimination. India’s ceremonial President Abul-Kalam has frequently been questioned by the conservative Hindu establishment for his Muslim allegiance which he feels obliged to wash away with champagne cheers.

Sadly, we are still living in a world where credentials are constantly being filtered through ethnically determined innuendoes. Beyond the platitudes of ‘diversity requirements’ in US colleges or corporate training programs, it is high time that multiculturalism becomes an essential credential for leadership rather than being a liability.

Dr Saleem H Ali is associate professor of environmental planning and conflict resolution at the University of Vermont and a senior fellow at the United Nations mandated University for Peace. He can be reached at saleem@alum.mit.edu

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\02\10\story_10-2-2007_pg3_3