OBAMA FOR PRESIDENT

We urge the electorate to send this man, Barack Obama, whose candidacy has been described as “transformational” by the former Secretary of State and Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, retired General Colin, to the White House.  We have no doubt that Obama would achieve greatness for America.  He will restore America to its past glories, a country that is feared for being the only super-power left in the world, but for being the country where the oppressed come to make their dreams come true. 

As of today, October 27, about 194 newspapers have endorsed Democrat Senator Barack Obama for president of the United States of America, as against 82 that have endorsed his Republican opponent, Senator John McCain.  This is a ratio of more than 2-1, and far exceeds that ratio of Senator John Kerry’s endorsement in 2004, which saw him garner 213 endorsements to President Bush’s 205.  In terms of circulation, the Obama endorsements far dwarf McCain by over 20 million to over 6 million.  Such major newspapers like the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune which has never endorsed a Democrat for president, and many other major newspapers in the country have all endorsed Obama.  While it has become a common knowledge that newspaper endorsements don’t translate into votes, nevertheless the African Sun Times joins this myriad of newspapers in endorsing Senator Barack Obama for President of the United States of America.

We might not be as big or influential as the New York Times, the Washington Post, nor can we claim that our endorsement would much change anybody’s mind 8 days before the election.  But it is pertinent to note that in the last 20 months, we have been mesmerized by the American political system; we have been encapsulated by the historic nature of the participants in that process; and we have been overwhelmed with admiration at an process that would allow a man who was abandoned by his father when he was barely two years ago, raised by a single mother, but have a dream of becoming the President of America and being nominated by a major party. 

It is a dream that is particularly impossible to realize in most other countries without some sort of major upheaval, such as armed uprising, but a process that we have found really fascinating in this country.  What the nomination of Barack Obama has shown to the world is America’s promise, and the inspirational acknowledgement that anybody who dreams in this country, and has the determination, could achieve whatever their heart desires.

When Obama started his campaign about 20 months ago, nobody gave him chance of ever being chosen the nominee of the Democratic party: he had to contend with the all-but crowned juggernaut of the party, and backed by a former popular President, Senator Hillary Clinton.  For the Clintons, it was their right, the Oval office belonged to them and Obama was an interloper.  The black community was skeptical about whether an African-American from the south-side of Chicago would make it – more than anything else, they feared for his life and they doubted that white America would vote for him.  They had already been through that before with the likes of Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, Rev. Jesse Jackson, and the Rev. Al Sharpton.  Even the majority of the black political leadership didn’t want anything to do with Obama’s candidacy as most of them hooked their wagon to the Clinton candidacy.  But the first primary in the state of Iowa, a state that is more than 95 percent white, launched Obama on fulfilling his political dream by giving him the most percentage of votes in more or less a three-way race, between Obama, Senator Clinton and former Senator John Edwards.  The win in Iowa changed the black community’s fear of Obama not being a viable candidate.

There was euphoria in the Obama campaign which was short-lived, as Senator Clinton defied poll numbers showing an Obama win to defeat him.  But afterwards reeled off a string of primary wins in states that you didn’t think would be thinking of even voting for a black man.  His successes led to the so-called “kitchen-sink strategy”, devised by the Mark Penn of the Clinton campaign, being thrown at him.  The strategy was devastating and engendered a great amount of anger within the black community, but as we have noted before, all is fair in politics, and we agree with those who say if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.  In hindsight, I believe the black community must be thanking the Clinton campaign for having ground Obama for the nail-tough candidate he has become, in competition with a Republican party that has always employed subterfuge in winning elections.

Since winning the Democratic party’s nomination as its candidate for President of the United States, we have seen the same tactics, and even worse than that thrown by the Clinton campaign being hauled at Senator Obama.  First, it was that he hadn’t gone abroad and what kind of foreign policy credentials did he possess.  Then Obama dared his critics and took the challenge.  The whole world was electrified by his candidacy.  World leaders gave him red-carpet treatments, culminating in more than 200,000 screaming Germans attending his rally and waving American flags, rather than burning them because of the hostile atmosphere that the present administration had created throughout most of the world.  But rather than seeing this as the coming of the American triumph in restoring American image, it was turned into a negative, dubbed the anointing of a celebrity.

Many a time, it amazes us how Barack Obama has been able to absorb all the nefarious, sleazy and slimy accusations thrown at him by the Republicans.  We are not saying that the Obama campaign has not thrown its own.  But we have been particularly disturbed by the accusations, still strongly being circulated that Obama is a Moslem.  Then he is accused of associating with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright for 20 years, and those who applaud Senator McCain for not bringing up the Rev. Jeremiah Wright controversy should understand that it has nothing to do with being above it all, but everything to do with letting the perception of a Moslem Obama percolate. 

It is possible that Senator John McCain would easily be riding to the White House based on an assumed experienced leadership that would not have been demonstrated had not the financial crisis intervened and showed Americans who has the better judgment.  On the same day that the stock market was trading down by almost 700 points, Mr. McCain was proclaiming that the “fundamentals of the economy was strong.” In less than 24 hours, he proclaimed the economy was in crisis.  Then he decided to suspend his campaign and return to Washington, DC, to take charge of getting the proposed bailout package that the Treasury Secretary had proposed, apart from calling for the suspension of the debate and an avowal that if the package didn’t pass, he would not attend the debate.  To most people, it reinforced what McCain had said about not understanding the economy. 

On the other hand, his Democratic counter-part, Senator Barack was steady and calm, a quality most Americans have come to admire in him.  He wasn’t jumping all over the place, proposing one solution in the morning, discarding it within hours, and proposing yet another solution.  Throughout the three debates, while McCain showed a lot of anger, disdain and mostly negative attacks on his opponent, Obama showed him respect and calmly articulated the issues and the solutions he proffered in solving the financial crisis.

We urge the electorate to send this man, Barack Obama, whose candidacy has been described as “transformational” by the former Secretary of State and Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, retired General Colin, to the White House.  We have no doubt that Obama would achieve greatness for America.  He will restore America to its past glories, a country that is feared for being the only super-power left in the world, but for being the country where the oppressed come to make their dreams come true. 

Obama for president of the United States of America.

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