Barack Obama is just a regular guy. His full name is a bit creepy: Barrack Hussein Obama. Think about it, you cannot say it without the sound "Iraq," the familliar name "Hussein" and the eerily similar name, "Osama." He is a junior senator from Illinois and is most likely to run for president in 2008 (on January 16th he took the first step toward launching a Presidential campaign, by forming an exploratory committee. A formal declaration is expected on February 10th). I am currently reading his
(#1 New York Times bestselling) book
The Audacity of Hope, and am simply amazed at his writing capacity. Much of politics is often boring and unattainable to many Americans, but with Obama, this is not the case. He makes all efforts to unravel and demystify all the ambiguities and impossibilities that politics has served to muck up. He seems genuinely interested in putting politics back to the level of the people, rather than pushing it further out into intangible obscurities.
To say that I have been quite interested in the man recently would be an understatement (I will try not to spend too much time ranting and raving on him here, but please forgive me ahead of time if I do). I can't help but be drawn in by such a hopeful and enigmatic personality so close to the White House. And so, without going on any more about it, I have decided to make a quick list of why I would vote for Barack Obama and by doing so, listing values I believe are important as a Presidential candidate in 2008.
1. He is intelligent. He attended Harvard law school, graduated magna cum laude. We need an intelligent president in the White House.
2. He is logical. Law school inevitably involves philosophical inquiry, debate and the appeal to reason. We need a logical president more than ever.
3. He is a natural leader. Obama has strong oratory skill that has already captivated many; clearly this is an essential characteristic as a presidential hopeful (in fact, this may be all that matters to many voters). His writing skills are of note here as well. Most presidents write books after being president, not 2 books before ever running! This is an older practice that has seemingly gone out of style or importance in modern times, but don't you think it's important that a president is a good writer? How else can he convince the people of his values and vision? (I guess that's what speech writers are for, but what a cope out!)
4. He has a strong reverence for the best president we’ve ever had, Thomas Jefferson, who of course, was also a brilliant and talented writer.
5. He makes decisions based on evidence rather than decisions based on intuition alone. Most likely another byproduct of Law school. Obama never voted in favor of the Iraq war, remarking in 2002 that, "I'm not opposed to all wars. I'm opposed to dumb wars."
6. He’s young, optimistic and inexperienced. Some say this is a deficiency but I think it's precisely what we need! Obama brings a fresh perpective and is unafraid at debunking the mysteries of politics. A youthful optimist would be embraced after two terms with a dogmatic bullhead. He has a
podcast where he exlplains "issues affecting Illinois, the nation and the U.S. Senate" in a way that makes sense to the people. How many other politicians take time to do that?
Given the current political climate, we all know a clear change is gonna come. Many like to say you have to choose between the "lesser of two evils" and perhaps that's true, but this time around it really doesn't look that bad. I guess after two terms with a president who doesn't even listen to "the people" of his democractic government, everyone else looks great.
Watch Obama's message yesterday on forming the exploratory committee
here.
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