Barrack Obama: Only in America!
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Franklin Otorofani, Esq.
05: 16: 08
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As the world
watches with horror and trepidation the cataclysmic, tsunamic events in Myanmar
(formerly known as Burma), where aid agencies estimate that about 100,000 people
may have perished and still counting, and the unfolding seismic doomsday
scenarios in the People’s Republic of China, where the Chinese authorities now
estimate that about 50, 000 people were crushed to death underneath crumbling
buildings, a political revolution of biblical proportions is quietly sweeping
across the United States of America (USA)—God’s own Country, (GOC)!
May the good Lord grant the victims of the cyclone and earthquake eternal rest,
and their bereaved relatives the fortitude to bear the colossal loss of human
lives.
The storm in America is a benign one and couldn’t be more different from the
killer storms and quakes in Asia. Yet it has its fair share of political
obituaries in this campaign season. In the eye of that storm is a hitherto
relatively unknown state lawmaker in his mid forties (46) of African paternal
ancestry, weaned by his poor, struggling white mother on food stamp, and who
only some four years ago, managed to scrape up some crumbled greenbacks to pay
off his student loan.
His name is Barrak Obama, the Illinois Senator who burst into national political
limelight with his stirring speech at the 2004 National Democratic Convention in
Boston, Massachusetts, where Senator John Kerry was nominated as the
presidential flag-bearer of the Democratic Party to face President George Bush
for his second term battle.
That was the real beginning of Obama’s presidential campaign although few
realized it back then. Talk about the power of speech—talk about the power of
the word! Just like the quintessential American hero, the civil rights leader,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., before him used the power of words to change the
American society, Obama has used the same verbal toolkit to mesmerize Americans
and vaulted himself onto the summit of American political power.
De-segregation Vs. Integration
If Dr. King was known as the ultimate de-segregationist, Obama has cast himself
as the veritable integrationist and his life’s biographical sketch is the
greatest proof of that progressive bearing. Obama’s meteoric rise to the US
political stratosphere is predicated on the objective conditions of the American
society even in the 21st century.
Although de-segregated at the superficial level in partial fulfillment of Dr.
King’s dream for which he laid down his life, the American society is still
segregated at the atomic or spiritual level. Racism still runs deep in parts of
the American society and there is no better proof of that than the results of
the North Carolina and West Virginia primaries, which respectively, gave Obama
and Clinton over 70% of black and white votes. While this is by no means a true
reflection of the rest of the country, it nevertheless highlights the fact that
while de-segregation may have, by and large, been achieved, integration is an
unfinished business. And Obama has his work cut out for him.
Thus, the clarion call ‘CHANGE,’ which is the official slogan of the Obama
campaign encapsulates the burning desire of the Illinois Senator to truly
integrate the country, for the first time in her history so that Americans would
see themselves not as ‘African Americans,’ ‘Hispanics,’ ‘Arab Americans,’
‘Italian Americans,’ and the other numerous sub-national categories, but simply
as ‘Americans.’ As an African immigrant, I have always wondered why the
different racial and ethnic prefixes to the word ‘American’ that only serves to
highlight racial differences? Why can’t Americans simply refer to themselves as
‘Americans,’ period, instead of this or that ‘…American’?
With no one to provide me with an answer, I simply concluded that America is
probably envious of other nations with an agglomeration of ethnic or
sub-national identities as for instance, in Europe, Middle-East and, of course,
the biggest of them all—Africa, the birthplace of humanity. It has thus decided
to invent artificial tribes to compensate for its natural deficiencies in
traditional ethno-racial composition of its nation/state. These artificial
barriers and divisive racial lines are thus the number one target of Obama’s
presidential whiteout.
Resonance
But how has Obama’s battle-cry resonated with his compatriots in an election
years? Put another way, have Americans bought into his message, and if yes, to
what degree? There is no better evidence of the impact of his progressive
message than his routing of the Joint Ticket of Bill and Hillary Clinton—(sorry,
I should have included Chelsea Clinton). As I was penning down this piece the
overall delegates count (pledged and super delegates) has Obama only 130
delegates shy of reaching the 2025 minimum required to clinch the Democratic
nomination— having closed, and then overtaken Hillary in her last super
delegates holdout—with some 35 super-delegates won over by Obama in the last
couple of weeks alone!
The bad omen for Hillary is that she is not winning new super delegates and even
her own super delegates like Governor Bill Richardson are jumping her sinking
ship and hopping on board Obama’s victorious ship. She is losing super delegates
instead of winning them.
Since she won the West Virginia primary, she has only picked up one or two super
delegate compared to the droves that have flocked to Obama even in defeat. It
couldn’t have been any worse than that for the never-say-die embattled First
Lady. With that last holdout crushed, Obama is now leading on all counts—higher
number of states won, higher popular votes won, higher pledged and super
delegates, and higher national poll numbers when paired with John McCain, the
presumptive Republican Party nominee.
It might sound a little presumptive to hold that Obama is the Democratic Party
nominee at this point in time with some six primaries left and over 200 super
delegates still holding out and uncommitted publicly though they might
privately. However, for all practical purposes, the nomination is over as many
Democratic Party chieftains have been declaring publicly, lately. This is based
on the insurmountable odds against Clinton in the delegate math. With every
passing date, Hillary options shrink to nothingness. What is more; the
Republican nominee is already treating Hillary as side show and directing all
his verbal assaults on Obama, even as Hillary is still holding on to the last
straw.
As indicated earlier, Hillary’s last holdout was the huge number of some 800
super delegates many of whom were still undecided a few months ago. Today, that
number has shrunk to a little over 200. Even so, they’re not headed Hillary’s
way but in the opposite direction to Obamaway! And the remaining six primaries
offer her no hope either nor is the anticipated resolution of the Michigan and
Florida conundrum.
Even if Obama concedes both to her, which is unlikely, she will still fall
short—which is why the game is practically over. And the good news is, the
Clintons know it though they won’t publicly admit it for strategic reasons.
And with former presidential contender, Senator John Edwards, endorsing Obama at
a rambunctious rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, picture perfectly timed to blunt
the impact of Hillary’s runaway racial ‘victory’ in West Virginia, the
nomination is over and the deal Obama all but closed in North Carolina and
Indiana is now under lock and key.
Within hours of the Edwards endorsement, four of his pledged delegates switched
to Obama. In addition, Obama picked up three new super delegates—namely; Reps
Henry Waxman, Howard Berman, and James McDermott. Overall, Obama now has 1895
total delegate count to Hillary’s 1718; leaving her with a deficit of 177—an
unbridgeable gap, and that’s no ‘fairy tale.’
Besides, Edward’s endorsement paved the way for Obama to win the endorsement of
600,000-member strong United Steel Workers Union which formally backed Edwards.
Obama has also won the endorsement NARAL Pro-Choice America, an abortion rights
advocacy group.
It’s important to note that these endorsements and super delegates haul occurred
after Hillary’s victory in West Virginia. Hillary’s victory in the over
90%-whites state has only served to increase the movement of super delegates to
Obama, turning the hitherto trickling endorsements to a virtual avalanche as
earlier predicted by pundits.
As mentioned above, Obama is now just 130 delegates short of the magical 2025
mandatory figure to clinch the nomination, (pledged and super delegates). With
the rate super-delegates are now flocking to him therefore, it’s only a matter
of days not weeks, before Obama attains the magic number and sink the nail into
the coffin of Hillary’s presidential ambition, at least for now.
“We are here tonight because the Democratic voters have made their choice, and
so have I,” Edwards was reported to have declared to a thunderous applause in
Grand Rapids in an AP report. With that declaration, the deal was signed,
sealed, and delivered, literarily rather than symbolically.
Obama has proved time and again that he’s the master of the game. This is
evident in his far superior campaign organization unmatched by Hillary’s; his
fund raising prowess, national spread and other parameters. This reality is not
lost on team Hillary. I watched Clinton’s interview with Brian Williams of the
NBC today, May 14, 2008, and there was no mistaking her melancholic tone of
resignation even as she insisted on holding out till June 3, when the primaries
formally wind down.
Hillary’s Evil Wish-List
It’s rather troubling that Hillary is hoping for lightening to strike Obama just
so she could snatch the nomination from the jaws of death and run away with it.
With an evil minded, diabolical opponent like Hillary, who needs an enemy for a
Vice-Presidential ticket? It’s not enough that she has done everything in the
Republican playbook to destroy Obama with minimal effect on the ‘Teflon’
candidate, Barrack Obama. She is now holding out, hoping upon hope for some
miracle or evil to befall him.
Clinton is the only candidate in recent memory, who has stubbornly refused to
quit when all indications point to the fact that the game is over. What’s she
waiting for? For some evil to befall Obama, of course! Or, failing which to
pitch her overly racist arguments about white working voters who would not vote
for Obama, as if that is one of the criteria for nominating democratic
presidential candidates, assuming she is right.
At the beginning of this campaign when she was the national front runner,
Clinton told the world after losing South Carolina, that her loss didn’t matter
because she was still ahead of Obama in the delegate count and only delegates
mattered in the nomination contest. Now that she is hopelessly behind, she is
introducing blatantly racist arguments about white working democrats who
wouldn’t vote for Obama. Delegates count no longer matters to her. It’s the same
shenanigans she displayed in the Michigan and Florida cases.
When she was the national front runner, she and her campaign spoke persons ruled
out delegates from Florida and Michigan because they flouted the party rules and
were penalized, and that was why the contestants took their names off the
ballots. Today, however, after falling behind in delegates count, she has made
180% u-turn and has suddenly become the champion of Florida and Michigan
delegation to the National Convention. What a phony is Hillary Rodham Clinton!
Despite her evil machination, Obama continues to be the choice candidate of his
party as super delegates move to him in droves especially since his triumphant
entry into Congress last week where he was literarily mobbed by his elated
colleagues—with some of them even calling him ‘Mr. President,’ as he weaved his
way around pumping hands and penning autographs for pages who thronged the
gallery to catch a glimpse of the rock star-like Senator.
Only in America would a son of an African immigrant aspire to the pinnacle of
power and actually knock on the door of the White House—the seat of the world’s
only remaining super power. But how was Obama able to pull it off? I must
confess that I’m still dazed by it all. Little wonder Bill Clinton called it a
‘fairy tale!’
‘Ouch!’ Clinton must have cried out loud. The former President didn’t know what
hit him and his wife. He couldn’t reconcile himself with the reality that his
wife, who was the presumptive democratic nominee and national frontrunner at the
beginning of the primaries, suddenly found the body of her campaign on a
stretcher and placed on death bed gasping for oxygen as he tended to her.
Clinton’s laborious campaigns in small town America to rescue his wife from the
jaws of defeat have not been met with commensurate returns.
Is this the hand of God shaping history in God’s own country? Who knows! But it
sure has all the trappings of the Biblical God who used the highly improbable,
Lilliputian David to vanquish Goliath, the generalissimo, to liberate the
Israelites from bondage. In a non-pejorative literal sense, President Clinton
was probably right. It’s truly the stuff fairy tales are made of. Obama’s
political trajectory is nothing short of a miracle, and it goes to show just how
far the American society has come from its racist past.
Firefighters teach us that three elements are responsible for fire to burn—
fuel, oxygen, and heat (Fire Triangle)—all of which three are mutually
reinforcing. While this is fitting subject for political historians and pundits
to ponder, perhaps after the election, suffice it to state however that three
factors have contributed to Obama’s roaring success.
The first is Obama himself; the second is the American people, and third is
Hillary herself—all of which are mutually reinforcing, just like the fire
analogy above. Obama’s electrifying oratorical prowess, which is the heat or
spark, found ‘fuel’ in the desire of the American people to break with the past
and embrace a new type of inclusive politics. And their hatred for the divisive
politics of the Clintons, which was unabashedly on full display even in this
campaign season, was the oxygen needed to start the fire, thus completing the
‘Fire Triangle.’ What’s more; Clinton’s own strategic blunders coupled with her
attitude of entitlement from the Democratic Party, alienated not a few
Democrats. No wonder they’re jumping ship—but Only in America!
International Dimensions of Obama’s
Integrationist Doctrine
However, Obama’s integrationist agenda has international dimensions to it and
thus extends beyond the shores of the homeland. Should Obama win the November
presidential election, and (I don’t see McCain stopping him), the face of
international relations will be changed forever from its adversarial conundrum.
This is evident in his willingness to have direct talks with America’s arch
enemies like Iran, Cuba, and Syria ‘without pre-conditions.’
Obama is poised to deploy America’s soft-weapon of aggressive diplomacy in place
of President George Bush’s gun-boat diplomacy. This is underscored by Bush’s
criticism of Obama in far away Israel that has drawn the ire of Democratic
leadership in Washington and had the President’s spokeswoman scrambling to his
defense.
Direct diplomacy at the highest levels of government is by no means a sign of
weakness but of strength. If anything, trigger happy diplomacy is a product of
fear and insecurity and therefore reveals the underlying weakness of its
practitioners. With the world proliferating new power centers America will soon
discover that gun-boat diplomacy is an anachronism that’s better left in the
history books of international relations. This is why Obama’s doctrine has
especial relevance in the emerging world. It’s a doctrine that fits the times
perfectly and will definitely find resonance in the outside world.
The world is on the brink of entering into a new era of a new type of ‘détente’
devoid of wars and conflicts in which scarce national resources will be deployed
toward fighting hunger and diseases and the alleviation of the present terrible
human conditions parts of the world rather than on wars and conflicts. Wouldn’t
be wonderful if the United States spent $10 billion a month fighting hunger and
diseases and for the provision of potable water, roads, and schools in
impoverished countries, rather than on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, for
example?
Or, wouldn’t be nice to spend that money fighting dreaded diseases here in the
United States and reverse the effects of global warming; or for that matter,
provide healthcare and education for all Americans? As this article was in the
works President Bush’s $160 billion appropriation bill for the war funding in
Iraq and Afghanistan is stuck in Congress. That is money that could be used to
fix a broken healthcare and educational system at home. The answer is certainly
not far fetched.
But this dream can only be achieved by extending Obama’s doctrine of integration
to every nook and cranny of the world, because, though there may be a thousand
nations, there is only but a single humanity, joined together at the heart by
common hopes, desires, and aspirations to live with one another in peace and
harmony.
Therefore, at this historical juncture in the history of the United States,
Barrack Obama holds the promise, not only to change America for the better, but
to change the world as well in fundamental ways never before contemplated by any
national leader. This may very well turn out as second American Revolution with
far reaching benevolent effects on the world at large. It’s a message of
national renewal.
And just like the first, its rays will radiate from its epicenter in the United
States to illuminate the dark corners of the globe where genocidal wars,
violence, and conflicts, blight the hopes and aspirations of humankind. Obama is
the groom of history—but Only in America!
Franklin Otorofani, Esq. is based in the United States
Contact: mudiagaone@yahoo.com
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