Translated material
True African American
Kenyan's son is on the warpath for the White House
Today, Democratic Senator from Illinois Barack Obama ( pictured ) will give a speech at the University of New Hampshire, in which he will outline his program for the fight for the US presidency. Obama, a 45-year-old African-American, entered the election campaign last Saturday. Obama's main rival among Democrats is 59-year-old Senator Hillary Clinton. In a survey at the end of January, 43% of Democratic respondents supported her, while only 15% supported Obama.However, the Illinois senator is optimistic. He hopes that his slogan "Let us transform this nation!" will attract the young and middle generation of Americans. To critics who point out his lack of political experience, Obama responds, not without sarcasm: “I know I didn’t listen enough to the instructions from Washington. But I had enough time to be convinced that it was time to change these instructions.”
The son of a Kenyan father and a white Kansas woman, Barack Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. He went to school in Jakarta (his mother, after divorcing a Kenyan, married an Indonesian student), but then returned to the United States. There he received a higher education, worked in business, participated in social programs to help people from low-income families, and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago.
In 1996, Obama became a senator in the Illinois State Legislature. His political biography also included defeat in the elections to the US House of Representatives in 2000. In 2004, the ambitious politician won a seat in the Senate, receiving 70% of the vote.
At his first campaign rally on Saturday in Springfield, Obama highlighted his work in the state, where he said his desire to help ordinary people led him to study law and give birth to his desire to serve in the Senate. There was a remarkable historical parallel in Mr. Obama's speech. It was with work in the Illinois Senate that President Abraham Lincoln, who abolished slavery in 1863, began his political career. What's more, Obama's speech on Saturday took place in the very same room where Lincoln gave his 1858 "Divided Parliament" speech. Barack Obama did not fail to recall those times: “We can build a more promising America. It is to this end that in the shadow of the old State Capitol, where Lincoln called upon legislators to unite, where common hopes and common dreams are still alive, I stand before you today to announce my candidacy for President of the United States.”
Taking the podium accompanied by his wife Michelle and two daughters, 8-year-old Malia and 5-year-old Sasha, Barack Obama spoke about his intention to modernize America, increase investment in education, protect the social interests of workers and employees, defeat poverty, and rid the United States of oil dependence , fight international terrorism and recreate previous geopolitical alliances. His top priority is the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq. Obama said the American deaths do not help resolve the political divisions at the heart of the Iraqi civil war.
For his rejection of the White House's Iraq strategy, Barack Obama has already received criticism from one of President Bush's closest allies, Australian Prime Minister John Howard. He said that the candidate's statements "will inspire those who want to completely destabilize and destroy Iraq" and that "terrorists are hoping for Obama's victory." The candidate's press secretary, Robert Gibbs, responded briefly: "Howard is mistaken."
“Barack Obama is an extremely interesting politician, if only because he fully corresponds to the so-called “American dream,” Nikolai Zlobin, director of Russian and Asian programs at the Washington Institute of World Security, told Vremya Novostei. “He comes from a poor large family, grew up in one of the suburbs of Chicago, where everything is controlled by criminal gangs, including ethnic ones.” Mr. Zlobin said Mr. Obama “really has a chance to become the first African-American to have a successful political career through election. He is very ambitious, charming and a charismatic crowd favorite."
However, with rare exceptions, presidential elections in the United States are won not by congressmen, but by governors. “A senator can always be caught voting differently than he promised, or not in the interests of certain groups of the population. Governors are less public, they have administrative experience, and by definition their state votes for them. Many Americans believe that administrative experience is more important for a potential president than legislative experience,” noted Nikolai Zlobin.
In addition, some of Barack Obama's ideas are too extravagant - such as the call to begin withdrawing American troops from Iraq in May. VN's interlocutor also doubts that African-American Obama, representing one of the most liberal states - Illinois, will be perceived positively in the southern states (for example, in Texas). “The newly minted presidential contender cannot yet boast of serious financial and political support from influential US business circles,” the expert notes.