Barak Obama – President in 2012?
I’ve been meaning to post this for quite some time – since I saw Barak Obama present the keynote at the 2004 DNC Conference. What I saw him present that night reminded me very much of the videos I have seen of a previous young, charismatic presidential candidate – then Sen. John F. Kennedy. In fact, Sen. Obama made reference to President Kennedy in the speech he made that night. He has a certain air of authority in his communication with the people of the nation, which if nothing else, makes me listen to what he has to say.
Now, I am a conservative on just about every issue that comes up (I like to consider myself independent, since there are many Republican candidates now are starting to move away from both social and fiscal conservative viewpoints to get elected), so the title of this post may seem a bit unusual. But with comments like the one below, he has a direction which could be very beneficial to the nation in bringing everyone back together.
The pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. But I’ve got news for them too. We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don’t like federal agents poking around in our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and yes, we got some gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and patriots who supported the war in Iraq. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.
Sen. Obama recently announced his plans to run for president in 2008. The critics are now calling his skin-color into question, saying he’s not black enough since he is the child of parents who were not the same race. Saying that any black candidate who gets a lot of attention from white people will be questioned, and that many black leaders have allegiance to other candidates (such as Sen. Clinton) already, and won’t sever their ties. I believe this sort of division will ultimately lead to his loss, probably in the primaries, for the 2008 bid.
The country as a whole is so divided that any candidate will have trouble winning the election based completely on a “we need to change” strategy. It’s far too early to develop a strong platform, since we are over a year away from general elections, and there’s no telling where the country will go in the mean time. The president in 2009 will enter leadership of a divided nation, and will probably not be able to change much. The DNC will learn from the mistakes of division, and will nominate Sen. Obama for a 2012 bid for the White House. If he sticks to his “unity for the nation” message, he will gain support from a majority of the nation, who will long be ready for a change in political rhetoric, and he will win the general election by a landslide.
Well, that’s my prediction anyway…I’m interested to hear what you have to say on the issue!
