Campaign '08

  On June 7, 2008, Barack Hussein Obama Jr, who was born the fourth of August 1961, son of “the bref union between a young man from Kenya and a young woman from Kansas” became the Presidential Nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2008 United States Presidential Election and the first African American to be selected by a major political party for POTUS. But who is the real Barack Obama? Is he a threat or on the contrary the very embodiment of the American Dream? What about his political positions, his opponents, his opinion about the American Dream?

“He’s an Arab!”

“He’s an Arab!” claimed this old woman during one of John McCain’s speeches. “No, madam, he is a respectful family man…” answered the Presidential Nominee of the Republican Party. The word “Arab” sounded like an abuse.

In the eyes of many Republican supporters, Obama is still a Muslin terrorist married with a member of the Black Panthers, who worships Bin Landin and spits on the Stars & Stripes. Icky Thump! Shocking! He’s on the contrary the very embodiment of a successful career: former student of the University of Columbia and the Harvard Law School, he became State Legislator of the Illinois’s Senate in 1996, and was sworn in as a US Senator on January 4, 2005.

From 2005 to nowadays, Senator Obama introduced the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Concept to Conventional Weapons, authorized the establishment of USAspending.org (a website about federal spending), introduced the Strengthening Transparency and Accountability in Federal Spending Act (along with Senator John McCain), the Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act and the Iraq War De-Escalation Act in 2007: he seems to be the very embodiment of the Democratic ideal.

“I read all of them”

“Which newspapers do you usually read?” asked the journalist. “… I read all of them” answered John McCain’s running mate. Is Sarah Palin so busy so she can only read the “Zealot’s Chronicles”, or is she simply inexperienced?

According to some rocket veterans of Washington politics, the nomination of Sarah Palin as John McCain’s running mate doesn’t make sense. But, “an anti-choice, pro-guns, pro-drilling, creationist zealot; isn’t it what women want?”

McCain’s supporters see a heroic and fiery personality; we prefer to call it a liability. It makes no doubt that John McCain is a passionate Maverick, a feisty Give’Em-Hell as Harry Truman, a Vesuvian as Lyndon B. Johnson. But according to the Time Magazine published this week, “some veterans of Arizona politics paint a more complicated picture of McCain as just a crusader against corruption. They talk of bullying and intimidation, of meetings when he banged the table so hard they feared it would split”. Barack Obama’s first opponent seems to be a charismatic but dangerous cow-boy, with an inexperienced zealot as running mate.

 “I got a crush on Obama”

Barack Obama is on the contrary a cool-as-krystal like John Fitzgerald Kennedy, a cool-handed Hopemonger. Temperament is in the eye of the voter, and that is probably why he is an appreciated candidate.

He is above all a funny politician: “If we keep talking about economy, John McCain will probably loose… So, let’s talk about economy”, said the US Senator of Illinois during a charity dinner.

Thanks to the Obamania, American students are little by little discovering politic. “It is an historical moment, I am now a voter!” claimed Ian Cramer, a young student of the University of Hofstra, New-York. Young American want to share in the first generation who will elect an African American as POTUS. “It’s now so cool to talk about politic!” Rachel Myers, one of Ian’s friends, gets enthusiastic about Obama.

“Obamania”

Robb Friedlander, 19, became last month president of the Obama’s supporters Club of Hofstra. He is about to go in Pennsylvania with 200 others students, to make some canvassing. “With 200 students, we may win one thousand of electors, with one thousand of electors we may win a swing state, and with a swing state we may win the Election!” said Robb.

The very embodiment of the American Dream

M. Barack Obama is like the immigrants who came from Europe during the 19^th century: he was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, his mother was from Kansas and his father was from Kenya, he has been living in Jakarta, Indonesia, was elected to the Illinois Senate and is now one of the rocket politicians of Washington. During the 19^th century, natives should not have feared the immigrants to compromise the unity of America, because the diversity of immigrant’s origins is now a part of the American culture and unity. And now, people should not considered Obama as a threat but on the contrary as the very embodiment of a successful career in America, “a place still brimming with liberty and opportunity.”

“Four years ago, I stood before you and told you my story, of the brief union between a young man from Kenya and a young woman from Kansas who weren't well-off or well-known, but shared a belief that in America their son could achieve whatever he put his mind to.”

Interviews and images extracted from Obama’s Acceptance Speech, Time Magazine published this week, French newspapers “Courrier International” published on September 2008, “Figaro Magazine” published the 15^th of October 2008 and lemonde.fr.