It’s not entirely shocking — nor is it totally “official” — but Sen. Barack Obama will be a Democratic candidate in the 2008 election.
And in all likelihood, so will Hillary Clinton.
It isn’t as if black men haven’t run for president before. It isn’t as if women haven’t run for president before.
But for them to run in the same election and for them to possibly be the frontrunners in the Democratic primary, clearly, America is demanding change.
When former Vice President Al Gore announced Jewish Sen. Joseph Lieberman as his running mate in 2000, the Connecticut senator’s religion made headlines.
Obama, too, is making headlines — and not just because he’s black. He’s Muslim, his last name rhymes with “Osama” and his middle name is Hussein in a country sensitive to
terrorist threats from Muslim extremists. In a country that has had only one non-Protestant president, it may seem like the odds are
somewhat stacked against Obama.
But the senator has one clear advantage over other presidential hopefuls.
When Congress voted on invading Iraq in 2003, Obama wasn’t even in Washington. He was a senator in Illinois, and he didn’t have to vote on the war like his will-be Democratic opponents. He will have immunity from the dreaded “flip-flopper” talk that haunted Sen. John Kerry’s campaign in 2004.
However, his short tenure on Capitol Hill makes Obama’s presidential bid a tad premature. Gaining more experience and waiting until the 2012 election may give him a better chance at victory. He would have four more years to promote his clean image and powerful optimistic visions without dirtying his name.
Once he enters the ring that is a presidential campaign, gloves will come off, and his reputation won’t come out unscathed. His chances for being elected after an unsuccessful campaign are slim — the last president to do so was Richard Nixon in 1968.
If Obama loses the primary, he will most likely support whichever democratic candidate comes out on top. At that point, whoever is challenging the GOP should integrate Obama’s ideas into his or her campaign. Unity is not just an effective strategy — it is also something Obama preaches. In a video message to his supporters, Obama said, “Our leaders in Washington seem incapable of working together in a practical, common-sense way.”
But whether Obama wins the primary or not doesn’t really matter. His presence in the race, and enthusiastic support for the minority runner, is enough to symbolize how far the country has come from the days when only white men in powdered wigs had a chance at the Oval Office.