Unless you’ve been underground for the last few months, the name “Barack Obama” should be relatively familiar to you. The senator from Illinois is hot stuff right now. Last week, he was Time Magazine’s cover story. Obama became an overnight success and superstar of the Democratic Party. He has been jet-setting across the country in a remarkably presidential-like fashion.

He has even made a stop in our town.

As the Massachusetts’ gubernatorial election draws ever closer, the candidates have been pulling out all the stops, doing what they can to grab undecided voters. Obama flew in last week, throwing his support behind fellow Democrat, Deval Patrick.

After the 2006 midterm elections in November, the real election on everyone’s mind — and perhaps on Obama’s too — will be the 2008 presidential election. With more and more politicians coincidentally, or not so coincidentally, making appearances in key primary states, it goes to show that it’s never too early to start campaigning.

And though in 2004 Obama said, “I can unequivocally say I will not be running for national office in four years,” his language in recent months clearly suggests that he has not ruled out the possibility. Many people are hoping that this possibility becomes a reality. If you are anticipating an announcement tune into Oprah sometime after the November elections, as he has said that if he ran, he’d make the announcement on her show.

Obama garners popularity because he offers an alternative approach to traditional politics. He manages to maintain a strong political image, while working effectively across party lines. People support Obama because he opposes the war in Iraq and has done so even prior to being senator. He represents everything that good government should be.

Obama is unique even outside the realm of politics.

While he is currently the only African American in the Senate, he was also the first African American editor of the Harvard Law Review. With his father from Kenya and his mother from Kansas, he is “African American” in the most literal sense of the term. Growing up in Hawaii and Indonesia, educated in New York and Boston and residing in Chicago is certainly not a typical experience.

If Obama were elected president, there’d be a new spin on the Oval Office and welcome change for many.

So I’ve talked about Barack, and now I must talk about the “hard place.” The hard place I’m referring to might be the only thing preventing Obama (assuming he runs) from being elected to national office. The hard place, in fact, might impede any African American from living at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. The hard place I am referring to is the American South.

The American South throughout history has had a touchy relationship with African American issues. Since the colonial period and until the later half of the 20th century, African Americans did not have the same rights and opportunities as whites. The southern racist legacy, while not being as vehement as it once was, still lingers today.

I am not arguing that racism is limited to the South. Racism is found across America, and throughout the rest of the world. However, racism toward African Americans is-in its most concentrated form-present in the South.

It is hard for African Americans to even win senatorial and gubernatorial elections in the south, let alone an election to be the big cheese. Rep. Harold Ford Jr., a Democrat from Tennessee, is running for Senate in the 2006 Midterm Election. If elected, he would be the first African American Senator from the South in more than 100 years.

Racism aside, it is hard for anyone who is not from the South to be elected president. Since 1964, all of the presidents of the United States have been from the South (excluding Gerald Ford, because he was never elected to the presidency). The sheer number of electoral votes that the South holds influences every presidential election strategy.

In 1960, John F. Kennedy selected Lyndon B. Johnson from Texas as his running mate. Had Johnson not been on the ticket, Kennedy would never have won crucial southern states like Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Georgia and the Carolinas.

Obama reminds many people of a modern JFK. He would certainly be a breath of fresh air.

If he decides to run, Obama should take a page out of the Kennedy playbook. The strategy, however, is not infallible. Obama’s talents have got him this far, so anything is possible. With the help of southern running mate, Obama might be able to crack even the hardest of places.