[Opinion] Obama

At the Fleet Center in Boston on July 27, 2004, Barack Obama (now aged 46), a senator, won a victory on the second day of the primary electing a presidential candidate from the Democratic Party. As the first African American senator in history in November that year, his speech to the nation heralded the “debut of a star.” His speech touched upon the theme of “national unity” at a time of the buzzword, “the Divided States of America,” instead of the United States of America, facing division due to the Iraq War and racial conflicts.

Senator Obama with a “black wave” in the U.S. political circle made a de facto announcement to run for presidency in 2008 via his blog on January 16. Born to a white American mother and a black Kenyan father, he grew up with his grandparents due to his parents’ divorce. As a graduate of Columbia University, he worked as a local activist in Chicago, graduated from Harvard Law School, and then returned to Chicago to pursue his dream as a civil rights lawyer and professor. Then his career skyrocketed as he became a senator for the State of Illinois and then a member of the Senate of the United States.

Evaluations on congressman Obama as a senator for two years are divided. Some point out that he lacks particular achievements and contents. Nevertheless, he enjoys a similar degree of popularity with Senator Hillary Clinton who has been spotted as a dominant presidential candidate from the Democratic Party. The U.S. media attributes his popularity to the integrated image of black and white, youth in his 40s, an attractive look and stunning speech skills. The Democratic open primary election seems to have already acquired the spotlight thanks to the black vs. white confrontation and the male vs. female one.

Is the WASP-dominated U.S. ready to accept an African American president? The opinion polls at the end of last year by the Newsweek magazine showed 56 percent said yes. A whopping 93 percent of the respondents said yes to the question on their support for a black candidate from the party they support. However only when congressman Obama passes endless hurdles, including a thorough scrutiny of the media, acquisition of astronomical amounts of political funds and resistance from white voters will he advance to the finals.

Kwon Soon-taek, Editorial Writer, maypole@donga.com