Why Obama is the Man
Rudolf Ogoo Okonkwo
Thursday, May 8, 2008
In February 2008, I wrote this article, Why Obama is My Man. It has been three months since, though it seemed like three years. The Obama that I saw then looked very different from the Obama of today.
He now look older. Maybe if we examined him closely, some grey hair must have sprouted out. He has gone through the political baptism of fire. In the words of the English proverb, a lot of water has passed through that bridge ever since. He came out of it, looking wiser.
Before North Carolina, I started an unfinished article titled Why Obama is Still My Man. In it, I presented a new set of arguments. They were the impersonal. I began by picturing the world in the next four years, wondering what America and the world would look like, what America and the world would need, and who amongst the candidates is better placed to deliver it - McCain, Clinton or Obama.
Within the next four years, 43-year-old Dimity Medvedev will be in charge of Russia, 42-year-old David Cameron will be in charge of Britain, 53-year-old child of a Hungarian immigrant, Nicholas Sarkozy, will be in charge of France and in Germany will be 54-year-old Angela Merkel. It is proper that America should be Obama’s country and not the 71-year-old John McCain.
I looked at the old and new conflicts of the world. I estimated that “obliterating Iran” is not a new language but an old one -the one that has been tried for several years and had given us nothing but trouble. It gave us trouble in Europe, in the Middle East, in Asia and in Latin America. It is therefore proper that Obama’s language of change prevails.
I looked at American soldiers in Germany, Korea and Japan. They are the products of believers in the 100-year war. The philosophy that kept us in this polarized world of 100-year wars was inherited from our fathers -a world where expensive checkmates are preferred to some negotiated peace. To update the dreams of our fathers, America should be Obama’s country.
I looked at countries like Cuba, Syria, North Korea and Burma. I reviewed the history of our past - a past where we vowed not to talk to our enemies. I looked at Libya, a country once in that column that moved away when we talked to it at the insistence of the British. And I know that Obama’s language of change prevails.
Beyond the conflicts, I looked at the new emerging world -a world where new guards of countries are on the march up. It is a world of globalization, interconnectivity, and multiracial leadership at the new top. The world needs some new understandings, new dreams, and new perspectives. Obama’s world would be at home in the new world to come.
I looked at the energy crisis. I see McCain and Clinton pandering to voters’ fears while Obama was trying to advocate a long term solution. I was immediately reminded of that great saying that a politician thinks about the next election while a statesman thinks about the next generation. And Lord knows we ought to have been thinking about the next generation eight years ago.
For these and other reasons, I decided before North Carolina that Obama is still my man, in spite of everything.
And, then came, North Carolina. He won. And climbed the podium and made his acceptance speech. In his speech, he showed that he understood. That he, like Thomas Jefferson before him “admired the dreams of the future more than the history of the past.” He showed his understanding that like Edwin Markham, when others draw a circle to keep us out, the best response built out of love is to draw a bigger circle and bring others in.
Having Obama come after Bush would have a once in a generation kind of transforming impact on America and the world had never seen. It would be as humongous as what would have happened if the Catholic cardinals had been bold enough to elect an African pope or a Latin American pope. But the Catholic Church chickened out when it mattered most.
I have known America to be bold. I have known America to be a pathfinder. America has shown again and again that it is a pacesetter.
I am watching America and what it does with Obama. My gut feeling tells me that America will do the right thing and retain its place on the front line of the world.
Obama has grown from being my man to still being my man. I am happy that he has transcended all that to get to the level where anyone who wants real change can stand up and simply say: he is the man.