Barack Obama

Barack Obama (full name: Barack Hussein Obama), the United States senator from Illinois and a contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, has got the rare virtue of coming across as an extraordinarily level-headed person in these increasingly polarised and polarising times when consensus building is usually frowned upon. As a result, he feels like a breath of fresh air to us who live in Europe.
I do not remember exactly why and when I started taking an interest in him. I think it was his name Barack (the blessed), which caught my attention. I did not expect a politician from Illinois to have an Arabic name. (His grandfather, Hussein Onyango Obama, who cooked for the British colonial officers in Kenya and later became a prominent farmer, was a Muslim). He has got a mixed race heritage. His father, Barack Obama, was from Kenya and his mother Stanley Ann was from Kansas. She was of European extraction.
Although much has been written about his sheep-herding father, it is only partially true. True, as a little boy his father herded goats, but those goats belonged to Barack's grandfather. At the same time, he also attended the village school. From there he went to college in Nairobi. Later, he studied econometrics at the University of Hawaii, where he met Barack's mother.
Barack was born in Hawaii. Although I cannot consider him a good father (he abandoned Barack when he was only two years old), he turned out to be a brilliant scholar who got a Ph. D from Harvard, and held important positions in the government of Kenya.
Then in July 2004, I watched Barack on the television delivering his keynote address to Democratic Convention. No doubt, it was a political speech laying out his policy positions, but it was also a sincere exposition of his incisive views on human rights, race, class, identity and conflict.
In the post 9/11 era of Bush's America, it was gratifying to hear an American politician say in front of hundreds of delegates: "If there is an Arab American family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process, that threatens our civil liberties. It is that fundamental belief -- that I am my brother's keeper, I am my sister's keeper -- that makes this country work." I was impressed.
Since then I have followed him across the length and breadth of the United States giving speeches and attending conferences. Later, I learnt that before becoming one of the youngest members of the US Senate he had worked as a community organiser in Chicago, as editor of the Harvard Law Review, as a professor of constitutional law at the University of Chicago, as a civil rights lawyer, and as a state senator.
No story on Barack Obama can remotely be considered complete without mentioning the contribution made by his mother to what he is today, a brilliant orator, a pragmatic politician, and a man with clear moral authority.
Barack's father is remembered more as a myth than as a man. Barack's mother, Stanley Ann, who was born in Kansas, was a remarkable woman. Although born and brought up in a segregationist society, she had no traces of racism in her.
During the long absence of Barack's father, it was she "who was the single constant" in his life. In the preface to the 2004 edition of his searchingly candid memoir, Dreams from My Father, Barack wrote about his mother, "I know that she was the kindest, most generous spirit I have ever known, and that what is best in me I owe to her." It is an appropriate tribute to an uncommonly decent and wonderfully generous woman.
While Barack's mixed race background has raised questions about his black "authenticity" in the African-American community, and prompted a string of racist hate mails from the so-called white community, it has also helped him not to have extremist views on race and identity.
Unlike many African-American politicians, he does not sound permanently aggrieved on racial issues. His emphasis has always been on reconciliation and not on confrontation.
After all, besides his mother, the people who raised him in Hawaii with great care and affection were his maternal grandparents from Kansas. Since he feels comfortable in both the communities, he can "work both sides of the aisle," This is the principal reason why he has so many passionate supporters in both communities and his fund raising campaign has gone so well.
Although he opposed the war on Iraq from the very beginning, it would be a mistake to consider him a dove. He has made it clear often enough that if elected as president of the United States, he will not hesitate to use force to protect America's vital interests.
Now the question is: With all this, will he be able to win the Democratic nomination? Probably not. Although Obama has got a lot of charisma and an unbeatable oratorical flair, his detractors keep harping on his lack of executive experience.
He worked as a state senator for six years before becoming a member of the United States Senate, which office he has held for the last two years. On the other hand, his main rival for the Democratic nomination, Mrs. Hillary Clinton has been in the business of politics for the last thirty years or so. Besides, Hillary Clinton has inherited a uniquely efficient election campaign organisation from her husband, President Bill Clinton.
But many polls suggest that Barack Obama has a better chance of beating Rudy Giuliani or McCain because of his vision and moral clarity. He is also "the most naturally gifted American politician after Bill Clinton." On issues like the invasion of Iraq, torture (Abu Ghraib), and violation of international law (Guantanamo) which have destroyed the moral and political standing of the US in the world, Mr. Obama has been very clear from the very start.
He has opposed them all. That is why he has earned the moral authority to repair America's broken relationship with the world. Bush has been such a divider that the Americans may want a unifier and a healer as their next president. Well, if that is so, Barack Obama is their man.

Chaklader Mahboob-ul Alam is a columnist for the Daily Star.