"I Am Barack Obama"

Much has been made of Barack Obama's swoon effect on voters of all political stripes. As a Republican (in name only), deeply disgusted by GOP rule these long last years, I am now a strong supporter of the Senator from Illinois. Obama's never blown me away in debates and I havn't heard him speak in a public arena. But I am deeply impressed by him. He speaks the language of my generation (I'm 38); and he speaks to many of us in different and better ways. I identify with him in more ways than I do not; as a veteran, I believe he would make the best commander-in-chief; and I absolutely believe he has our nation's best interests at heart. He has shown a cool temperament, excellent judgement and leadership as a candidate and legislator. Most importantly, though, despite claims that Obama isn't experienced enough for some 3 a.m. emergency, it's important to note that he was one of the few public officials to openly oppose the invasion of Iraq. That kind of courage and independent thinking in a leader is what our nation is now desperately in need of.

Mark Winston Griffith, senior fellow for economic justice at the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy, has written an excellent piece on why he supports Obama for president. Here's a taste:

Much has been made of Barack's considerable charisma and the cult of
personality that has grown around his candidacy. Both John McCain and Hillary
Clinton, watching helplessly as audiences swoon for Obama, have tried, without
much success, to undercut his affect on voters by painting him as a candidate
without substance. But when I, as a journalist, interviewed him during his U.S.
Senate campaign tour throughout rural and exurban Illinois in 2004, I wasn't
awestruck. Rather, I identified with him. As I sat in the back of his campaign
car plying him with questions, I couldn't help thinking that he could have
easily been one of my friends. In fact, one of the biggest compliments I can
give Barack is that as impressive as he is, he's not wholly distinguishable from
the many poised, socially dexterous, and eloquent black women and men with whom
I've gone to school.

But what was perhaps most personally intriguing about Obama was that
his unhesitant foray into electoral politics represented the road I had forsworn
years ago. Once upon a time I believed, as a community activist, that I could
become a social-change agent of the highest order by becoming an elected
official. Such was my chosen destiny until working in the sausage factory of
electoral and campaign politics turned my stomach and made me seriously rethink
that path.

While interviewing Obama I realized here was a man who was not
unlike me but who had been walking through the ugly meat grinder of national
politics and had emerged apparently uncynical and with his humanity intact. For
every post-civil-rights child who was promised she or he could become the first
black president, but hasn't been willing to endure the personal and even
spiritual deformity the political process subjects people to, Barack has been a
revelation.