PAGODA Intensive Program

Obama

Obama, On His Way to Become the First Black President U.S. presidential hopeful Barack Obama aims high to be next Abraham Lincoln.

Obama, On His Way to Become the First Black President
U.S. presidential hopeful Barack Obama aims high to be next Abraham Lincoln.
The 2008 U.S. presidential race just got a little more interesting
when a recent poll indicated that Senate Barack Obama and
Hilary Clinton were virtually tied for the Democratic Party nomination.
The Illinois senator bests Clinton by a single percentage point, 30%-29%,
according to a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll and it is the first time
for the 46-year-old presidential hopeful to lead the field.
In addition, black communities, who strongly supported Hilary Clinton,
now favor the candidacy of Barack Obama. This news certainly heats up the race
because many believe America will choose a Democrat over a Republican
in next year's election, making the bid for the Democratic Party more important.
There are lots of candidates for the Republicans,
as they try to find a suitable successor to their current leader,
George W. Bush, but most Americans are more concerned with
who their choice will be from the Democratic Party.
Obama is the rising star taking the country by storm.
With his bid to become America's next president,
Obama is raising some questions that all Americans seem to be asking themselves:
"Are we ready for our first black president?" And,
"What do we expect him to accomplish and what changes, if any,
will America go through?" These questions, along with similar questions
Americans are asking about Hilary Clinton, are what keep this presidential race
fresh and alive for so many people across the country and the world.
Other countries have paved the way with female leaders,
and perhaps it is America's turn to show the world it can keep up with
the changing times. So the first female president or the first black president?
That'll be the question.
Meanwhile, some people say Obama isn't truly African-American,
since he was born to a white mother from Kansas and a black father from Kenya,
and grew up with decent education unlike other typical blacks.
He graduated from Columbia University in New York City in 1983 and
from Harvard Law School in 1991. "Maybe that is exactly the type of
first black president we need. A not quite black man with real and
fantastic ideas is surely better than the current president, a real
white man with not so real and great ideas," said the former MTA Chairman
Richard Ravitch who donated $20,000 to Obama's campaign.
Like other candidates, Obama has many things on his agenda,
but what makes him special is that he tries to touch on the sore spot of the
U.S. history as an African-American presidential hopeful ?the issue of slavery.
African-Americans have long fought for an official apology from the US government
but so far they haven't received what they are looking for.
Now, if Barack becomes president, would he be qualified to apologize for slavery,
being half-black? Wait for a year and five months to see America's choice.