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Opinion

Obama ready for White House

Colin Ferguson
Opinion Columnist

Sen. Barack Obama represents the new Democratic hope.

It's only the midterm elections, but many reporters are looking forward to the presidential race two years from now. 

Among the list of hopeful Democrats hoping to become president, we have Sens. Hillary Clinton and Obama -- both of whom have become household names.

Clinton is a solid leader and a strong woman to boot. However, she is uninspiring at best. 

Without a solid image, the Democrats must resign themselves to losing the most important seat in the country for the third time in a row.

This leaves us with Obama. Back in 2004, Obama was running for his current Illinois Senate seat when he made a name for himself at the Democratic National Convention by being the best speaker present. He is most remembered for calling for an increase in unity among Americans.

"The pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into red states and blue states -- red states for Republicans, blue states for Democrats," Obama said. "But I've got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the blue states, and we don't like federal agents poking around our libraries in the Red states. We coach Little League in the blue states and have gay friends in the red states. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and patriots who supported it. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America."

Obama was everything that a prospective candidate should be, everything John Kerry failed to be in 2004. 

So when Obama's name began to get thrown around in regard to the 2008 presidential election, Democrats seemed to line up behind him -- and for good reason. Obama represents the Democratic Party as it wishes to be seen -- strong, caring, thoughtful, intelligent, sensible and otherwise worthy of the power we afford it.

Of course, an evaluation of Obama's chance to gain election is incomplete without asking the question: Is America ready for a black president? 

Obama, born to a Kenyan man and an American woman in Hawaii, has not had the typical upbringing of the former leaders of our nation. From ages six to 10, Obama lived in Jakarta, Indonesia, and when he returned to America, he spent much of his young life studying. He made his way to Harvard Law School, where he was elected president of Harvard Law Review and obtained his J.D., magna cum laude, in 1991. Obama lacks the prodigious number of powerful relatives that has kept the Bush family in control for many years.

In a sense, Obama is the clean slate we've been looking for. America is ready for a change. 

Times have never looked better for a black man with a funny name to take our country and steer it back toward the goals and values we all share. It's two years away, but it's something for us to eagerly look forward to.

Ferguson, a psychology senior, 
can be reached via dccampus@mail.uh.edu