High hopes for rising
US democrat
By Sun News Publshing
Monday, August 2, 2004
 |
• Barack
Obama
Photo: Sun News Publishing |
|
|
His name is not yet widely-known, but Barack Obama is seen
as a rising star in US politics - a man some are even tipping
to be the country's first black president.
That is some way off. First, the Illinois Democrat must win
a seat in the US Senate in November's election. But he is
getting noticed. A passionate speaker, he wowed Democrats
earlier this week when he addressed the party's convention
in Boston. The son of a Kenyan man and a white woman from
Kansas, Mr Obama made a speech strong on his personal history,
a speech reflecting traditional American ideals of self-reliance
and aspirations.
"Through hard work and perseverance my father got a scholarship
to study in a magical place - America, which stood as a beacon
of freedom and opportunity to so many who had come before,"
he said.
Mr Obama, 42, is a state senator for Illinois, representing
a district in south Chicago. He is the favourite to win the
Senate seat in November, which is currently held by a Republican,
Peter Fitzgerald, who is retiring. If he wins, he will be
the only black member of the Senate - and only the third-ever
African-American to serve there.
Mr Obama stunned Democratic opponents when he won his party's
state nomination in March, facing six opponents and still
winning 53% of the vote.
International upbringing
Supporters say he appeals to black and white voters alike.
He is also said to have an ability to connect with white rural
and small-town voters - a trait Mr Obama puts down to his
family background.
Mr Obama is named after his father who grew up in Kenya herding
goats, but gained a scholarship to study in Hawaii.
There the Kenyan met and married Mr Obama's mother, originally
from Kansas, who had moved to Honolulu with her parents.
When the junior Barack was a toddler, his father got a chance
to study at Harvard but there was no money for the family
to go with him. He later returned to Kenya alone, where he
worked as a government economist, and the couple divorced.
When Mr Obama was six, his mother, Ann, married an Indonesian
oil manager and the family moved to Jakarta. The boy lived
there for four years, but then moved back to Hawaii to live
with his grandparents and attend school.
Both his parents are now dead.
Law career
Mr Obama went on to study political science at Columbia University
in New York, and then moved to Chicago where he spent three
years as a community organiser.
In 1988 he left to attend Harvard Law School, where he became
the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review.
After Harvard, Mr Obama returned to Chicago to practice civil
rights law - rejecting the big corporate law firms to represent
victims of housing and employment discrimination.
His is married to a lawyer, Michelle, and they have two young
daughters.
Mr Obama still practices law, and also does some teaching
at the University of Chicago Law School which he says keeps
him sharp when it comes to issues like abortion, gay rights
and affirmative action.
Mr Obama was an early critic of the Iraq war, speaking out
against the prospect of war several months before the March
2003 invasion.
When he addressed Democrats in Boston, he praised the men
and women serving in Iraq, and said more should be done to
financially support the families of those killed.
"When we send our young men and women into harm's way,
we have a solemn obligation not to fudge the numbers or shade
the truth about why they're going, to care for their families
while they're gone, to tend to the soldiers upon their return,
and to never ever go to war without enough troops to win the
war, secure the peace, and earn the respect of the world,"
he said.
Fans of Mr Obama are already number-crunching. If he gets
elected to the Senate, by 2012 he could have eight years under
his belt.
By 2016, he will be 54 - a good age for a president, some
say.
Mr Obama often jokes that people are always getting his name
wrong, calling him "Alabama" or "Yo Mama".
Supporters believe that one day, no-one will make that mistake.
|
