As most of the world knows, Senator Barack Obama announced today that he is forming an exploratory committee — the first formal step in declaring his candidacy for President in 2008. I have been loosely following the Senator since his speech at the Democratic Convention in 2004. He is a fascinating phenomenon at the very least. There has been an enormous amount of commentary about him, especially in the last year as it became apparent that he was considering a run for president, with people trying to figure out who he is and what he stands for….I think we are about to find out.
The reason I enjoy listening to the Senator speak about anything is that he makes me feel good, about Americans and our country, about the future. There are a lot of people trying to compartmentalize him and categorize him and I don’t think it’s going to be that easy. He is obviously very intelligent, an excellent public speaker and charismatic. With the horrible, hateful state of politics in this country — after six years of divisive, wedge-issue politics — I think this man speaks to the best in all of us and that will be a very difficult effect to counter.
He says it’s the “smallness of our politics that most bothers him…our leaders in Washington seem incapable of working together in a practical, common-sense way. Politics has become so bitter and partisan and gummed up by money and influence that we can’t tackle the big problems that demand solutions, and that’s what we have to change.”
Check out his announcement video at www.barackobama.com.
