Rooting for Obama: Reservations a-plenty

My heart is beating hard even as I type this. With only one day to go to the US polls, I can’t help but fantasize an Obama presidency.

Fantasize, yes. You never know with politics. You might be leading in opinion polls but when the election results are out, you find yourself under the feet of your rival. That’s politics for you.

I know Obama is leading in opinion polls and everyone is exhilarated and some people have started celebrating ‘an Obama win’. But I know better than to get overly excited especially in matters political.

The proverb “Don’t count your chicks before they are hatched” couldn’t be more apt. The eggs in the basket may be big, rich in colour and grace fully oval but this does not necessarily mean that the chicks hatched will do justice to their shells.

The eggs might go bad and produce the most awful of smell. So in politics, if the analogy of the eggs and chicks is anything to go by, it is very important to be ready for anything.

And, more so, as a Kenyan, I have learnt it the hard way not to depend on the opinion polls to gauge who will ultimately win the polls. Of course Kenyans the world over remember what happened eleven short months ago on our beloved soil.

Even as I support Obama (and pray my most fervent prayers for his sail to the White House), at the back of my mind I know he may lose. Do you guys remember what happened to Al Gore?

This guy was running for the presidency on a Democratic ticket in the year 2000 against George Bush on a Republican ticket. Al Gore was also leading in the opinion polls but George Bush won the ultimate prize.

Though he (Obama) may lose, his opinion-poll-standing notwithstanding, I know he has the potential to make the president that America needs at this time when it is teetering on the brink of recession.

Another thing, Obama – my guy – is a young man. Just the kind of president we need in countries around the world. Africa should learn from this.

Young people should be given the chance to take the mantle in their countries and run with it to the finish line. Young people are you there. Go for the challenge.

My eyes, and those of the whole wide world, are closely trained on the United States of America as they go to the polls tomorrow.

Tonight Kisumu is a-fire, as chants of “Obama, Obama” rent the air. Almost each and everything in Kisumu has been named “obama-this” or “Obama-that”.

Sorry for asking this, Kumekuchans whom do you root for between Mc Cain and Obama?

Elsewhere:

Can You Be Trusted?
The Decline of US Superpower Status?
Overview of Global Financial Crisis - 1
Overview of Global Financial Crisis - 2
Overview of Global Financial Crisis - 3
Does Barack Obama’s Skin Colour Really Matter?

Brand Obama: Signed, Sealed and Delivered

The clock is finally ticking as the candidates approach the finish line. This was a campaign like no other before it. Pundits have had to revise their tales and most have their tails safely tacked in between their legs. Obama is here to not only make history but REDEFINE politics as we have known it.

The tension is a mile thick and the expectation is insatiable. Obama is working his socks off as if he is the one trailing in the polls. Complacency is the sure stealer of sweet victory from the jaws of success. And what do we have in all this, one may ask? Well, WE HAVE EVERYTHING as a people and more so as Kenyans. With Obama’s victory the world geopolitics WILL NEVER BE THE SAME.

Obama has set the standards so high and with unparalleled superlative ideals, weak minds and jealous competitors will unwittingly reduce his supporters to idol worshipers. Well the ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME tag would have been more apt in defining a candidate whose star seems to reside past the ordinary skies.

Obama’s fast political rise underscores the merits of clearly defined objectives with the commensurate determination to work tirelessly to achieve them. His highlight the selflessness of public service anchored on sound virtues that capture the collective fears and aspirations of a generation. Listening to him speak anywhere is akin to winning a ticket for a ringside seat at a giant shredder. Discipline is his singular signature, he is unruffled and his organization is tightly-controlled. His campaign is conducted within the two pillars of grace and intellect. They do not like the unpredictable.

Masked fear
Obama’s meteoric rise couldn’t have come at a better time. This has been the most fascinating, most gruelling and most expensive US presidential election campaign for generations. He threw his hat in the ring, banished time-tested templates and exploited technology to his advantage. Now the prize is his to lose. We all crave for change but Barack breathed new life into simple word that leaves the crowd cry back: "Yes We Can". The onus is on him to deliver and YES HE WILL.

But just like a Hollywood thriller with an assured conclusion, the race still leaves the heart racing. The endgame of this year’s US election has gripped every black person with a powerful mixture of extreme emotions. Obama's win represents a previously unimaginable triumph over centuries of racism and stereotypes against blacks. He epitomizes HOPE and OPTIMISM. But beneath the hope and pride lies fear of polling inaccuracy and voting chicanery.

Obama’s unprecedented race for the presidency has left records tumbling in his wake. His extraordinary campaign has not only shattered records and brought ceilings down but all the assumptions have been banished to irrelevance. This is in deed a race for the ages. What is more, kind Mother Nature also appears to be playing ball in Obama’s court. What with a broke world and a goofing Bush that has set the rest of the world against the US? The resulting toxic atmosphere is in urgent need of a pacifier and none fits that bill better than Obama.

Race for the ages
The challenges are piles high and Obama has his work clearly cut for him if he wins on Tuesday. He will have to immediately confront some of the most difficult economic challenges since the Great Depression of the first half of the last Century. But Barack is up to task if his focused and disciplined campaign is any measure of his strengths.

This years campaign has been a clear contrast between good and bad. Hitherto maverick McCain has not only laboured under the long gloomy shadow of the White House incumbent record, but his own campaign has jumped further into the shadows. McCain must reap in abundance his antics of reducing a campaign to peddling fear and guilt by association. The truth is McCain's ticket has cheekily corrupted his lust for power into putting the country first. Poor John must be privy to a unique MIRACLE in proving both the polls and pundits wrong.

The US08 presidential race has been rich in both precedent and incident. The winner will be prefaced by either the FIRST or OLDEST – Obama as the first Africa-American president in the 232-year history or McCain as the oldest first term president. Whatever the yardstick for judgement, the milestones reached, the paradigms challenged, the passions stirred and the numbers reached and shattered in this campaign will surely exhaust all the available journalistic adjectives: epochal, pivotal, historic, once-in-a-lifetime ad infinitum.

Make no mistake! Barack Obama is acutely aware of the perils of premature celebrations as evident in his strategy to save his best for last. His victory amounts to comprehensive triumph of greater good over bad. While it is difficult to control anxiety, it is near-impossible to bottle excitement, it just seeps through.

By all indications, Obama has the right temperament in confidence, ambition and drive that propels a worthy politician to high office at a time of multi-pronged tribulations: global economic Tsunami, rampaging Taliban in Afghanistan, battered nuclear-armed Pakistan and the ragging Iraq war that is almost engulfing Iran. By many measures, Obama is destined to inherit a colossal heap of unprecedented mess.

It is no mean feat transforming one's self into a global candidate-OBAMANIA. And by winning this contest, Obama will be historically adding that much-needed flavour on the sumptuous cake. No doubt Obama has earned his place in history books as one of the greatest black men. Go Barack go, conquer and and change world for the better. YES WE/YOU CAN.