Obama better candidate than Clinton

by Thomas Hearin

As the 2008 election rolls around, with George Bush completing his second term, the Presidential field is wide open for both Democratic and Republican parties. It is the first time since 1928 that a U.S Presidential election will not have a sitting President or Vice-President for either one of the parties running in the election. With the fields wide open, currently the Republicans are boasting over 20 potential candidates, while the Democrats have over 15. So even though there's still over a year to go, and over 35 candidates in the running, the media has already focused on an ongoing battle between two of the favorite Democratic Presidential candidates, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Both are by far the forerunners of the early polls taken for the Democratic primaries. The Obama and Clinton campaign camps have both already begun to throw punches at each other, ensuring a long, bitter, and heated road to the 2008 election.
Obama cites that growing up through his teenage years he had trouble coming to terms with his multiracial background, and used numerous drugs and alcohol to "push who I was out of my mind." Being able to come to better terms of who he was, Obama cleaned his act up and went to Colombia University, where he received a Bachelor's in Political Science. Then moving to Chicago he began directing non-profit organizations for impoverished communities. In 1988 Obama returned to college by attending Harvard where he received his Doctor of Law degree, and also became the first black president of Harvard's Law review, a journal of legal scholarship, in its 104 year history. Despite Obama's support within Illinois, he was still not on the national radar yet. That was about to change in 2004, however, when Obama would speak at the Democratic National Convention.
As a Republican, I love to watch both the Republican and Democratic conventions to get a feel of prominent candidates for the elections, and note the ideologies of certain candidates and the parties as a whole, even though some of them are quite obvious. Sitting on my couch watching the convention, I had no absolute idea who Obama was when he approached the stage, as I imagine many others outside of Illinois wondered his identity also. Throughout his speech I was in shock, none of the other previous speakers commended the attention that Obama did. I can't say that I agreed with that many of his views, but I admit that he brought an immense presence to the stage and was one of the most charismatic speakers at either one of the conventions. I can't remember really anything that was said now, but at the time it did not seem to me the same personal attacks and bashing of the other party were conveyed in his speech like that of many other candidates. He later went on to win one of Illinois senate seats in 2004.
After the Convention, Obama was on the national radar, and almost immediately became a favorite to run in the 2008 election, even though he did not reveal his intentions to run for office until February 2007. Politically Obama generally shares the same views associated with the Democratic Party on the topics of stem-cell research, abortion, gun control and tax cuts. However, Obama is probably more on the moderate than liberal side of the Democratic Party as he has shown the willingness and ability to collectively work with Republicans, something I cannot say for full blown liberals like Clinton and Ted Kennedy.
The main hype with Obama though, does not have much to do with his ideologies, since they're quite similar to that of other Democratic candidates, but instead that he is the first "legitimate" black presidential candidate. Yes there have been other black candidates before, most notably Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, but none have really been able to generate the national attention that Obama has commended, or obtain that many votes outside of the black population. Some speculate that it is because of Obama's personality, his ability to outreach to many people. Others believe that he has become the first "legitimate" black candidate because America is more ready for a black President than it was years ago.

By Stephanie Axelrod |  March 23, 2007; 7:56 AM ET
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