August 7, 2008. Copyright 2008, Graphic News. All rights reserved

Barack Obama: one step closer to the White House
By Joanna Griffin

LONDON, August 7, Graphic News:  Barack ObamaÕs slick, professional campaign to win the Democratic nomination has erased any lingering doubts that the Illinois senator and political newcomer might not actually believe he is entitled to become the first black president of the United States.
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Obama beat firm favourite and former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton to secure more delegates and super delegates in the fierce battle to head the partyÕs race for the White House. Now he just has to convince voters in November that he is better equipped, if less experienced, than Republican rival John McCain.
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That McCain resorted to a desperate attempt to portray Obama as a shallow celebrity in a recent ad lumping him with Paris Hilton and Britney Spears indicates he knows what he is up against. And, as ObamaÕs camp pointed out, in seeking to mock his media appeal -- it totally underestimated his credibility. Celebrity, no. Rock star, yes.
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In any case, the American electorate knows by now that former civil rights lawyer Obama has built his career on a reputation as a deep thinker and a man of principle. He has written two best-selling books on the evolution of his political ideals.
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Born to a Kenyan father and white mother in Hawaii on August 4, 1961, Obama lived briefly in Indonesia and studied law at Harvard before practising as a civil rights lawyer in Chicago and then winning election to the Senate in 2004.
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Rarely has a modern U.S. politician inspired as much excitement as Obama, who is greeted by ecstatic crowds wherever he goes, even in Europe, and counts on influential supporters in the media, including talk show host Oprah Winfrey.
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Critics claim that, although he has a liberal voting record, no one knows what Obama really stands for, and that the candidate whose mantra is ÒchangeÓ has himself proved flighty on issues such as the Iraq war. Somehow he has managed to deflect attention from racially tinged sermons delivered in his support by preachers from his church.
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However, to many Americans disillusioned with the Bush leadership and the deeply unpopular war in Iraq, and in the grip of the devastating sub-prime mortgage crisis and credit crunch that sprang from it, the photogenic intellectual with the preacherÕs capacity to inspire his listeners represents their best chance of healing their ailing society.
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The question now is, do they dare?
/ENDS