Black in White: Barack Obama in the Oval Office

Barack Obama once believed that America had a place for him, despite seeing the unacceptable truth that the figure of the nation has been led by Whites. Now, he transformed a fatherless story into a stirring coming-of-age-tale.

Taking the helm of global hurt, Barack Hussein Obama Jr. is believed to lead a nation in crisis to solve two international wars, and to alleviate worldwide financial meltdown as he writes his multinational race in the history of the United States of America. Probably the most inexperienced politician, seating in the Oval Office at 47 years old and inheriting a maelstrom of catastrophe, Obama will not let his pivotal speech be yet another dreamspeak to the Americans. Cumulatively, Black and White Americans favor Obama during the presidential campaign for once he breaks the American conservatism, the economic repulsiveness will be the lead on his next four years of democratic awakening.

Winning the presidency is the latest in a lifetime of dramatic, self-induced transformations that Obama has: from an atheist to a Christian, from a wonky academic to the smoothest of politicians, from a child reared in Hawaii and Indonesia to a member of Chicago’s African-American community, and now, from an upstart, who eight years ago was crushed in a Congressional race, to the first black commander-in-chief of the superpower on earth.

His biracial identity came about on Aug. 4, 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii. His parents, who are entirely different from each another, are Stanley Ann Dunham, an atheistic anthropologist from Wichita, Kansas and Barack Obama Sr., a Muslim who grew up herding goats in Ngyangoma-Kogel, Kenya. They met in a Russian Class at the University of Hawaii where his mother was a student while his father won a scholarship grant that allowed him to leave Kenya and pursue his dreams in America. Barack’s father eventually returned to Kenya and saw his son for the last time before dying in an automobile accident in 1982. Barack grew up with his mother in Hawaii and for a few years in Indonesia when she married Lolo Soetoro. In 1995, she died of an ovarian cancer.

Moving on to his political vocation, he has spent his entire career searching for the right way to fulfill his desire for broad social renewal. First, he became a community organizer, who was thinking that change would flow from citizens upward in Chicago. Afterward, he tried law in the Harvard University, where, as he learned from teaching legal history, was a highly imperfect instrument. Since then, he has set his sights on changing government institutions, one higher than the next. Even in the American Senate, elected as Illinois State Representative in 2004, he said that it was possible to have a career that was “not particularly useful.” His keynote address before the Democratic National Convention in June 2004 brought him to national prominence. It was “The Speech” that made him a rock star. Suddenly, he became one of the leading contenders for the nomination to represent the Democratic Party in the 2008 Presidential Election. He toppled the anointed Hillary Rodham-Clinton who is a former first lady emerged as a Democratic Party front runner looking for restitution and restoration and who had a close battle of being appointed as the president. He deflected repeated condemnation of his lack of experience.

Obama indeed delivered several never-before happened historical events that captured the attention of people worldwide. First, the story of his success is very much about money. It provided his initial credibility, and it paid for his impressive campaign operation. This is why his campaigning days made a selling history as his merchandises range from branded water bottles to tote bags with hats, buttons, and stickers in return for money, contact information, and of course, vote. It allowed him first to compete with, and then overwhelm, the most powerful Democratic family in a generation—one that understood the power of money in politics and commanded a network of wealthy donors that financed the Democratic Party for years.

Next is the Internet fund-raising that allowed him to break all records in the history of American politics. He is now the most prolific fund raiser who used both old-fashioned and cyber way of collecting contributions during his presidential campaign. Obama was new to most Americans when he entered the presidential race in February 2007, but he was familiar to Silicon Valley in at least one way—an Internet rock star in the glory of years. He had a great buzz, a compelling pitch, and raised more money than anybody else without plumbing ethical gray areas or even spending much of his own time soliciting donations. In February, for example, his campaign raised a record-setting $55 million—$45 million of it over the Internet without the candidate himself hosting a single fund raiser. The money just came rolling in.

Lastly, and the most important of all, he is the first African-American president of the United States, after 43 White presidents sat in the most powerful office in the world. Because of this, there may even be a possibility of another face carved in Mount Rushmore as a memory of his electoral landslide. It is truly a change we believe in.

How he did it is no surprise to different races celebrating his victorious night as a president-elect for the next four years. One of the youngest of all American presidents, Obama is now ready to inherit a mess and hold a warehouse full of political capital. In The Blue Print of Change, Obama’s 64-page portable document format campaign booklet, a set of detailed policy prescriptions is said to be the standard Democratic boilerplate. He proposes universal health insurance to cover the presently uninsured. On education, he proposes a Zero to Five program of learning and care for children and families, adds funding to No Child Left Behind, and makes college more affordable. On Social Security, he is “strongly opposed” to privatization, opposes raising the retirement age, and proposes to “choose a payroll tax reform package” to keep social security solvent. He will bring all America’s combat brigades home from Iraq in 16 months. There will be no permanent bases in Iraq, but if al Qaeda “attempts to build a base in Iraq,” he will use US troops for “targeted strikes” on al Qaeda.

“While the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress,” Obama said.

His victory heralds a new generation of leaders and an America that is still taking shape. After all the repeated whatever it takes and in my lifetime phrases for the past years, Americans are sick to death of hope and change promises. But Obama’s triumph on Nov. 4 united every American, Black or White, in Chicago’s Grand Park to hear his victory speech. He is the first Democrat since 1964 to win more than 51 percent of the popular vote. And with this, it is a sign that change has indeed come to America (Written With Zatia Denise Danao Gammad).