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OP-ED: A visionary leader with the strength to unite and inspire our generation to action
by Justin Backal-Balik
Op-Ed | 1/29/08
Posted online at 1:44 AM EST on 1/29/08
Right now, in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. Barack Obama leads by 15 delegates in the contest for pledged delegates to the national convention. While that in and of itself might not seem to be particularly noteworthy, behind the close race for delegates lies something truly inspiring.
Obama's main competition, fellow Sen. Hillary Clinton, is known to the whole country. She is the wife of a former president and therefore has one of the largest political machines in history at her disposal. About a year ago, the country only had a vague idea of who Obama was, knowing him as someone who delivered the keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic convention.
In the span of a year, Obama has managed to make true history. Without taking money from special interests or lobbyists, he built a fundraising network that has competed evenly for dollars with Clinton throughout the campaign. Moreover, he has more than half a million donors, many of them from small or first-time donors, something unheard of at this stage in a primary campaign.
But it's not only his fundraising prowess that is remarkable, it's also his showing in the early primaries. A black man won the white rural state of Iowa handily. What's more, he silenced all the skeptics who said he was making the same mistake Howard Dean did by relying on the youth vote. In both Iowa and New Hampshire, he turned out record numbers of young people hungry for change. What Obama has shown is that young people will come out if the candidate does his job.
On a conference call last October, a student asked Obama if it was a mistake to rely too much on young people because they usually don't vote. Obama said "We're just gonna have to prove everybody wrong." And he did, as youth turnout surpassed that in the last Iowa Caucus by 130 percent. As a young person, it felt great to see my generation finally cast off its apathetic label and truly help make history.
In the past couple of weeks, the tone of the campaign has taken a turn for the worse, with hostile remarks, sometimes with a racial charge, being thrown around. Yet, as he has throughout the entire race, Obama initiated a press conference to say he was troubled by the tone of the campaign and that we needed to get back to discussing issues that affected everyday Americans.
Obama's main competition, fellow Sen. Hillary Clinton, is known to the whole country. She is the wife of a former president and therefore has one of the largest political machines in history at her disposal. About a year ago, the country only had a vague idea of who Obama was, knowing him as someone who delivered the keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic convention.
In the span of a year, Obama has managed to make true history. Without taking money from special interests or lobbyists, he built a fundraising network that has competed evenly for dollars with Clinton throughout the campaign. Moreover, he has more than half a million donors, many of them from small or first-time donors, something unheard of at this stage in a primary campaign.
But it's not only his fundraising prowess that is remarkable, it's also his showing in the early primaries. A black man won the white rural state of Iowa handily. What's more, he silenced all the skeptics who said he was making the same mistake Howard Dean did by relying on the youth vote. In both Iowa and New Hampshire, he turned out record numbers of young people hungry for change. What Obama has shown is that young people will come out if the candidate does his job.
On a conference call last October, a student asked Obama if it was a mistake to rely too much on young people because they usually don't vote. Obama said "We're just gonna have to prove everybody wrong." And he did, as youth turnout surpassed that in the last Iowa Caucus by 130 percent. As a young person, it felt great to see my generation finally cast off its apathetic label and truly help make history.
In the past couple of weeks, the tone of the campaign has taken a turn for the worse, with hostile remarks, sometimes with a racial charge, being thrown around. Yet, as he has throughout the entire race, Obama initiated a press conference to say he was troubled by the tone of the campaign and that we needed to get back to discussing issues that affected everyday Americans.
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John
posted 1/29/08 @ 4:34 AM EST
Great read. I stopped and read it even though I had no idea where Brandeis University was prior to your piece.
It's a testament to the excitement Obama is bringing to the country (I'm writing from Pennsylvania and am old enough to be a parent to most of the students). (Continued…)
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