As a Democratic Party frontrunner, the high-profile Illinois senator Barack Obama has a better-than-average shot at winning the presidency of the United States. If elected, he’ll become the first U.S. president of African-American descent.
Among Obama’s many campaign tools stands The Audacity of Hope, his book (2006, Crown Publishers, 376 pages) outlining his views on the topics he deems important to Americans and their allies. After Cairns Media Magazine reviewed Obama’s book, we decided that it provided a useful way to better introduce this rising politician.
For this unorthodox ‘mini-interview’, we culled Senator Obama’s comments from his thought-provoking book.
What attracts you to politics?
“One of my favorite tasks of being a senator is hosting town-hall meetings…. We’ve had as few as 50 people turn out, as many as two thousand. But however many people show up, I’m grateful to see them. They’re a cross-section: Republican and Democrat, old and young, fat and skinny, truck drivers, college professors, stay-at-home moms, veterans, schoolteachers, insurance agents, CPAs, secretaries, doctors and social workers. They’re generally polite and attentive, even when they disagree with me (or one another). They ask me about prescription drugs, the deficit, human rights in Myanmar, ethanol, bird flu, school funding and the space program…. In their bearing, I see hard work. In the way they handle their children, I see hope. My time with them is like a dip in a cool stream. I feel cleansed afterward, glad for the work I’ve chosen.”
But politics is a high-pressure business. How do you cope with the stresses and criticisms?
“When people at dinner parties ask me how I can possibly operate in the current political environment with all the negative campaigning and personal attacks, I may mention Nelson Mandela, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, or some guy in a Chinese or Egyptian prison somewhere. In truth, being called names is not such a bad deal.”
What were your first impressions when meeting U.S. president George W. Bush?
“I found the President to be a likable man, shrewd and disciplined, but with the same straightforward manner that helped him to win two elections; you could easily imagine him owning the local car dealership down the street, coaching Little League, and grilling in his backyard – the kind of guy who would make for good company so long as the conversation revolved around sports and the kids.”
You’re setting new standards of success for ethnic-minority politicians? How do you assess race relations in America?
“While largely through luck and circumstance, I now occupy a position that insulates me from most of the bumps and bruises that the average black man must endure, I can recite the usual litany of petty slights that have been directed my way: security guards tailing me as I shop in department stores, white couples who toss me their car keys as I stand outside a restaurant waiting for the valet, police pulling me over for no apparent reason. I know what it’s like to have people tell me that I can’t do something because of my color, and I know the bitter swill of swallowed-back anger.
“In my lifetime, I’ve witnessed a profound shift in race relations. I’ve felt it as surely as one feels a temperature change. When I hear some in the black community deny those changes, I think that it dishonors those who struggled on our behalf and robs us of our agency to complete the work they began. But as much as I insist that things have gotten better, I’m mindful of this truth as well: Better isn’t good enough.
“For all the progress in the past four decades, a stubborn gap remains between the living standards of black, Latino and white workers. The average black wage is 75 per cent of the average white wage; the average Latino wage is 71 per cent of the average white wage….
“Still, when I look at what past generations of minorities had to overcome, I’m optimistic about the ability of this next generation to continue the advance into the economic mainstream.
“Two aspects of race relations in America require special attention – issues that fan the flames of racial conflict and undermine the progress that’s been made. With respect to the African-American community, the issue is the deteriorating condition of the inner-city poor. With respect to Latinos, it’s the problem of undocumented workers and the political firestorm surrounding immigration.”
What do you remember about living in Indonesia for a few years as a child?
“Jakarta was still a sleepy backwater in those days, with few buildings over four or five stories high, cycle rickshaws outnumbering cars, the city center and wealthier sections of town quickly giving way to clots of small villages with unpaved roads and open sewers, dusty markets, and shanties of mud, brick, plywood and corrugated iron that tumbled down gentle banks to murky rivers where families bathed and washed laundry like pilgrims in the Ganges.
“We lived in a modest house on the outskirts of town, without air-conditioning, refrigeration or flush toilets…. Without the money to go to the international school that most expatriate children attended, I went to local Indonesian schools and ran the streets with the children of farmers, servants, tailors and clerks…. I remember those years as a joyous time, full of adventure and mystery – days of chasing down chickens and running from water buffalo, nights of shadow puppets and ghost stories and street vendors bringing delectable sweets to our door.”
Has the United States always done right in its foreign policy?
“At times, American foreign policy has been farsighted, simultaneously serving our national interests, our ideals and the interests of other nations. At other times, American policies have been misguided, based on false assumptions that ignore the legitimate aspirations of other peoples, undermine our credibility and make for a more dangerous world.”
What went wrong after the 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington?
“With justice at our backs and the world by our side, we drove the Taliban government out of Kabul in just over a month. Al Qaeda operatives fled or were captured or killed…. It was a good start by the Bush administration, I thought….
“Along with the rest of the world, I waited with anticipation for what I assumed would follow: the enunciation of a U.S. foreign policy for the 21st century, one that would not only adapt our military planning, intelligence operations and homeland defenses to the threat of terrorist networks, but build a new international consensus around the challenges of transnational threats.
“This new blueprint never arrived. Instead we got an assortment of outdated policies from eras gone by, dusted off, slapped together and with new labels. Former president Ronald Reagan’s ‘Evil Empire’ became the ‘Axis of Evil’.
Why has the U.S. encountered serious problems in Iraq?
“Our difficulties there don’t just arise as a result of bad execution. They reflect a failure of conception…. The United States still lacks a coherent national security policy. Instead of guiding principles, we have what appears to be a series of ad-hoc decisions with dubious results. Why invade Iraq and not North Korea or Burma? Why intervene in Bosnia and not Darfur? Is our goal in Iran regime change, dismantling of nuclear capability, prevention of nuclear proliferation, or all three?
So is the Bush team’s foreign policy badly misguided?
“Once we get beyond matters of self-defence, I’m convinced it’ll almost always be in our strategic interest to act multilaterally, not unilaterally, when using force around the world. By this, I don’t mean that the UN Security Council should have a veto on our actions. Nor do I mean that we round up the United Kingdom and Togo and then do as we please….
“Nobody benefits more than us from the observance of international ‘rules of the road’. We can’t win converts to those rules by acting as if they apply to everyone but us.”
For more information: www.audacityofhope.com or www.obama.senate.gov/
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