BARACK OBAMA IS THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY’S
PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE
By Baldwin S.A.
It is now official; a historic chapter in United States politics has unfolded. Many Jamaicans, including a large portion of the music fraternity are delighted that Barack Obama, has succeeded in defeating Hillary Rodham-Clinton for the coveted Democratic Party’s Presidential nomination. This nomination race will also go down in history for many reasons. For one, it has been the first time that a black, or as they now say, an African –American man and a woman has both battled to become the presidential nominee in the United States Of America. Either of the two candidates from the outset, had a date with history. With the result now decided, it is now the first time in that country’s history that a black man will run in a presidential race in the hope of becoming the president of the United States.
Barack Obama’s victory is a great stride towards him becoming the first Black U. S. president. His victory sets up a November election competition between him and Republican Party’s nominee John McCain. Most people sees this contest as a clash of generations plus a debate on the validity of the current war being waged in Iraq. Barack Obama is just 46, and he vehemently opposes the war. John McCain is 71, a former Vietnam veteran who is staunchly in support of the current U. S. military action in Iraq.
Barack Obama has completed one of the most remarkable U. S. political campaigns ever experienced in that country and in so doing has secured the needed delegates to lock up the nomination yesterday, (June 3). It is amazing that four years ago the first- term senator from Chicago, Illinois, was virtually unknown and has now toppled one of the most powerful political families in the world, “The Clintons.” Hillary Clinton seeking to become the first U. S. female president entered the race as the overwhelming favourite, but was totally ‘blackwashed’ from the beginning.
In a country where race relation is many times tenuous and African-Americans had to fight just for the right to vote, the victory of Barack Obama is quite significant and stands as an important milestone in the United States of America’s political history.
