May 11 , 2007

The Early Race

With the conflict in Iraq entering its fifth year, the race for the White House has already kicked off. The current tumult in Pakistan has been paralleled by turbulence in America, and the beneficiaries of 9/11, along with the architects of the Iraq occupation, are now in disarray.
Never before in US history has a Presidential race been in full swing 18 months before elections, set for November 6, 2008. Among the Democrats, the first two front-runners are Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Both are neither unbeatable nor is the nomination of either candidate by their party inevitable. If former Vice President Al Gore jumps into the contest, as he has been pressured by President Jimmy Carter to do so, it would change everything.
Despite nearly 100 percent name recognition, a cloud of negativity hovers over Hillary, who is viewed unfavorably among broad-based groups. The coming months will indicate how her low-likeability factor will affect her chances.
Then there is Obama, whose appeal is that he comes across as new and fresh. His full name is Barack Hussein Obama. His mother was a white American from the state of Kansas, while his father was a Muslim from Kenya. His parents met while they were both students at the University of Hawaii. The union did not last, and soon after Obama’s birth on August 4, 1961, his father left. Obama’s mother then married an Indonesian Muslim and moved in 1967 to Jakarta, Indonesia, where Obama spent his early boyhood years. According to a story by Paul Watson in the Los Angeles Times of March 15, 2007, Obama was registered as a Muslim at schools he attended in Jakarta and he occasionally went for prayers at a mosque. After his mother became divorced, he went to live with his mother’s parents in Honolulu, Hawaii. Barack Obama started his ascent as a bright law student at Harvard Law School, from which he graduated magna cum laude in 1991, and where he became the first black president of the Harvard Law Review. He married Michelle Robinson, an attorney who is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School, and who is currently Vice-President for community and external affairs for the University of Chicago Hospitals. From South Chicago, she is a devout Christian and has been described by Barack Obama as “tough” and by Maureen Dowd of the New York Times, as viewed as “emasculating”. Perhaps partly under the influence of his domineering wife, Barack Obama, described himself in his 2006 book, “The Audacity of Hope”, as having embraced the Christian faith and being baptized in South Chicago in the Trinity United Church of Christ.
Opinion surveys consistently reveal that Obama has sufficient heft to knock Hillary off her pedestal as a front-runner for the Democratic nomination for US President. But Obama’s Muslim heritage, in an increasingly Islamophobic environment post-9/11, may be his hidden Achilles heel. So, too, in effect, may be Obama’s denial of the same. He appears vague and opaque on his Muslim ancestry. A mistake perhaps, because he can forget his Muslim past, but his political opponents won’t.
During the Democratic Presidential debate held in South Carolina on April 26, Obama was the only one of the eight Democratic candidates who was invited by the compere, Brian Williams of NBC News, to describe his views on Israel in light of a statement by Obama on the suffering of the Palestinian people. Also, in an editorial in the Washington Post of April 28, Obama was urged to clarify his position on “Islamic extremism” and “how he views jihadism”.
Obama has a precedent to follow, that is, if he displays daring. It is of the people’s champion Muhammad Ali, who was up-front about his faith and was never defensive or apologetic about it. Eventually, the American public grew to respect that and embraced Ali.
Obama’s potential pitfalls do not, however, free Hillary of her problems. Carl Bernstein, the noted former Washington Post reporter who, along with his colleague, Bob Woodward, helped topple the Nixon Presidency during the Watergate controversy, is all set to release a new book he has authored on Hillary, which early previews suggest is unfavorable towards Hillary. Knofp Publishing Group announced that the book, “A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton”, will go on sale in the US and internationally on June 19.
A debate among the Republican Presidential candidates is scheduled for May 3. However, on the Republican side, it is hardly a free ride. Former CIA Director George Tenet, who is currently a Professor at Washington, DC’s Georgetown University, has written a scorching bestseller book called “At the Center of the Storm” where, in effect, he blames the Bush Administration, especially Vice President Dick Cheney, of bad faith and of falsifying facts surrounding the onslaught on Iraq, despite Iraq having no complicity in 9/11. Tenet also discloses that Israel strongly pressured the Clinton Administration to release Jonathan Pollard, an American who was convicted in 1986 of spying for Israel. A book “Capturing Jonathan Pollard”, by Ronald Olive, and published by Naval Institute Press in October 2006, describes how Pollard sold to Israel more than one million pages of classified material. Pollard received a life sentence with a recommendation against parole. Tenet told President Clinton point-blank that he would immediately resign if Pollard were released.
With Iraq imploding, with the election outcome in 2008 uncertain, and with the rift within the establishment widening, the race for the US Presidency may unfold unexpected perils and possibilities for America and beyond.