Obama for President

I have heard that certain email is going around by about Barack Obama’s background. This email is obviously being circulated by through the grass root, and the way grass root movements spread information, soon the content will take up a life of its own and derail the promising presidential candidacy of Barack Obama. A friend of my wife’s sent this email to her a couple of weeks ago, and I was disappointed but neglected to take it seriously and dismissed it with a wave of my hand that only ignorant people will believe the content of the email. It certainly did not start then; it has been going around since about middle of 2007 as Obama’s candidacy took more serious tone. But it dawned on me that it was these same ignorant people that elected President Bush to a second term in office!

The email focused on Obama’s allegedly Muslim background and upbringing and how we cannot allow a Moslem to lead the great country. This email that I got was from someone that I know, and am certain it was sent not only to me but to a lot of people on the person’s contact list using “BCC” without regard views or respect for their time. However, that is not the point here, it will make another blog entry when I get to around to blog about unsolicited spam from people you know.

I ask people spreading news like this what have they done with their lives? Obama is 46, in the same age group as many of us and his accomplishments are numerous and how courageous is that to be vying for the presidency of the United States?

Another point is that the reasons that such email attacking a public person's upbringing in order to tilt or sways peoples view of them is ignorant and shows lack of capacity for independent or original thought. This is an attempt to innocently sabotage Obama’s credibility and it just might work in this age of the Internet with spreading “word of mouth” or properly termed “viral campaign.” Why don’t people do their own research and make up their minds? And guess what, the same Internet, used to spread this damaging information, is there with wealth of information about public personalities. Therefore it is no coincidence that within the an hour of reading this email about Obama that I saw a full article, on Yahoo’s news front page, comparing Barack Obama's life in serving the public with that of Hillary Clinton. Take a moment to browse the article on Yahoo, Obama's thin, but varied record by CHRISTOPHER WILLS of Associated Press Writer, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080116/ap_on_el_pr/obama_s_record;_ylt=AkrL6CePlLxmSIthwoyXjnCs0NUE .

Where do I stand in all this? I am an Obama watcher, meaning I support him in principle, and I believe that he is really an agent of change in Washington – neglecting that he does not fully represent my views. I have contributed financially to Hillary Clinton’s campaign, not once but twice for reasons that are irrelevant at this time. But should Barack Obama win the Democratic candidacy I’d seriously consider fully supporting him as well. “Consider” because I may lean towards the likes of Republican’s candidate, John McCain, should he win the party’s primaries. He was afterall a better choice to George W. Bush in 2000 but his time may have passed. There is also Mike Bloomberg (Mayor of New York) to consider if he runs as an Independent candidate.