Sometime ago, likely in 2005 or 2006, Barack appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show. My sister TiVoed it and I went to her house to watch it. When he walked on the stage I thought to myself: this man has the stature that the American people are looking for in a president. He exuded positive energy. He was confident yet approachable. He was calm despite carrying a heavy weight of history and sudden stardom. That's a man I'd like to see in the White House during tough times, I thought.
Then a discussion transpired that completely changed the way I would see Barack Obama. I can't remember the conversation or question that led to the comment, but I would forever remember the statement itself. When discussing how he sees politics/governing, Barack said that almost always neither side is right and the solution is somewhere in the middle.
The shine had diminished, and I began seeing him as I should all political leaders with a critical eye.
Viewing Barack's policies and actions over the past year through the guise of that statement is why I, a 25-year old black man, have struggled to pitch my tent in the Obama camp, unlike many of my peers.
You see from my perspective, Senator Barack Obama is trying to be all things to all people, not for the sake of growing the progressive movement or Democratic Party, but for the sake of advancing his political career.
He's afraid of being seen as the liberal he was in the Illinois Senate, as reflected in his Sister Souljahing of Paul Krugman and the incomplete healthcare policy from whence the fued erupted.
He's afraid of being seen as the black man, he is, running for president, in the process failing to seize on this historic opportunity to highlight a major cause of our current state - the visceral Republican governing philosophy that is clearly anti-urban and anti-worker.
Instead, Senator Obama ascribes to a governing of triangulation (where one side of the triangle is clearly much longer than the average people of this country) in a sort of ideological self-effacing that too often helps promote individual candidates, but has set back left-of-center causes in multiple election cycles. This is a major flaw in his governing philosophy, and the same old Washington platitudes of "hope" and "change" uttered by a black man are as hollow as those uttered by those of other ethnicities.
Simply, I've seen this movie before (Clinton presidency); it does not end well.
You see, if not for the color of his skin, there would be nothing historic about the campaign Senator Barack Obama runs. Others have run it, won with it, and in certain elections I could come to see how it could be successful and necessary. But this isn't one of those elections. This isn't one of those times.
We are at war, abroad and at-home. The entire concept of The American Dream and economic and moral status of our country is under attack by a group of ideologues who are far too close to returning American workers to the state they were in the early 20th century coupled with a Christian hegemony.
Now, more than ever, with wages stagnant while corporate profits go through the roof, more Americans than ever in our history living without healthcare, American infrastructure crumbling, American troops in battle, and the American economy needed to transform from red and black to green, we need a president who will tell it like it is and lead not out of concern of where the parties of the debate are, but where the American people must go.
Our Democratic candidate must wake up America to the reality that we are running out of time.
We must clearly define the direction we must go over the immediate and distant future to alleviate the rampant suffering throughout our nation and the world.
We must clearly define our challenges and profess progressivism as the solution.
We must clearly show that we are the people's party.
We must have a candidate with whom voters can identify.
We must have a candidate who can frame the debate in the appropriate moral and historic rhetoric, while at the same time clearly and convincingly point to the true culprits for our state of affairs, especially if we're caught facing the most impressive Republican candidate in a generation (Huckabee).
Strength with conviction; hope through vision: I'm black, I'm young, I wish Barack Obama the best of luck in his political career, but I, along with America, need John Edwards in the White House.