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Being born to a black African runaway Muslim dad and a white Christian mother could have messed up a young man forever. Following mom from Hawaii to Indonesia with her second Muslim husband could have buried his life in the Third World forever.
Moving on, the mother rejoined her white family in the Great American Midwest. As his mother had to work, Barack's grandparents saw to his raising. They were better educated than most and gave ample evidence of having superior moral and intellectual character.
However he did it, he managed to integrate the various strands of his history into a unified personality. For a racially mixed child in racist America he overcame great obstacles.
Barack achieved a Harvard Law degree when it commanded a six-figure salary. Instead, he worked as a community organizer. He met and married a woman superior to him on the job who earned more money than he did.
After he entered the rough-and-tumble of Chicago politics, Barack retained his cool and detached attitude. He articulated his inner drive and determination only when he needed to display them. He won the voters with his charismatic manner. Appearing down-to-earth he rarely exhibited more than his campaign promises. He allowed his audience to fill in the blanks. A majority of voters did just that.
Nobel Laureate Barack Obama
"For after all, producing a few African Americans in the form of Barack Obama can and will silence whoever can still muster the courage to criticize this thoroughly racist system dubbed "American democracy" which continues to victimize most African Americans and much of the Third World."
Joseph Massad is associate professor of modern Arab politics and intellectual history at Columbia University.
At about 2:15 EST, Organizing for America (OFA) surpassed its goal of 100,000 phone calls to Congress, each one imploring representatives to vote for reform. By 6:38 EST the calls made the 200,000 mark.
Dawn Teo, Arizona Politico
The reader should recognize the reform agenda for health care has advanced more in the past year than it had in the previous century. With all due respect to his detractors, only Barack Obama could have brought us to this point.
"They won -- why don't they act like it?" said Dana Perino, former White House press secretary to Bush. "The more they fight, the more defensive they look. It's only been 10 months, and they're burning bridges in a lot of different places."
White House officials see things differently. They see an opportunity to corner critics of the president's policies, especially on health care and financial regulations, and, in the process, further marginalize the Republican Party.
Privately, officials have talked with relish for months of the potential to isolate the GOP as a narrow party of white, Southern conservatives with little appeal to independent-minded voters.
Jim Vandehei and Mike Allen, Politico
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