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| | Barack Obama’s biography: In 2006 Senator Obama succeeded in gaining the sympathy of the media and become one of the most outstanding public figures in Washington. In the autumn of 2006, observers started considering him as a possible candidate for nomination in the forthcoming presidential elections. In the beginning of 2007, Barack Obama appeared in second place next to senator Hillary Clinton in the list of favorites from the Democratic Party. In January, Obama created a special exploratory committee – a non-governmental organization for the preparation in participating in presidential elections. According to information available in the beginning of February 2007, 15% of Democrats supported Obama while 43% wanted Hillary Clinton to run for the elections.
In January, 2007, Obama encountered scandalous charges. Information started circulating in the press that, during his stay in Indonesia, he allegedly studied at an Islamic school- madrasa, where representatives of the radical Muslim sects of the Wahhabi preached. These charges were disclaimed, but the charges left a significant negative impression on the image of Barack Obama.
US Presidential Candidate:
On February 10, 2007, in a meeting in Springfield, Illinois, Obama spoke about his intentions to run for the post of President. He also announced that, it is necessary to recall the troops from Iraq even before the elections by March, 2008. Along with the Iraq campaign, he criticized the Bush administration for insufficient success to fight the oil supplies and development of the education system. Soon, on February 13, in another meeting, which was held in Iowa, Obama made a bold statement. Criticizing Bush's Iraq policy, he said that, the lives of American troops, who died in Iraq were "wasted". He had to apologize repeatedly and explained that he had expressed his opinion without putting much thought behind it. Obama's stand regarding Iraq and his plans on the withdrawal of troops were criticized by Bush's supporters not only in the USA but also in other countries. One of the American President's allies, Australian Prime Minister John Howard stated that Obama's plans are controlled by terrorists. Nevertheless, during his electoral campaign, Obama indirectly reaffirmed his words by stating that, for the money spent on war in Iraq, the USA could conduct large-scale research for exploring alternative energy resources. Obama stated that, by 2012 he wanted to achieve complete freedom for the nation from foreign suppliers of energy resources and according to him, by 2020, USA should completely switch over to alternative energy sources and stop using fossil fuels and atomic energy. He named Iceland as an example for the successful implementation of such a program, however did not name any one main of types of alternative energy like hydrogen fuel cells but supported research in this field. He also supported federal funding for the development of public transport.
In February, 2007, Obama supported David Geffen, one of the founders of the film company DreamWorks, formerly - one of the prominent supporters of Bill Clinton. Geffen stated that Hillary Clinton – was a very controversial personality and cannot unite Americans during country's difficult times. Along with other Hollywood celebrities, Geffen organized the donation campaign for Obama and collected amount was 1.3 million dollars. Geffen's stern comments about Clinton resulted in narrowing the gap between the former first lady and Obama: at the end of February, the difference stood at 12%. 36% of Democrats were ready to vote for Clinton while 24% for Obama.
One of the vulnerable issue for candidate Obama was his "Afro-American" descent. As it appeared, several representatives of the black community of America including the influential people did not quickly recognize Obama as one of them. The fact is that, unlike the "real" African Americans, Obama was not a descendent of slaves, brought to America from Western Africa. Also, the senator did not participate in the fight for African American rights - unlike the majority of other Black American politicians. The situation worsened when the press in the beginning of March, 2007 reported that Obama's maternal ancestors were slave owners.
Other stands of Obama were also criticized: for example, he supported capital punishment and supported women's right on abortions.
In the beginning of summer 2007, according to sociological research, the ratings of Obama and Clinton were even for a brief period but in June, Hillary succeeded in creating the gap (33% supporters for Clinton against 21% for Obama). In the following period, Obama's gap from the leader grew and reached approximately 30% in autumn: Clinton's rating reached almost 50% and while Obama stood at around 20% . The state of affairs remained the same in December - on the threshold of the democratic primaries. Due to this, special importance was given to the primary elections of the season - caucus, scheduled in Iowa on January 3, 2008. By December, in Iowa, Obama succeeded in leading the pack leaving behind Clinton and the other contender, former senator John Edwards. Thus, the gap between the three contenders became insignificant in Iowa and the competition became fierce. With the kind of voting in Iowa, observers, including the experienced republican expert on elections, Karl Rove, associated Obama's chances of success in national elections. |
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