| Barack Obama’s biography: In 2006 Senator Obama succeeded in gaining the sympathy of press media and become one of the most outstanding public figures in Washington. In 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 at second place next to senator Hillary Clinton in the list of favorites from Democratic Party. In January, Obama created special exploratory committee - non-governmental organization for 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 Islamic school- madrasa, where representatives of radical Muslim sects of 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 elections by March, 2008. Along with Iraq campaign, he criticized the Bush's administration for insufficient success to fight the oil supplies and development of 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 though behind it. Obama's stand regarding Iraq and his plans on withdrawal of troops were criticized by Bush's supporters not only in USA but also in other countries. One of 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, USA could conduct large-scale researches 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 switchover to alternative energy sources and stop using fossil fuels and atomic energy. He named Iceland as an example for successful implementation of such program, however did not name any one main of types of alternative energy like hydrogen fuel cells but supported for researches 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 film company DreamWorks, formerly - one of the prominent supporters of Bill Clinton. Geffen stated that Hillary Clinton - very controversial personality and cannot unite Americans during country's difficult times. Along with other Hollywood celebrities, Geffen organized the donation campaign for Obama - collected amount was 1.3 million dollars. Geffen's stern comments about Clinton resulted in narrowing the gap between former first lady and Obama: at the end of February, the difference stood at 12 %. 36 % 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, sveral representatives of black community of America including the influential people did not quickly recognize Obama as one of them. The matter of fact is that, unlike the "real" African American, Obama was not a descendent of slaves, brought to America from Western Africa. Besides, senator did not participate in fight for African American rights - unlike the majority of other Black American politicians. 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 the women's right on abortions.
In the beginning of summer 2007, according to sociological researches, 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 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 same in December - on the threshold of democratic primaries. Due to this, special importance was given to primary elections of the season - caucus, scheduled in Iowa on January 3, 2008. By December, in Iowa, Obama succeceded in leading the pack leaving behind Clinton and 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. |
This Friday we continue our freaking experiment with provided source images.
