For those of you who went to see Barack Obama speak at Union Station this past Friday, I think you would agree that he is not only a powerful stage presence, but also a breath of fresh air in terms of our currently stagnant politics. For those of you who did not go, you really should have, because Obama, more than any major political candidate I have ever seen in my life, really speaks to young people such as us. It was refreshing to see a candidate be able to deliver a speech with such power, conviction, intelligence and humor, while talking about real issues, a quality we have not seen in some time.

His new campaign slogan “Change we can believe in” perfectly describes what we all feel, to some degree, about what needs to happen with our country. (I should note however that the slogan could read “Change in which we can believe” in order to conform to proper English grammar, but you can’t win them all.)

I think it would be hard to argue that what America needs right now is four to eight more years of the same: the dollar is doing horribly, most of the world hates us when they used to love us, we are engaged in a military quagmire that has become a never-ending, bloody stalemate, we are ruining the Earth with our consumption-based lifestyles which consequently lead other parts of the world, like China, to do the same by following our example (this last point is certainly arguable, I guess).

For me, though, the one thing that Barack Obama said that stood out was his wish to go before the United Nations as president and say, “America is back.” By this he meant that we have strayed from the original visions and morals that this country was governed with for more than two centuries, but these founding principles are not lost entirely. Barack wants to reclaim the good connotations of the word American, because as it stands now, it is more of a swear word.

Obama did address the reality that putting out the fires in the White House is not enough. Barack is a tried and true progressive: he supports stem cell research, he loves equal opportunity education on the secondary and university level and he has plans for reduced emissions and energy independence.

I agree that these sound like empty promises that any politician could make, but Obama has a history to back it all up. In the senate, he has been known to vote somewhat independently of party line (as a liberal, he will tend to vote for democratic policies) and he has a firm policy against lobbyists. The result of these traits is that Obama does not let anyone make up his mind for him. Lobbyists have enough money to sway politics in their own favor via kickbacks, bribes and campaign finance but only if a candidate is greedy for their money, which unfortunately most politicians are. Standing strong against lobbyists, Barack Obama can make his own choices and actually make changes the way he says he will.

I only have two problems about Obama’s candidacy: 1) his ability to win the general election and 2) his longevity.

A large part of a candidate’s success in the polls comes from the stalwart voting blocks of senior citizens. This is also a large part of why nothing ever changes in politics; the same people vote in every presidential election and they always want the same things. Obama’s appeal to young people is adventurous and commendable, but it may be wasted effort because young people are notoriously lazy on voting day. There are enough of us to make a difference and possibly enough to get Obama on the ticket, but probably not enough of us care enough to leave our comfortable houses once every four years to make a difference in our country.

As to his longevity, I worry. This next point may sound like conspiracy theory, but I keep thinking that Barack Obama sounds like JFK and Martin Luther King, Jr. This is not a bad quality, but these are two people who stood up to the status quo in the name of the people and were killed for doing so. A politician can only flout so many precedents before he starts to make enemies; in some cases, this can lead to politicians who put their own lives in danger. For Obama, who has received threats and was recently assigned a Secret Service detail for protection, this is certainly an issue. As a voter, I need to be assured that my candidate will be around for another four or even eight years, or else nothing that he says will matter.

And as a side note, this is my last Monday column; you can catch me on Wednesdays from now on.

Christian is a senior in Arts & Sciences and a Forum editor. He can be reached via e-mail at [email protected].

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