A poised race to inheritance

In many ways it was a points victory for Barack Obama when he edged out Hillary Clinton from the Democrat race. Hillary, who not so delicately brought to the fore the race issue, garnered immense support in several big states. Obama would have lost if the Democrats had followed the earlier practice of winner takes all. In the end, he won a tactical race and concentrated on caucuses and small states that never really figured prominently in the primaries. Hillary, who gave an impression that her candidature was a foregone conclusion, was felled by a candidate who was savvier in raising funds and leveraging the internet to build a big constituency of those who were disgusted with the way US was being led.
His attack against the K-street lobbyists of Washington and how they were distorting national policies to their advantage struck a favourable chord with millions of ordinary people who are reeling under the worst economic crisis seen in many years. Sub-prime crisis and foreclosures have rendered many middle-class people homeless. Obama's iconic slogan, "Change we can", has been repeated in hundreds of meetings that Obama has attended since he first expressed his intention to run for president. Obama enjoys a rock star status with the young, café latte crowd - who believe the salvation for the US lies in his election to the White House.
Truly a global citizen - his father is a Kenyan Muslim and his mother a White American -Obama's early years were spent in Indonesia. Republican detractors called him a Muslim because of his middle name, Hussein, and it was usual for TV anchors to call him "Osama". He fought this vicious campaign with "grace and grit" and showed his enormous intellectual capability in squarely addressing the race issue. When his pastor Jeremiah Wright, who was a father figure of sort, trashed US foreign policy and articulated the grievances of the disenfranchised black community, Obama, mindful of the harm that this could do to his campaign, promptly disassociated the reverend from himself.
Despite the fact that he knew that Hillary was behind the campaign, he did not press hard on an issue that could hurt the first lady: identity of the contributors to the Clinton Foundation. Many of these contributors, it is alleged, paid up for Hillary Clinton too. As media reports revealed, some of those were dubious businessmen who sought President Bill Clinton's help in clinching global contracts.
Hillary, egged on by her husband, had refused to step down after it became clear that she could not pass Obama on the delegate count. During her interaction with editors, she had hinted that she would stay on all of June- reminding them of Bobby Kennedy's assassination in 1967 and how it transformed US politics. Her remarks drew derision from the media that seemed tired of the Clintons. Under pressure from Democrat leaders, she stepped down after cutting, possibly, a deal with him. Obama has asked his financiers to put together a bailout plan for the debt-ridden Hillary. In lieu of that, the former first lady would campaign together with the first coloured Democrat nominee to help him gather all her votes- which were considerable.
Obama, despite his gargantuan control over the English language and grey matter, remains an enigma. No one knows what kind of foreign or domestic policies he would follow. He has not really been heard beyond a teleprompter and has not been subjected to serious grilling.
If he wins, which seems likely if there is no repetition of 9/11, he could change the world in a way not witnessed before.