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Senator Obama Goes to Africa

Key primary elections are being held in the battle-ground states of Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia. At stake are 168 delegates that Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton both hope to win to clinch the Democratic Party nomination. Obama is favored in all three contests, after winning four races over the weekend in Maine, Louisiana, Nebraska and Washington. What is striking about the weekend races is that Obama managed to win states that were very different in their make-up. For example, Louisiana has a large percentage of Democrat Party African Americans, while Nebraska is a majority white farming state. Clearly the freshman senator from Illinois is making history, regardless of the outcome this summer and fall.

Many progressives are excited about an Obama presidential possibility. But some call for caution. Remi Kanazy, Palestinian poet warns that “Obama is already playing up his ability to be hawkish on foreign policy and has tried to validate himself as a “tough when necessary” type of leader.” But radical black leader Amiri Baraka, although skeptical of Obama’s mainstream credentials, has backed his candidacy saying: “You have to struggle within the system to do what you can do. The alternative is to stand around and call names.”