Keeping Obama on the path

Obama's slight move to the right has bothered me some these days. My question is "does he really need to be more centrist to win the election?" I've heard it said on ABC's "This Week" that Obama needs to prove he is not a leftist revolutionary after the comments by Rev. Wright were publicized - that the American people need to see he is like them.

Actually, considering how the country is - I'm not sure I would want a president that is like most of our populace. This year we have shown the ugly side of our American selves - we have given ourselves permission to publicly speak hate again. Not that we ever really stopped, but at least for a few decades we said hateful things in low tones - among close friends. Now it is ok to blast it all over the airwaves and the internet. All you have to do is read the "comment" section of any articles that speak of immigrants.

Recently, there was a Houston Chronicle article about a young boy who died in an accident. In their commentaries, people had the audacity to say terrible things about the boys father - basing their judgments on the family being immigrants.

I have faith that Obama doesn't go so far right that his campaign starts insulting people -(remember Willie Horton?) - I don't think he and Imus will be come good friends - but there is much temptation to give in to ethics to win elections.
Apparently his African supporters have confidence that he will not abandon his principles - I hope Obama does not let them down.

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African Immigrants Among Obama's Enthusiastic Backers

By Darryl Fears

Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 6, 2008; Page A08

A catered fundraiser for Sen. Barack Obama was held recently at Duke's City, an upscale restaurant and bar nestled amid the hip new condominiums in the District's U Street corridor, where up-and-coming white professionals are slowly taking over an area that was once mostly black.

But the owner of Duke's City, Donato Sinaci, is not one of Obama's many young, white supporters. And the host of the event, Michael Endale, is not a native-born black American. They are members of Ethiopians for Obama, one of several campaign groups made up of African immigrants who are rallying around the first black American to win a major party's presidential primary, and the son of a Kenyan immigrant.

From coast to coast, Somali, Ethiopian, Nigerian and Kenyan Americans are knocking on the doors of their fellow African immigrants, registering new citizens to vote, raising money and preaching Obama's mantra of hope and change. They hope that his prominence will change their status as one of the nation's least-recognized immigrant groups, and that he will one day provide aid to help ease the turmoil and poverty in countries such as Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan...

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