The Joshua Generation
Race and the campaign of Barack Obama.
Barack Obama could not run his campaign for the Presidency based on political accomplishment or on the heroic service of his youth. His record was too slight. His Democratic and Republican opponents were right: he ran largely on language, on the expression of a country’s potential and the self-expression of a complicated man who could reflect and lead that country. And a powerful thematic undercurrent of his oratory and prose was race. Not race as ... Full Story »
Posted by Leo Romero
My first exposure to Barack Obama was several years ago when The New Yorker focused on this remarkable, upcoming young poltician named Barack Obama. Like my wife, he had grown up in Hawaii and was a graduate of Punahou. And my son, also a student at Punahou during his high school years (and also biracial) , was finishing up law school with a budding interest in politics. I can't say I ever expected Obama to become our President-elect (too much to hope for), but I was immediately impressed and determined to keep an eye on him.