This morning, Senator Obama delivered a radio adress to the people of Kenya, calling for the continuation of Kenyan democracy and national unity, and for all parties to renounce violence. Although it is vogue to accuse Obama of failing to lead, it was Obama, and not George Bush or Hillary Clinton who delivered this plea for peace and stability.
Now, it is fair to note that Barack Obama had a unique ability in this case, both because of his ties to Kenya and because of his rhetorical capacity to inspire and ignite hope. But I put to you that this is what we are looking for in our next President: a man who takes the time from a busy and rapidly-closing race to consult on and give an adress calling for peace in a nation torn by conflict. This is the leadership we are looking for. A man who will lead in making the world a better place, not in turning us upon one another and ignoring genocide and attrocity.
Barack Obama has a history of working for the betterment of people both inside and outside of the United States. In 2006 he took a trip to Kenya in which he advocated for more AIDS awareness and sought to bring attention (pardon the source, but no other sources referenced that part) to the conditions of the Kibera slum in Nairobi where 700,000 people live in a square mile without many necessities. On the same trip, he visited refugees from Darfur, and sought to raise AIDS awareness in South Africa.
In 2006, Obama received an A+ from the Darfur Scores organization, which is run by the Genocide Intervention Network (In 2007, he received an A). In 2005, he and Republican Sam Brownback came together (despite significant differences) to publish a call for more U.S. effort in stopping genocide in Darfur.
I don't think his record on Iraq is news to anyone. He opposed it from the start, and despite attempts to twist his record by the Clintons, is the only Presidential candidate to oppose the war from the start.
On Global Poverty, Obama's website says the following.
Fight Global Poverty: Obama will embrace the Millennium Development Goal of cutting extreme poverty around the world in half by 2015, and he will double our foreign assistance to $50 billion to achieve that goal. He will help the world's weakest states to build healthy and educated communities, reduce poverty, develop markets, and generate wealth.
Last month, he, Chuck Hagel, and Maria Cantwell came together to propose The Global Poverty Act, which would require the President to develop programs to cut Global Poverty in half by 2015.
I have supported Barack Obama for the nomination since a year ago, at least in part because I saw his ability to bring the world together again, and return the US to our responsibility to make the world a better place. His ability to bring people together from both sides of the aisle to work towards this goal is exactly what the American people need, and exactly what we should be demanding of our leaders.
I respect Senators Clinton and Edwards, but it is clear to me that the people of the world, and the people of the United States need Barack Obama to be the next President.
Update: Thanks to play jurist for reminding me to mention the work Barack Obama did with Sen. Richard Lugar to work for non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. Another excellent example of working across the aisle to do important things.