I just read an amazing essay from Alice Walker (yes, that Alice Walker), about Barack Obama:

\"When I have supported white people, men and women, it was because I thought them the best possible people to do whatever the job required.  Nothing else would have occurred to me. If Obama were in any sense mediocre, he would be forgotten by now. He is, in fact, a remarkable human being, not perfect but humanly stunning, like King was and like Mandela is. We look at him, as we looked at them, and are glad to be of our species. He is the change America has been trying desperately and for centuries to hide, ignore, kill. The change America must have if we are to convince the rest of the world that we care about people other than our (white) selves.\"

While the entire essay resonates, I thought that the above paragraph really stood out. I'm starting to see some anti-Barack backlash in the press (like this piece - making the argument that Obama is like Adlai Stevenson - the high-minded folks like him, but he isn't populist enough to win). But when you read what Alice Walker has written about Obama, and consider the counter arguments, you'll see that they don't carry any weight. Obama is truly an amazing candidate, and I think he can go all the way to the White House.

I read another story about Obama in Time magazine this weekend - \"The Story of Barack Obama's Mother\". I highly recommend the article, as paints a fuller picture of where Barack came from. We live in a global age - the United States has to interact with, and depends upon, countries all over the world. And now is the time for us to have a president who not only appreciates, but understands, this global world.

-Andy.