Let's start this one in Iraq. Not because of the way the political leadership has dealt with the country, or because of the importance of the war as a central issue during most of the first decade of the twenty-first century. No instead, lets take it from the point of view of an officer serving in a fairly obscure part of the country, in a fairly obscure post, following the political events of his country back home. It is 2004, it is clear that John Kerry is going to be up against Bush the wretched and his minions, and there is the sense that maybe he can be beaten. And at least the election is going to be close.
And there is this rising star young politician that the officer hears of, and is intrigued. And the officer - for it is I - having been disappointed by Howard Dean - is impressed more and more by what he hears and reads. So much so, that when in conversation with a fellow officer who happened to be African-American, mentions this rising young very eloquent politician, is surprised that she hasn't yet heard of him. "Well" I say, "when you do hear more of him. . . .and you will. . .I think you're going to really like him. You might say he is what the U.S really needs right now, even with the war hero going up against the Texas laughing boy."
Needless to say, the politician who, from 6,530 miles away, I had identified as an up and comer was the Democratic candidate for the junior Senator from Illinois, a mixed race University of Chicago law professor with a name that should have disqualified him for any kind of national office, Barack Hussein Obama. I had a bit of a funny name too. I had been raised by a single mother. I got through a good school on wits and scholarship. What's not to like?