29/10/2008

Barack Obama, Democratic candidate for the United States presidency, is a cool customer. From what I have read and seen, he seems to have had the presidency in his sights a long time. If this is true you could say that he is personally ambitious.

Ambition is not a bad word in America—the country is driven by it—but ambition can cloud the mind of a president, or prime minister, or king. The reason is that the top leader should be the chief servant of the people, and personal glory militates against servanthood.

But who knows what is going on the mind of the candidate! For all we know he might be ambitious to serve, and that would be truly honourable. And what else don’t we know? (We don’t know what we don’t know.)

Do we really know what Mr Obama means by “change”? It will have something to do with America’s presence in the Middle East, to be sure. It will probably have something to do with the financial system, even the country’s profit-motive, free-market obsession.

More important, though, than the Middle East or the free market, is who is Barack Obama. I want to know if Mr Obama, as well as being a knowledgeable professor, is a wise man, for the future of the free world may depend on that wisdom. Is he old enough to have become wise? Has he had enough experience of life?

Is that how you get wisdom—through experience?  Some of that, surely, but I believe that true wisdom comes only from a relationship with God, and as far as I can tell, that is a line of media research that has not yet been covered. It is one thing to have traversed the black church scene, another to have a relationship with God.

Recall, if you can, other charismatic world leaders, such as Churchill, Hitler, Kennedy and Mao. Did they have a relationship with God? From my reading, it is clear that Mao did not, nor did Hitler. Kennedy was a Roman Catholic, but his Christian-sourced religion did not seem to moderate his personal behaviour. Churchill never showed any personal, Christian inclinations. He was just a fighter who knew right from wrong, and as it happens, the right man in British politics at the right time.

So God can and does use anybody, if he pleases, to lead and protect his peoples, but I believe he works best through people who are personally in touch with him, people like former President Carter. To discover the truly wise, you look at the results of their lives.

(By the way, I am sure Mr Obama is not a closet Muslim, as has been suggested, based on his middle name, Hussein. No true Muslim would be seen dead in a black church!)

The other thing that troubles me about the candidate is his high charisma. Nothing ruffles him. He exudes confidence, and flashes his dazzling African teeth a lot. “Trust me”, it all says. Millions of Germans trusted the charismatic Adolf Hitler—also on the scene at a critical time in their country’s history. The Democratic Denver rally reminded me instantly of the Nuremberg rallies, designed to boost Hitler’s personality cult.

So I ask, “Is Obama a self-serving saviour-figure, or is he a real man? Can America trust him?”