Stern, Germany

Barack Obama: The Most American of All Dreams

By Jan Christoph Wiechmann

Translated by Jacqueline Audet

January 7, 2008

Germany - Stern - Original Article (German)

Welcome back, America! Welcome to the 21st Century, in which the President can have a black face, an Indonesian childhood and Hussein as his second name. Barack Obama is the American dream. Difficult to imagine that there would not be a happy ending for him.

The best stories often come from America, and there is seldom a more inspiring one as the one that is taking place in front of the world on these January-days of the New Year. Forty years after the death of Martin Luther King, a young black man from Hawaii, Indonesia and Chicago is making his almost inexorable way to the White House. There is not, even in this Hollywood-sculpted country, any better material, any bigger American Dream nor a more successful Happy Ending after eight painful years in the basement of the contemporary history.

Americans are masters at constantly re-inventing themselves Pensioners returning to college, immigrants inventing Google, bodybuilders becoming governors. These days a whole country is re-inventing itself. Citizens are streaming to the polls and are deciding on the largest possible transition, for a radical break from the past. America is throwing all prognoses, wisdom and warnings overboard and is marching passionately into the future head-on. It is bidding farewell to the governing years of the evangelistic Christians, but is banking on a messiah-like figure. It is saying good-bye to the generation of 1968, but is letting the most spirited dreams from Joan Baez, Bob Dylan und John Lennon come true. And yes – even those of the Clintons.

The success story of Barack Hussein Obama, this son of a Kenyan father and a white mother from Kansas, is the fulfilment of exactly those dreams which were voiced by the then student Hillary Clinton in her closing speech in 1969. It is a dream-come-true for Bill Clinton, called "America’s first black President", who really must not be able to imagine anything nicer than a charismatic, conciliating black man in the White House. Obama is not just the final answer to the big "I have a dream"- speech from Martin Luther King. He is this dream. And at the same time he is a nightmare for the Osama bin Ladens of the world. What can still be said of a black community organizer with a Muslim name who leads the Superpower of this Planet?

Unforgettable Moments

There are moments in reporters’ lives, which are unforgettable. After his victory in Iowa, Barack Obama took the stage with his family in the overfilled Hy-Vee Hall in Des Moines and as he left it again 20 minutes later after his "The time has come"- speech, reporters had tears in their eyes. And because they are running out of comparisons, they called the evening "historical", "monumental", "the Obama- Revolution". They searched for other epochal speeches and landed at King’s "I have a dream". They searched for other political leaders and came upon John F. Kennedy.

Obama spoke, as he did so often, heroic words: "I want to tell the world: America is back. We are one nation, one folk. And our time for change has come". He spoke from "the most American of all dreams: that the people who love this country can change it despite all of the conceivable resistances". It is the ancient American tale of one single hero in the fight against the system. If politics do not react to climate change, then Al Gore has to do it by himself. If one’s own party doesn’t make the transition, then someone like Obama has to do it. And for one moment, cheers could be heard from the young audience, which have not been heard for years: "U-S-A. U-S-A. U-S-A." It was not just a revenge-thirsty "U-S-A" like when the people screamed back at the enemies after September 11th. It was a soft but still hope-filled "U-S-A" that is asking the world for forgiveness.

Obama fulfilled the Americans’ longing after the overcoming of a deep ideological grave, after national unity and after the return of big dreams, which were buried under Guantanamo and Abu Ghreib. Obama, just 46 years old, is pre-destined to heal the wounds, which Bush and Cheney, but which also the Clintons tore open in the 1990s. He is the bridge into the 21st Century after a short trip to the Middle Ages. He is a politician but also a movement. He is a driving force but also a new generation.

Obama is the best weapon in the world against those already exciting stereotypes about his country. If someone points out racism in America again, he will say: I won in a 97 percent white state such as Iowa. If someone refers to bigots, he can say: many of those evangelistic Christians and Republicans voted for me. Whoever points out the apathy of US youths, will hear from him: Look at the masses of young students, who arose from their soap operas in the icy coldness of Iowa and came in droves like they would to a pop concert.

More fresh starts, more warmth, more glamour

He does not only fulfil the desire for a fresh start but also for more warmth in politics, something heroic, with a superlative and glamorous style. He has a pretty wife, two cute little children, an ideal family and he has a real laugh; a radiant laugh. He fulfils the simplest of all longings of a torn nation: To be good again.

It is still a long way off to an electoral victory in November, but those who experience America these days, those who see the tears of the elderly, the radiant eyes of the young, those who hear the enthusiasm of the reporters, the hymns of the columnists, can hardly imagine that this epochal, ancient American story would find another ending other than a furiously Happy Ending.