THE OBAMA'S MOVEMENT, by Arthur Boyer

Like the old French saying goes:"Je suis jeune il est vrai mais aux ames bien nees, la valeur n'attend point le nombre des annees." From the day he announced his candidacy on the Oprah show to now, I know that presidential contender Obama was not to be ignored, misunderstood, underestimated, or misinterpreted. I saw him very much like Don Rodrigue from "Le Cid" of Pierre Corneille.

Of course being a little older, staying longer in Washington, being more familiar with the rest of the world, and some job experience in foreign policy would definitely make a major difference but the U.S. Constitution only requires him to be a 37 years of age U.S. born. Though, all that he really needs is to win presidential election.

With Obama come so many issues including race, color, political orientation, national and international name recognition, age, time in Washington, and so forth. But every caucus and primary he wins only make him a more serious contender for the White House. And after putting Hillary in a very must win situation over Texas, Ohio, and Pennsylvania to secure her candidacy, Obama is only becoming more competitive, and much too serious to ignore or neglect for even one minute.

Obama is not running a campaign, he is running a movement. A political campaign can be stopped, defeated, or ignored with just one simple negative ad, but it takes a movement to stop another movement. Hillary is running a campaign but not a movement. Strategically, she is more likely to lose. Well, it may not be too late for a new contender to start a competitive movement against Obama's, but surely not Hillary for the democratic nomination. I still think that I have not seen the real strength and meaning of this movement yet. I do not expect to see all that until after the nomination. Should Obama become president, that would really be the power of the people by the people. That happened back in 1990 in Haiti with former President Jean Bertrand Aristide.

Hillary was right last week complaining that the media has been too nice towards Obama. She is somehow politically correct. As I claimed in a previous article: "Is the media in love with Obama or is it fear?" She told the truth but there will not be a change. It is simply not easy to face Obama. He is black, over fifty percent of the population find him likable, many see him as the agent of change, he is working with the youth and education is one of his priorities. All that makes it even much harder for the media to question him. Last month, Bill Clinton learned one of his worst lessons in his personal and political life. Bill Clinton was dissed by the very same person who named him the first black president just because he claimed that Obama's position on the Iraq war is a fairy tale. No wonder most interviews that Obama gives are more likely paid advertising.

At this point, Obama is the only rival that can stop himself. He is not a good target for the media, his opponents, or his critics. He is not a picture perfect but he is a fighter. Competitively, believe it or not, his pressure is harder on the democrats than the republicans.