Yes we can.

If Americans can throw out conventional thinking and a complete paradigm shift of seismic proportions and elect a black Man with a foreign sounding name, Ignore years of racial acrimony differences, stereotypes, Then we Africans have a lot to learn in regard to democracy, tolerance and peaceful co-existence.

l have just come to learn that true leaders are not made, but are indeed Born. You can have all the experience and the political pedigree, But at the end you cannot deliver no matter what. Certain men exude a certain confidence, integrity and the ability to lead and inspire “Hope” among there respective constituency’s, a good example are a well known cast of characters….

Winston Churchill, the WW2, British prime Minister who inspired hope, among Britons amid hopelessness and potential defeat by the Nazis, Ronald Reagan who won the cold war without firing a single missile, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King jnr who fought for civil rights and inspired American Blacks with his leadership…. Nelson Mandela who emerged from jail and united a racially divided south Africa after years of apartheid, our own Tom Mboya who inspired countless African trade unionists, and young politicians to fight the yoke of colonialism and exploitation only to fall to an assassins bullet…and now Obama.

Obama now has that rare chance to prove he can lead and inspire a whole generation of young people for a better and brighter future.

For us in Africa, it’s time to focus on the fight against well known suspects..Poverty ignorance and disease, tribalism, racism and corruption not necessarily in that order.

We need to invite and initiate open discussion and debate about the road ahead — invite the well known unwanted guest called DEMOCRACY and give him a chance, to prevail/build enviable institutions, and governments elected by the ballot not the bullet.

It’s about time to change the status quo and give our children and people hope for the future.

Phil Ole Sompisha
Mad_Moran

When Senator Barack Obama steps onto the stage on Thursday, next to Berlin’s Victory column, the world will be expecting a momentous speech.

   Great speakers: Enoch Powell, Mikhail Gorbachev, Barack Obama

   Great speakers: John F. Kennedy, Nelson Mandela, Margaret Thatcher

A team of Telegraph writers has compiled what they believe are the most significant addresses of the 20th and 21st centuries. The first tranche, speeches 25-13, can be viewed here. The top 12 are published here.

They limited the list to one speech per historical figure — otherwise, Winston Churchill, John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King would have appeared more than once…….and, I think Obama’s speech on race relations delivered in Philadelphia on March 18, 2008, deserves to be in this list.

Notes: Video and Transcript of Senator Barack Obama’s Speech on Race – in Philadelphia on March 18, 2008

“Hillary Clinton is showing “a little desperation” according to Governor David Paterson.

Paterson made that comment Thursday, in reference to Senator Clinton’s quest for delegates from Florida and Michigan whom her party has discounted because the states held their primaries too early.” — Quotation from Fox23News.Com

Gov, David Paterson, a superdelegate pledged to Hillary, is dismayed by her desperate tactics that are undermining the democratic process.

Most Democrats want Hillary to stay in the race until the end of the primaries, but only if she refrains from attacking Obama and ceases to try to change the rules to benefit her.

Hillary’s acts of desperation aren’t winning her the support of the superdelegates, in the last few weeks she’s managed to garner the support of very few of these party officials.

Today Hillary proved that Paterson was not exaggerating when he referred to her as desperate:

“Sen. Hillary Clinton referred Friday to the assassination of Robert Kennedy in 1968 Democratic campaign as a reason she should continue to campaign despite increasingly long odds.

Clinton was responding to a question from the Sioux Falls Argus Leader editorial board about calls for her to drop out of the race.

‘My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. You know I just, I don’t understand it,’ she said, dismissing the idea of dropping out” — Quotation from the Associated Press

Hilary is disingenuous when she mentions that her husband didn’t wrap up the nomination until June 1992. Technically she’s telling the truth, but what she fails to mention is that by that time all the major contenders had dropped out and her husband was facing only token opposition.

Hillary is desperate when she invokes the assassination of Robert Kennedy. Why conjure up loaded word when her opponent has an excellent chance of becoming the first African American President of the United States?

To invoke the assassination of Robert Kennedy at a time when Sen. Ted Kennedy is battling for his life is reprehensible.

“Hillary Clinton said Friday she regretted comments that evoked the June 1968 assassination of Robert Kennedy as part of her explanation for why she was staying in the presidential race late into the primary season.

“Earlier today, I was discussing the Democratic primary history and in the course of that discussion mentioned the campaigns that both my husband and Senator Kennedy waged in California in June in 1992 and 1968, and I was referencing those to make the point that we have had nominating primary contests that go into June. That’s an historic fact,” she told reporters. — Quotation from The St. Louis American

Even if we accept Hillary’s half-hearted apology, the damage has been done and let’s hope that she hasn’t given a nut an idea about killing Obama.

Listen Hillary: It’s over. Damn it, it’s over. A meteorite isn’t going to fall on Obama, get out of the race before you further stain your legacy.

REFERENCES:

…and from which ‘Rat Hole’ would you expect more assassination idiots to emerge …..Fox News, of course!

Racist Incidents Give Some Obama Campaigners Pause — Especially in Indiana and Pennsylvania, states which harbor numerous hate groups, and have been Ku Klux Klan strongholds for many years.

For all the hope and excitement Obama’s candidacy is generating, some of his field workers, phone-bank volunteers and campaign surrogates are encountering a raw racism and hostility that have gone largely unnoticed — and unreported — this election season.

Doors have been slammed in their faces. They’ve been called racially derogatory names (including the white volunteers). And they’ve endured malicious rants and ugly stereotyping from people who can’t fathom that the senator from Illinois could become the first African American president.

The contrast between the large, adoring crowds Obama draws at public events and the gritty street-level work to win votes is stark. The candidate is largely insulated from the mean-spiritedness that some of his foot soldiers deal with away from the media spotlight.

Victoria Switzer, a retired social studies teacher, was on phone-bank duty one night during the Pennsylvania primary campaign. One night was all she could take: “It wasn’t pretty.” She made 60 calls to prospective voters in Susquehanna County, her home county, which is 98 percent white. The responses were dispiriting. One caller, Switzer remembers, said he couldn’t possibly vote for Obama and concluded: “Hang that darky from a tree!“…..[more]

RELATED: Racism alarms Obama’s backers – Candidate’s foot soldiers encounter name-calling, vandalism, bomb threats