Photos of Obama on the campaign trail

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Photos of Obama on the campaign trail

pile: Please, America.

These are pretty great, starting with Obama when he was campaigning for Senate in 06. I saw him speak briefly (about community development, I think) in early 2006 at the Brookings Institution when I was interning there. It was still in the early stages of his popularity, but everyone was abuzz and waited excitedly in the foyer for a chance to be able to shake his hand. We spent the rest of the day chattering about how we thought he would run for the presidency.

The most amazing thing to me about Obama and the campaign is how self-made he and the movement is. He wasn’t afforded the opportunity to campaign on dynastic coattails or to be able to use a military pedigree as a way to transition into a high-level political career. Rather, Obama used, I believe, honesty and authenticity to progressively gain the trust of people across the county, winning over people based on the shared fundamental ideal that our country can and should be better. While he has obviously created strong proposals and plans for fixing the country, the fundamental ideals of his campaign — Hope and Change — are so amusingly basic to me. That a man — a black man with a “scary” name, no less — could rally hundreds of thousands in St. Louis and be poised to win the presidency by relying on a shared positive, common goal and policies of grace and respect toward others is beautiful and inspiring. Vote for the man that is campaigning on goodness. Goodness for you, goodness for others, and goodness — long overdue goodness — for our country.