THE GREAT BLACK HOPE

I love boxing. I know, I know, it's just two Neanderthal people beating the crap out of each other, but it's so simple in that form. Mano a mano. I used to fight when I was a bit younger at Berston Field House on the north end of Flint, famous for producing a lot of great fighters including former Heavyweight champ Chris Byrd, in fact I trained under his dad, Joe. It was a great outlet for all the anger that I was experiencing at the time. Like most boxing fans, I worshipped Muhammad Ali as the greatest fighter of all time. He had it all; style, skill, agility and a great knock-out punch. I wanted to be the next Ali, only white. That was the one thing that bothered me about boxing, all the great fighters of the time were black. I began thinking that it was impossible for a white guy to become Heavyweight champ. Every once in a while my hopes would be increased by some upcoming white fighter who was always deemed "The Great White Hope". As much as I loved Ali, I desperately wanted some white dude to dethrone him. One by one they fell; Gerry Cooney, Tex Cobb, Gerry Quarry, and too many more to count. I began to think it was hopeless. One thing always bothered me about the "Great White Hopes", it seemed that they were always picked off the vine too early. As soon as they got noticed, before they even had one fight against a top-ten fighter, they were in a Championship bout. It seemed to me a conspiracy to keep them losing.

Now the black people of the U.S. have their own "Great Black Hope" in a field dominated by white males. Barack Obama, a Freshman U.S. Senator from Illinois, is making a run for the Presidency of the U.S., and I'm a little worried the same thing is happening to Barack. Senator Obama stepped out into full public view after giving a great keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in 2004, with his charactaristic easy going, confident style, he was the hit of the show and soon became a household word, athough one constantly mispronounced. Both Ted Kennedy and Rush Limbaugh have famously had a hard time separating poor Barack Obama from Osama Bin Ladin. Not really someone you want to be confused with, but then again, both Ted and Rush have been a tad confused for some time.

Barack Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii on Aug. 4, 1961. He started his education in Jakarta, Indonesia where his family were originally from, then went to Occidental College in L.A. and finally studied law at Harvard where he got a J.D. He was first elected to the Illinios State Senate in 1997 before making his leap to the U.S. Senate in 2004. He has published two books; Dreams of my Father; A story of Race and Inheritance and The Audacity of Hope; Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream. Both have been well recieved and give us a little insight into the man and his past. Maybe too much.

It seems that in his first book, Sen. Obama admitted, ala Bill Clinton and G.W., that he tried marijuana and cocaine in his early years. Now, the pupose of all these confessions is always the same, to get it out before someone else finds out. I myself have no problem with anyone experimenting in their youth, although you need to be careful and none would be better. I think you would have a hard time finding anyone nowadays that didn't at least try pot. Which once again makes me question why we're still ruining lives over it. Will this be a problem for Senator Obama? I really doubt it. If it doesn't bother evangelists when G.W. did it, it's hard to imagine it would bother Democrats or Moderates when Barack does it. He's wise to get it out there early

So do I think Senator Obama has a chance? No, not really. First off, he's a Senator, and not since J.F.K. have we seen the Senate path to the presidency work. Although trends, like rules are made to be broken. Second, he doesn't really have much of a record having only been a Senator for 2 years, a fact the he's trying to promote as being less corrupted by the system. He's a great orator and after 8 long years of a President that mangles the English language, that may be a welcome change. Will his race be a factor? Certainly. America has not quite gotten over the whole race thing on both sides. Some black people will see him as too white and some whites will see him as too black. He does seem to have a gift for walking that line between the races, but I'm not sure he can hold on to that with all the contraversy that will surround him once he becomes a serious contender. Mostly, I'm concerned that like my boxing examples, he's simply been picked off the vine too early. A great speaker that crosses race lines only comes around once a generation and Barack needs to be patient and allow his star to burn. My hope is that he will be the V.P. choice for John Edwards, I don't think I would even take the offer if the candidate is Hillary Clinton as she's too devisive and I'm not sure she can win. For now, Barack, do what you do best, be yourself, The Great Black Hope. H.C.