I wasn’t sure who or what Obama was

When I first heard his name Barack Obama there is no denying it I thought he was sort of a terrorist. Or maybe he was from Muskogee, Oklahoma. Or maybe he was from Africa. I wasn’t sure who or what he was. I was in for a shock when I found he was a United States Senator from the great state of Illinois. A guy who was a unknown state legislator four years earlier, a lawyer with no fame, wealth or family connections. With his bright smile and inspiring oratory he reminds me so much of President John F. Kennedy who in 1961 swept into office with a reputation for youthful charm, impatience, wit, vigor and with a vision. As an amateur genealogist Obama’s biography has fascinated me, too. The son of a black African father who he barely knew, and a white Kansan mother who took him from Hawaii to Indonesia, he was largely raised by his white maternal grandparents. He finished near the top of his Harvard law class, and then rejected big firms' salaries to work as a community organizer in Southside Chicago, where he found a place that felt like home. Obama and his small core of longtime advisers have ‘played a quarterback sneak’ around the Clinton team by concentrating early on small caucus states, where he racked up important wins. He has used inspirational oratory to create excitement, and force party activists to reorganize that a black man with a strange sounding African name is seriously seeking to become the next American President. It’s amazing to me for him to stand today on the verge of being the first black man to ever be the President of USA. Papa Chuck