Barack Obama

Obama's interests broad

Sunday, September 18, 2005

The State Journal-Register
By DORI MEINERT

WASHINGTON - In recent weeks, Sen. Barack Obama has inspected nuclear weapons destruction programs in Russia and Ukraine and met with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Almost immediately upon his return, the freshman Democrat from Illinois was striding alongside two former presidents - Bill Clinton and the current president's father - talking to Hurricane Katrina victims evacuated to Houston.

Nine months into his first year as senator, Obama is stepping more and more into the national and international arena in a determined move to build his credentials. His recent appearances highlight the difficult balancing act that he continues to face as the only African-American in the Senate.

Obama was in London when he learned of the devastation in New Orleans. He called Bill Clinton and was invited to join the former presidents in Houston over Labor Day weekend.

After declining invitations to appear on Sunday talk shows for the first eight months of his freshman year in the Senate, Obama made his first appearance Sept. 11 on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos."

Obama's advisers had urged him not to get publicly active on an issue that didn't directly involve Illinois. But Obama said in an interview this week that he felt compelled to step in because of "the enormity of this disaster and the fact that issues of race and class emerged."

As the only African-American senator, he said, "people were looking to me to frame the issues to some degree."

However, he chose to frame those issues on national television differently than some other Democrats had. He disagreed with some black leaders and with Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean, who said racism had been behind the federal government's initial slow response to help hurricane victims.

Obama's view is that the Bush administration's response, while inadequate, was "colorblind."

"Whoever was in charge planning was so detached from the realities of inner city life in a place like New Orleans that they couldn't conceive of the notion that somebody couldn't load up their SUV, put $100 worth of gas in there, put some sparkling water and drive off to a hotel and check in with a credit card," Obama said in the ABC interview, echoing a Senate floor speech he made a few days before.

In light of recent polls that showed most blacks thought the government response would have been faster if the victims had been white, Obama's comments focusing on class instead of race "raised a lot of eyebrows," said Ron Walters, a political science professor at the University of Maryland who specializes in African-American politics.

"His heart was in the right place. As a senator, he couldn't stay away from it. But the politics of his position has to be thought through very carefully," said Walters. He said Obama could alienate a substantial part of the black community if he makes a habit of avoiding strong positions on racial issues.

On the other hand, John Jackson, a professor at Southern Illinois University's Paul Simon Public Policy Institute, said race and class must be discussed together.

"To me, it makes sense to acknowledge both were on display in the aftermath of the hurricane," Jackson said.

Meanwhile, Obama's recent trip to Russia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and England with Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar, R-Indiana, is only the beginning of his international travels. He also hopes to travel to the Middle East in January and to Africa later this year.

Obama is a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, an assignment he sought both because of his interest in the issues such as keeping nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists and his personal background. His father was born in Kenya.

"Basically, what he's doing is building a foundation for some of the portfolio that he's taken on in the Senate," Walters said. "There isn't any question he is able to handle both the domestic and foreign issues. I think he has some proclivity to that because of his heritage," Walters said.

Jackson cautions that Obama must not scatter himself too broadly.

"The stretch from Russia to New Orleans is a long stretch and illustrates a problem that he is going to have, which is being overextended and being all things to all people. Everybody wants a piece of him," Jackson said. "It's going to be tough to get him to resist the urge to run off in all directions."

Earlier in August, before he headed overseas, Obama spent time traveling through Illinois, meeting with constituents.

Jackson was impressed that Obama showed up on a rainy Saturday morning to meet with farmers at SIU.

"It was the kind of thing that you wouldn't necessarily think a senator from Chicago would have a strong inclination toward, but here he was, and I think several dozen farm types very much appreciated seeing him," Jackson said.