Youthful and energetic Mayor Fenty of Washington D.C. spoke to Law Students for Barack this past week, hosted by George Washington Law.
It’s fantastic to see a group of busy law students gather together to support Barack and learn about his exciting race for the presidency. About 70 students came out for this event, which included a panel discussion on next generation leadership. The panel included Mayor Fenty, former assistant attorney general Robert Raben, GW Law School Professor Spencer Overton and general counsel to Sen. Barack Obama, Michael Strautmanis.
Mayor Fenty, like Senator Obama, is a rising star. Fenty is one of the youngest mayors of a major American City (he was only 35 when elected!) He knows what we know, that it is time for new leadership in Washington and he had this to say of why Barack should be the Democratic nominee for President:
“America is at a "watershed moment" where a leader can set a new bar for the government as well as the country.”
Great work Law Students for Barack Obama and especially to National Director, Josh Teitelbaum, who organized the event!
In the December edition of the Atlantic Monthly conservative leaning Andrew Sullivan writes a telling and insightful piece on Senator Obama. Sullivan elaborates on what so many students already know, that Obama is the candidate for real change in our country. But Sullivan delves deeper and tells an intricate story of race, the Vietnam War and the Baby Boom generation in America. Intertwined throughout is a resonating message of why Obama would be an ideal General Election candidate: his message appeals to people all across the ideological spectrum.
Sullivan said of this appeal, “It isn’t about his policies as such; it is about his person. They are prepared to set their own ideological preferences to one side in favor of what Obama offers America in a critical moment in our dealings with the rest of the world. The war today matters enormously. The war of the last generation? Not so much. If you are an American who yearns to finally get beyond the symbolic battles of the Boomer generation and face today’s actual problems, Obama may be your man.”
The article describes in great detail just why Obama stands out amongst a field of other candidates, both Democrats and Republicans alike:
"But if you sense, as I do, that greater danger lies ahead, and that our divisions and recent history have combined to make the American polity and constitutional order increasingly vulnerable, then the calculus of risk changes. Sometimes, when the world is changing rapidly, the greater risk is caution. Close-up in this election campaign, Obama is unlikely. From a distance, he is necessary. At a time when America’s estrangement from the world risks tipping into dangerous imbalance, when a country at war with lethal enemies is also increasingly at war with itself, when humankind’s spiritual yearnings veer between an excess of certainty and an inability to believe anything at all, and when sectarian and racial divides seem as intractable as ever, a man who is a bridge between these worlds may be indispensable. We may in fact have finally found that bridge to the 21st century that Bill Clinton told us about. Its name is Obama."
The main thing that we want to communicate today is that this war that we've been fighting in Iraq has got to stop, that we can no longer afford $275 million a day spent on a civil war between factions in Iraq where there is no military solution to be had, that it's time for us to begin bringing our young men and women home — they have been there long enough - Barack Obama, Canvass for Change, 10/13/2007
Saturday’s nationwide Canvass to Change allowed Students for Barack Obama to help spread our candidate's message of hope and action. Even Senator Obama returned to his community organizer roots as he walked around knocking on neighborhood doors in Iowa. First-time doorknockers and veteran canvassers walked side-by-side, house-to-house, joining their voices to call for an end to the War in Iraq. It was just over five years ago that our country declared war. SFBO knows that Barack Obama showed the judgment and courage to oppose the war from the beginning and yesterday those that participated in the canvass got to explain Barack’s courage to others. It is an empowering experience to spend a day knocking on doors and telling people why a student like yourself is giving up a Saturday to help bring about real change in this country.
Obama for America said that supporters canvassed in 15 states, and that in Iowa alone about 400 volunteers knocked on more than 10,000 doors.
