Friday, July 25, 2008

Can Barack Obama be above criticism?


Obama’s full name is Barack Hussein Obama. This is enough for his opponents to “accuse” him of being a Muslim.


There was an incident in which an advertisement on CNN for a feature about the whereabouts of the al-Qaeda leader carried the caption “Where’s Obama?” over images of Bin Laden. This was due to a misspelling of “Osama”. The CNN apologized for the mistake.


There can be tangible criticism of Obama concerning his policies. But the exploitation of his race, colour and even his name is gratuitous. As a hopeful candidate, he should stand all criticism and be able to ward it off. What will make the presidential campaign thrilling is the aggressive strength of views that shouldn’t leave the voters undecided.


From his speeches and interviews, Barack Obama looks more leaning towards resolving international problems through negotiations rather than war. His appeasing tone towards Iran may have drawn criticism towards him. Some want him to sound more threatening than appeasing.


Concerning his attitudes in the Middle East, some see that he’s more inclined to be responsive to Israel’s concerns because of the strong Jewish lobby in Israel. Like his predecessors, he won’t force Israel to show concessions to the Palestinians, especially the construction of new colonies.


Obama still have to endeavour to convince the voters that he’s the right man for the presidential job, by being categorical on foreign and domestic issues. The slightest slip of tongue or the wrong gesture will be exploited by his opponents, as it was the case during the primary contexts. Obama needs to be more careful, instead of resorting to apologies and clarifications as it happened when two women wearing a Muslim headscarf were barred from sitting next to him.

2 comments:

Looney said...

I think there are two issues here, as well as with any politician in the American democracy: The massive random criticism that pervades everything - complaining that he is too black and that he is too white at the same time. Eventually the easiest thing to do is to tune it all out. Then there is the well thought out, legitimate criticism which can't be heard for all of the noise from the other critics, but is rejected as just more of the same.

Abdelilah Boukili said...

Whatever can be said about Obama, the fact remains that he's the first black American that has drawn attention nationally and internationally at a large scale in the 21st century.

However, as a politician, he shouldn't be immune from criticism - apart from his race and colour- if there are reasons for that