この夏、墓参で長崎に行った際に、ドライヴがてら小浜市に立ち寄ったが、オバマを応援する看板があったのには驚いた。それがいまから４ヶ月前の8月のこと。いまやそれが現実のものとなり、来年1月20日に、正式に史上初の黒人のアメリカ合衆国大統領が誕生する。
はたして、来年1月のオバマ大統領就任以降の世界の構図はいかなる風景となってゆくのであろうか。今の米国は、ドル下落に象徴されるように、確実に覇権の弱体化傾向が強まっている。そして、世界の他の大国に対して覇権国の任務の一部を肩代わりしてほしいと望んでいる。それが世界を安定させる道であると。
ちなみに、ドイツのフィッシャー独元外相は今年の２月に、いみじくも、米国が次の政権になっても、ブッシュの失敗した戦略から脱却できないし、誰が次期大統領になろうと、米国が以前のような国際協調路線に戻る可能性は低いと喝破している。はたして、欧州はいまだ米の覇権に依存してゆくのであろうか。そして日本は、旧態依然と米国依存のイナーシャによりかかったままであろうか。
【Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. (b. August 4, 1961) 】・・・公開情報より一部抜粋引用
イリノイのスプリングフィールドで立候補宣言をしたのが去年の2月、そして事実上ヒラリー・クリントンとの一騎打ちの戦いを経て、その後、大統領予備選の全日程が終了し、全代議員数の過半数を超える2,151人の指名獲得を集めたオバマは、ヒラリー・クリントンを下し民主党の大統領候補指名を確定させた。そして、11月4日午後10時に、大統領に当選が確定し、「アメリカに変革が訪れた」と勝利演説を行った。「Change」（変革）と「Yes, we can.」（私たちはできる）は彼を象徴するキーワードである。アメリカ史上初の黒人大統領としてのみならず、州議会議員の他は上院議員1期だけという短い政治経歴も注目された。来年1月20日に、正式にアメリカ合衆国大統領に就任する。
【オバマ（Barack Hussein Obama, Jr）のウエッブサイト】
https://donate.barackobama.com/page/contribute/dnc08splashnd
an American politician currently representing the state of Illinois in the United States Senate. Obama announced on February 10, 2007 that he is a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. On Nov. 4, 2008, Barack Obama won the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election by defeating Senator John McCain. Obama became the first African-American to win the presidency in America's history.Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, August 4, 1961. His father was a professor from Kenya and his mother an American. He obtained his early education in Jakarta, Indonesia, and Hawaii, and went on to Occidental College in Los Angeles, later transferring to Columbia University in New York City. After graduating from Columbia, Obama studied law at Harvard University, where he became the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review, and received his J.D. in 1992. He served as a lecturer on constitutional law at the University of Chicago until winning a seat in the Illinois State Senate in 1996. He served in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004, until he was elected as a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in 2004. He began his first term in the U.S. Senate on January 3, 2005. In January, 2007, Obama announced the formation of his Presidential Exploratory Committee, which is the first step to formally declaring his candidacy for the presidency. Soon thereafter, a controversy began related to what kind of schools he attended while living in Indonesia in the 1960s. Fox News reported that Obama attended an Islamic madrassa school called the Basuki school, that preached a radical version of Islam. CNN reported that Obama attended a secular public school. See also: Obama Education/Madrassa Controversy
On February 10, 2007, Senator Obama formally declared his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States.Obama won the first contest in the Democratic nomination battle with his victory over Hillary Clinton , John Edwards and the other candidates in the Iowa Caucuses. Clinton then won the New Hampshire Primary, presaging the tight and sometimes hot battle between Obama and Clinton as they each vied for the Democratic Nomination. Controversy over remarks made by Obama's former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, led Senator Obama to make an important speech on race and religion in America. (See the YouTube video below ).Barack Obama's message of change and hope eventually propelled him past Hillary Clinton and won him the Democratic nomination. As the 2008 Presidential campaign sped on toward its November 4 conclusion, McCain and Obama each spent millions of dollars, mostly on television ads, attacking each other.On Nov. 4, 2008, Senator Barack Obama defeated Republican Senator John McCain in a decisive Electoral College victory. After the major media outlets declared that Obama had won over 270 Electoral Votes, following the close of voting on the West Coast, President-Elect Obama and his family, along with Vice-President-Elect Joseph Biden, appeared before a huge crowd of supporters in Grant Park, Chicago. There, Obama gave an inspiring victory speech in which he declard that he will be the President of all Americans, not just those who voted for him.