Barack Obama

...Obama: The status quo is untenable...

...Another example is that the biggest indicator of whether one is Republican or Democrat is whether you go to church or not...

...At the time, he was chatting about jazz, books, and child-rearing-an adorable young daughter in tow...

...As the only superpower in the world, we have a humanitarian obligation, which is critical...

...wasn't just preaching about economics in his "I Have a Dream" speech...

...I said no one wants to waste money on programs that fail...

...Polls in August gave him a forty-one-point lead over Keyes...

...We need a multilateral strategy that helps to put Iraq back on its feet militarily and economically...

...Obama: Well, I do affirm the ideal of an America where we are tied together by a common set of principles and shared opportunities...

...Israelis are feeling threatened, and Palestinians are unable to live a free and economically viable existence...

...There has been such a loss in terms of lives and dollars...

...They need help getting a foot in the door...

...What did you mean...

...I was initially encouraged by President Bush's pledge of $15 billion to address the AIDS crisis in Africa, but discouraged by the lack of follow-through...

...She is a longtime community activist and author of "Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision...

...Barack Obama: Well, we can't just pull out immediately...

...Senator...

...As the first U.S...

...Again, in your convention speech, you said Americans don't want their tax dollars wasted on welfare policies that don't work...

...What some people on the left don't believe is that we can win this "values argument...

...These countries can end up becoming fertile breeding grounds for terrorists...

...Youthful, handsome, and confident, with a warm manner and a deferential style, Obama always seems to put people at ease in his presence...

...In fact, in an earlier draft of my speech I said this is an ideal, and we have often breached that ideal as a nation...

...They have to do with attitudes, values, and morals...

...With modest investment, we could make a much bigger difference in Africa...

...And do you agree with Clinton's welfare reform agenda, which has left so many poor people feeling hopeless and abandoned...

...Obama: Certainly, I would bring more sensitivity to the issue than the typical U.S...

...Both Palestinians and Israelis have to do some serious soul searching...

...I don't believe in fundamentalisms of any kind, but the issue of morals or even religion is not the purview of the right...

...Obama: Yes, certain factions of the left have bought into an either/or argument about how we solve our problems, and I contend that all our solutions do not have to do with money...

...But this is not a conservative versus liberal distinction...

...For example, when a big corporation like Enron destroys the savings of families, and other corporations don't allow workers to organize, these are moral issues, too...

...policy...

...How will he "give voice to the voiceless, and power to the powerless," as he promised in his primary victory speech...

...foreign policy toward the African continent...

...America has a role to play, but I don't think we are the key players that are going to resolve that situation...

...They get distracted, but their impulses and instincts are good...

...Q: You also said something to the effect that you are open to ideas from both the right and the left...

...But we have been complicit in ceding the values discussion to the conservatives...

...Q: You opposed the Iraq War before we invaded, but what should happen now...

...Pundits, politicians, and college professors have weighed in with their own labels and analyses to describe and define the Obama phenomenon...

...Q: Let's shift to the domestic front...

...We need to figure out how to make work pay...

...He was preaching about morality, about values...

...How Obama chooses to frame his positions and present himself to the world, however, is only part of the equation...

...Still, he readily points out that racism is alive and well and needs to be tackled head on...

...We need to do more than we are doing...

...Now some may label that a "rightwing" or "conservative" position, but you go into any place in the community, you will hear the same thing...

...In my speech, I didn't attack welfare...

...Can you elaborate on what you meant by that...

...We need meaningful peace talks...

...How will he strike the delicate balance between principles and the politics of pragmatic compromise...

...Alan Keyes, a cranky and crude ultraconservative who doesn't even live in the state, was finally tossed into the ring to bark at Obama's heels...

...But unless we affirm the value of work as a goal we will lose the confidence of those who are already working, including the working poor...

...What role should the U.S...

...He handily defeated five strong opponents in the Democratic primary, and he was such a formidable candidate that the Illinois Republicans were in a scramble trying to find someone to run against him when his first opponent, Jack Ryan, dropped out...

...It is simply not his only issue...

...But he is navigating some new political waters these days, and if he is elected in November, there will be enormous expectations laid at his feet...

...Most of its readers consider themselves left of center, so why should progressives support you and vote for you in November...

...Q: What about welfare policy...

...He is proud of his African heritage (his father was Kenyan), he self-consciously embraces a black rather than biracial identity, and he is seemingly at home in Chicago's black community...

...In your convention speech, you described the United States as neither white nor black but as one America...

...I would add that if we are going to discuss morality, we have to discuss both private and public morality...

...We have to be vigilant in eradicating all forms of discrimination, but I also think that some of our biggest challenges have less to do with race and more to do with the educational and economic barriers that all poor people are experiencing...

...We have to guarantee that people have enough support to enter the work force...

...By all indications, Obama will have no trouble winning the Illinois Senate seat in November...

...How is this nice guy, with an easy smile and a sharp intellect, going to make a difference in the rough and tumble arena of national politics...

...Then we have divisions of the working poor versus those on welfare...

...Here is what he had to say...

...Things have changed a lot for Obama and his family since then, and yet some things remain the same...

...But if we pull out immediately, I think the tragedy would be significant...

...With all the talk about a post-racial society, what would you say to those who would construe your remarks as an endorsement of a kind of a color-blind approach to public policy...

...For example, that's why we doubled child care dollars going to working families and expanded the kid care and family care programs to provide health insurance to the working poor and also why earned income tax legislation is key...

...As you know, that is a capacious term that includes folks from libertarians to traditional Democrats...

...We need to do vigorous work on this situation...

...Barbara Ransby is an associate professor in the departments of African American Studies and History at the University of Illinois at Chicago...

...Q: Yes, but in many respects welfare reform as we know it has meant dumping responsibilities on states and essentially abandoning the poor...

...We will also have a harder time influencing other countries if we show little regard for children and families who are suffering around the globe...

...Q: So then, the notion of one America is a goal, an ideal, more than a reality...

...But we all have to be concerned with the enormous neglect that is occurring, especially with the AIDS crisis on the continent...

...With the historic racial significance of his candidacy ever present, Obama insists his politics are not primarily informed by race...

...Now, the rise of religious fundamentalism is different...

...It pains me to say that because, frankly, we shouldn't have gone in there in the first place...

...play in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and do you agree with John Kerry's support of Ariel Sharon's policies of increased settlements on the West Bank and targeted assassinations...

...But, in the final analysis, I believe the American people are decent people with good instincts...

...It's an important American responsibility as a humanitarian issue, but in terms of raw self-interest, the devastation of sub-Saharan Africa by AIDS is destabilizing governments and economies...

...Henry Louis Gates's op-ed in The New York Times made a disturbing and erroneous comparison between Obama's convention speech and Bill Cosby's conservative and derogatory comments about poor African Americans, while one Illinois Republican calls Obama "more of a socialist" than a Democrat...

...Senator of African parentage, how would you approach the issue of U.S...

...Obama: Look, all of us believe that work is better than welfare...

...I know, for example, that you are a strong supporter of affirmative action...

...At the other end of the spectrum, Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy are indefensible and don't do anything to address the issue of poverty...

...So we need to find ways of helping poor people get a leg up on the rung, get access to jobs and education, and that requires a significant investment...

...Obama: Well, it depends on what you mean by progressive...

...So, no, I don't believe racism has somehow gone away...

...Q: As you know, this interview will be published in The Progressive...

...For those people who believe in a political and economic system that calls for more participation and more economic opportunities for people, then I have a track record as a community organizer, a civil rights attorney, and a legislator that demonstrates I can translate those values into reality...

...With just a little bit of resources, much could be achieved...

...Obama: That's right, I not only support affirmative action, I supported in the Illinois legislature a bill that addressed the issue of racial profiling in Illinois...

...As I said in my speech at the convention, for example, we have to recognize academic achievement as parents...

...Right now, Obama is at the top of his game...

...So, when I caught up with Obama for a telephone interview during one of his routine car rides from Chicago to Springfield, I was more concerned with his stance on issues than the details of his campaign...

...Of the nearly 2,000 men and women who have served in the United States Senate over the past two centuries, only four have been African American, and only two of those since Reconstruction...

...With features about him in publications from The Nationto The Economist, his candidacy has become much bigger than the candidate himself...

...But Obama talks much more about economics, education policy, and international affairs than about "race politics" in a narrow sense of the term...

...Q: Much has been made of your multiracial and multinational heritage so I want to talk a little about Africa and U.S...

...Q: What about the Middle East...

...Both characterizations seem ill-suited to the young politician who, in many respects, defies traditional political categories...

...Now, you know this kind of talk makes progressives a little nervous...

...Obama: Which is why what we did at the state level in Illinois was to invest in those structures that can prevent that from happening...

...Basically, I think it is key that we have a new Administration in Washington, which will set a different tone in the world...

...There will be the expectations of the leadership of the Democratic Party, the expectations of the African American community, and those of thousands of grassroots supporters, some calling themselves the Barack Brigades, who have held house parties and leafleted train stations to gather resources for Obama and rally the vote...

...It is dangerous...

...For example, in Uganda, the education and prevention program made enormous headway against AIDS transmission...

...And we need to have a set of legal and human rights doctrines put in place, as well...

...Martin Luther King Jr...