The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)
Gitau Warigi
2 November 2008
opinion
I have no idea which God Barack Obama prays. Some Americans believe he is Muslim.
Others say he is Christian. Many are not sure.
Whoever this God is has been doing wonders for Obama. If he wins, there are three people he should thank his God for putting in his path.
One: Hillary Clinton. Having her as an opponent at the primary stages of the campaign turned out to be a boon for Obama. Clinton had been the frontrunner everybody was betting on.
She had the organisation and name recognition. She was a brand the whole of America knew. By knocking her off, Obama made clear to everybody he was a very, very serious candidate. It toughened him.
Second is John McCain. He is the ideal opponent. Old, doddering and unsure. The mere fact that the Republican has been attracting to his rallies some rather weird types on the ideological scale ensured Obama occupied the moral high ground from the start.
If by chance Obama loses this race, it will be clear to the whole world that the choice was not because somebody else had better gifts. Thank McCain for that. Thank him, too, for delivering one Sarah Palin, the Alaska governor who is McCain's running mate.
She is the other big boon for Obama.
Palin has become for me the most interesting figure in this campaign. And not just because of her great looks. Or her almost empty head.
She belongs to the conservative, Bible-thumping wing of American politics that rejects the science of evolution in favour of something they call Creationism, which they insist be taught in schools.
Creationism starts from the literal standpoint of the Book of Genesis, which would mean, from Adam to now, that the earth is exactly 6,008 years old.
These are the people who swoon over George W. Bush, which may explain why he is such a disaster.
They have made any discussion of abortion a toxic business, even where the mother's life is at stake, or the woman had been raped.
Their pointmen in government led by Bush will shell out a lot of aid money to foreign countries, but the conditions they put makes you feel like you would rather stay without the help.
They don't want to hear about condoms. They want you to teach abstinence, as if government is some kind of church. These are the guys who have come closest to turning America into a theocracy.
I wonder why Bush and his lot should be fighting the Taliban. They think the same way.
You have probably seen a guy called Pat Robertson on TV's Family channel. He is one of the movement's high priests.
The frightening thing is that these people (they are called the religious right) are not a fringe oddity. They dominate the Republican party. They got Bush elected - twice. McCain secretly loathes them.
But he knows without them he can't win. That is precisely why he picked Palin. Dumb as she is, she is highly popular with the religious right-wing.
She is even being touted as the next Republican presidential candidate come 2012. It was enough that America gave the world George W. Bush. Palin? God help us.
The final miracle to come Obama's way was the economic meltdown in the US. As late as September the chances of Obama winning did not look very bright. He was tied to McCain in the polls.
After the meltdown, the Republicans suddenly became a detested lot. If Obama wins, let him go down on his knees and thank his good Lord for bringing on this meltdown.
***
Memorabilia can tell you plenty about a man. Inside Senator Obama's well-appointed office at the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington DC, the roster of photos starts with Muhammad Ali in the famous picture taken of him knocking down Sonny Liston in 1964.
Ali is one undisputed idol I share with Obama. Alongside the photo are Ali's red boxing gloves, signed by the hero himself. Next is a painting of Abraham Lincoln, who gave the Emancipation Proclamation.
Martin Luther King's photo is also prominently displayed (the omission of Malcolm X tells a lot about Obama's politics).
Another photo is the famous civil rights march in Selma, Alabama.
Thurgood Marshall, the first Black to sit on the US Supreme Court, looms from another wall.
Finally, there is the photograph of perhaps the greatest of all men - Mahatma Gandhi - spinning his humble cotton wheel.
Being a Kenyan these days comes with some privileges if you use the right connections.
The only thing I was not encouraged by Obama's Senate press secretary Michael Ortiz was to sit on the Senator's solid leather chair.
And, of course, the good senator was away campaigning.
Mr Warigi is a political commentator based in Nairobi.
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