Obama: The Survivor

I've taken the opportunity to dive into Obama's past in a way to understand how he has dealt with adversity earlier in his political career. The reality is rather comforting, rather than distressingly inconsequential.

For a candidate who many assume has at best, minimal experience, the reality of the situation belies this snap judgment.

When put head to head with Hillary Clinton, Obama has actually MORE experience in a strictly political context. Hillary Clinton has been U.S. Senator longer than Barack and had a dubious role as First Lady for eight years, but Obama has risen through the ranks and climbed the ladder rather methodically. Hillary easily won her Senate seat based on her name recognition, her husband's tenure as President of the United States, and capitalized on the mistakes made by her Republican opposition.

Obama has known the sting of losing an election by 30 percentage points, as evidenced by his unsuccessful bid for the U.S. House in 2000, where he lost to black political stalwart Bobby Rush by a margin of almost two to one. Some thought Obama's political career on a national scale had been put to rest. He came across as testy, inexperienced, hasty, and unprepared. In its place, a much more methodical, less emotionally wrought Obama rose from the ashes.

That unsuccessful campaign taught Obama the hard truth and lesson of humility, a trait often in short supply among politicians. And it also taught him that no matter how one tries to control one's destiny, the political landscape is subject to change at any time and unforeseen forces can completely transform the nature of a race. Fresh off the Reverend Wright controversy, Obama's mind must be flashing back to his failures as well as his successes. Wisdom is often little more than the knowledge of lessons learned the hard way and baptism by fire often is more instructive and precious than the thrill of victory.

I personally would rather be lucky than good, and in saying this, I know Obama has benefited from both his strengths and a from tremendous amount of luck. But luck is a fickle creature, as we all know, and no one has a monopoly on its charms.

Would you want to support a candidate who had lived a charmed existence with no setbacks? I feel confident that Obama will learn from this and move forward.