Senator Obama is the most talented, gifted and smart politician the black and the white communities have ever produced. He did the right thing by disassociating himself from those fiery and divisive ministers of his church, and I have never heard him mentioning Reverend Jessie Jackson and other black politicians, so that he could not be considered favoring his father’s side – the blacks – and ignoring his mother’s side – the whites. He must balance the two sides of him at least until the November election is over. After that he must surround himself with the most educated people, and I hope he will allow five or ten well-educated Ethiopians from the diaspora to work with him and help Ethiopia get free from the Dictator Meles Zenawi’s tyrannical regime.

Most of us Ethiopians earnestly expect to get a precious gift from this young African American President, and that precious gift is to bring democracy to the continent of Africa, especially to Ethiopia and Zimbabwe, and to many other countries such as Burma, North Korea, and Cuba.

Right now, Meles Zenawi might have sent some lobbyists to Washington to introduce him to the new American President and to ask him some donation by claiming he has been fighting the American war – war against terrorism in the Horn of Africa. He may not, however, reveal his hidden motive to the President that he himself has been terrorizing the Ethiopian people for over 17 years, and in those 17 years, the United States has done nothing tangible about the slaughters of the innocent Ethiopian people by Meles Zenawi (Seitanawi).

I hope, this time, Senator Obama will make Ethiopia one of his first priorities when he is dealing about foreign policy issues; his predecessor’s domestic and foreign policy issues have been disastrous for all of us for straight eight years.

We know Senator Obama is going to inherit all the problems George W. Bush has created, and I have strong confidence that Senator Obama is going to fix most of the problems waiting for him to be corrected.

We understand America at this time could not afford to finance two separate wars – the Iraq war and the Afghanistan war, and the money America is spending to finance the war should be better spend on correcting the American failing schools, and on insuring all the uninsured Americans. The American road bridges are collapsing totally because of old ages, and they must be repaired before all of them completely fall down. The tax system also must be rewritten and simplified so that a lay person can understand and do his/her own tax return instead of searching for a tax return preparer and spending extra money for the tax expert.

The American people at the present are very angry about two things: the Iraq war and the high prices of oil, and they want the two urgent economical issues to be solved immediately.

Therefore, brother Obama, with his trustful and highly educated advisors, could make, I believe, a big difference in the lives of the American people. I hope he will be a peace maker, a problem solver, and a friend of the oppressed, the poor, and the voiceless all over the world, and finally be a Nobel Peace Prize Winner!

I wish it would have been that simple!

Obama, need to play within the established system, by placing the best, as well as those who can draw large numbers of white, southerners, christian voters from undecided, uncommitted voters as well as even stray ones from John. Therefore, an Ethiopian lady would not entice such a groups, infact would hurt the ticket, for just being from Ethiopia. My take is, he should tone down on his Africanism and settle for full fledged Americanism. He already gotten a few slaps about his roots, also over his past visits to a family farm back in his fathers land. He does not press his roots but continue facing the American voters with his slogan of change stressing the need to head toward better, prosperous America that focuses on its falling economy, and turnished foreign policy.

The worst mistakes for Obama would be not appearing patriotic, stuffing or surrounding himself with Africaners.
making or stressing anything that outrages the white loyal supporters. I believe he is very shrewd, bright man to settle the dust if he plays by the rules that had been used.

Mrs. Clinton does not help him at all, infact to the opposite. As American-Ethiopian we have very insignificant contribution when compared to the millions of loyal admirers of white falks. At the end of the race, what they say goes on this part of the world. African Americans would help, but not as much as the group I stated above. Those would tip the balance in favour of our man Obo Obama.

Senator Obama needs a new person, if possible an African American woman whose mother is a black Ethiopian and whose father is a white American. This will be a good match between the President and the Vice President; this type of gender and race match delights the American people because such mixture of human being in the White House has never happened before in the American history, and this should be one of the changes that Obama has been talking about for a long time.

On the other hand, if Hillary Clinton becomes the Vice President, then she might dominate him since she is an experienced White House first lady who knows almost every thing in Washington politics, so she would draw him back to the old Washingtonian ideas instead of to the new ones. Generally she may not confine herself to the Vice Presidency job; it is possible she would act like a president. This may not be good for Obama whose new changes have not yet been seen.

Had Mrs Clinton dropped on time three months ago, perhaps I would say may be, not bad for Obama to put her on the ticket.

However, this is a lady who never takes a no, for answer even after defeats. This behavior of hers gives me a shivers down my neck. She may have surprises down her slieves for Obama, if one understands my message.

Obama’s best bet is to search for noncontrovesial, well liked ,honest son of southerners for this round. It is way of playing safe for him. Clinton’s obssesions for power, her insistances beyond her defeat, scares the living wits out of me. It very unsafe, unpredictable, uncomfortable situation as it is, when smart and irate Bill line up, we would end up with three very strong people under the same room.

Edwards, perhaps, Robert kennedy junior or New Mexico’s Bill Richard, John Kerry Many more capable democrats can be looked at other than congestion of so many presidents in the oval office.

I wonder why you didn`t post Seye Abrha`s comment on the Ethio-Sudanese border issue that is really excellent. Seye is great and provided us a first hand account about this issue and he also revealed how the king of lies (Atse Meles) has been doing since the inception. Please post it and let concerned Ethiopians be better informed.