Five Reasons Why Barack Obama Will Win

My first choice of title for this post was "To Those Who Fear an Obama Loss." Aside from being vague and unwieldy, it doesn't reflect the core of Barack Obama's candidacy and more importantly, his life story.

Several blogs of friends and non-pundits have raised alarm over Gallup's daily tracking showing for the first time this summer, John McCain has overtaken Barack Obama by two percentage points.

Though statistically insignificant, it might just mean that the Republicans' bread and butter tactic of going negative is, in political lingo, gaining traction. (In layman's terms, the attacks on Obama are starting to sink in among voters.)

One blog has even raised the specter of racism, suggesting that when it's time to vote, predominantly "white" America won't have the guts to elect a black man.

This has led me to write this post on why I think Barack Obama is certain to win in November.

1) His name is Barack Obama. As the adage goes, "what's in a name?" And Barack's name is a story in itself. A child of a Kenyan and an all-American girl. Raised in Hawaii and Indonesia, studied at Harvard and later became a community organizer in Chicago. I'm sure everyone could parrot that story by now. Though John McCain has a remarkable story, too, Obama's is unlike any other. As Obama himself has declared time and again, only in America can his story become possible. His is a story of hope. And in a time of recession, war and uncertainty, hope is what Americans are desperately aching for.

2) He beat Hillary Clinton. This is not to suggest that John McCain is going to be a walk in the park. But Hillary Clinton is, by all means, Barack Obama's biggest hurdle in his bid for the White House. Everything that John McCain has been throwing at Barack Obama these days has already been thrown by Hillary Clinton during the primaries. If Clinton's negative attacks didn't work back then, what makes the Republicans think it would still work today?

3) The Obamaites. If I were an American I would be an Obama volunteer by now. But even if I'm not, I am doing my part in generating noise in the web for Obama. Here at work, I am known as an Obamaite and I am proud of it. In marketing, there is no more potent weapon than the word-of-mouth testimonial. This is the Obama campaign's trump card against the Republican mud-throwing machine. With a big chunk of voters still undecided, the Obamaites would prove to be the ones who'll help swing those votes to the Democrat's favor.

4) The internet. Like most success stories, Barack Obama has found himself at the right place, at the right time. Few have attributed Obama's win in the primaries to the internet, except in terms of it being an effective fund raising instrument. But it goes beyond that. The internet allowed Obama to become well-known to millions of Americans and millions more around the world in a very short period of time. In an age of instant information and instant gratification, Obama's stirring speeches have made him a certified internet celebrity. Through the internet, Barack Obama has offset John McCain's 20-plus years of experience as anything that McCain did before the internet revolution is all but lost. In contrast, anything and everything that Barack Obama has said and done since his rise to prominence can be easily found over the web, making him seemingly the more accomplished candidate. Also, there are millions of bloggers and web junkies out there who are not being covered by pollsters as they belong to a class of young, 18-35 year-old individuals who would rather make their choices known through internet forums rather than through pollsters. Come November, they'll pry themselves away from their PC monitors and vote for Obama.

5) Evolution. If given the choice between youth and age, humans are hard-wired to choose youth. This explains why Obama and JFK are such charismatic figures. We can't help but be drawn to youth and vigor simply because they represent survival. And as any evolutionary biologist would tell you, most of the choices we make can be traced to our unconscious need to preserve our own genetic heritage. So what Michelle Obama has said yesterday in her speech that a vote for Barack is a vote for the children of America actually rings true even at the evolutionary level.