Clearly, there is something about Obama that acts like a magnet, pulling the hearts and minds of people who live in what is for Obama a foreign country. Trying to decide exactly what lies behind this magnetism is not easy.

Yes, Obama is the first American of African decent to have a reasonable chance of becoming president, but race alone would not draw 200,000 Germans. Furthermore, Obama doesn’t stress racial issues any more than other issues an American politician has to deal with.

Yes, he is articulate, but he isn’t the only American who speaks well. Yes, he’s handsome and has a young family, but again, these factors on their own would not draw a huge crowd abroad.

Perhaps all of the above factors are combining with something that Germans and other Europeans feel about the United States. Perhaps Obama personifies a different kind of United States, a country that differs from the one that President George W. Bush personifies. Perhaps Obama represents the United States as they would like it to be, a United States that inspires more than commands. The Germans at the Victory Column in Tiergarten Park may see in Obama an American who can bring people together, regardless of their colour, regardless of their religion, regardless of their nationality.

Indeed, his speech touched on this theme. “The walls between the countries with the most and those with the least cannot stand. The walls between races and tribes, natives and immigrants, Christians and Muslims and Jews cannot stand.”

Obama would be the first person to advise Americans, Berliners and everyone else not to start treating him as if he had won the presidential election.

He knows he has a lot of work to do. First, the Democratic party has to hold its convention and he has to choose a vice-presidential candidate.

He also knows that he has to campaign against Senator John McCain, who the Republicans will select as their candidate. McCain might have to overcome the disadvantage of running with a party that is stuck with an unpopular record, but he is, by any standard, a thoughtful and experienced politician.

Whether Democrats or Republicans occupy the White House in 2009 is a decision, of course, that will be made by Americans, not by Germans — or Canadians. American voters may have numerous factors in their minds when they cast their votes, not just Obama’s popularity with Berliners.

What is clear is that Obama, even before the presidential campaign has begun, has had an impact upon the nature of American politics. He represents a generational shift, a change from the baby boomers represented by Clinton and Bush. Regardless of whether Obama wins or loses, the upcoming campaign is going to be fascinating.”

Now here is the reality

On the issue of Gay marriages..

Senator John McCain also opposes same-sex marriage, but unlike Mr. Obama’s, his position is influenced by generational and cultural experiences  McCain advisers say. “

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/01/us/politics/01marriage.html?ref=politics

Obama falsely tries to present himself as a real Christian to get Christian votes and also what about the issues of Abortion, Alcohol, Divorce, the New Testament  writings of Apostle Paul as well .. is he really  “open to the possibility” that his views may be “misguided,”

and what about Sarah Palin’s real Christian Beliefs, versus Joe Biden  Christian beliefs?

Pro-life black pastors wary of Obama
Views clash on abortion
Julia Duin, Washington Times
July 4, 2008

Conservative black pastors nationwide are caught between irreconcilable opposites – congregations that overwhelmingly favor Sen. Barack Obama versus their personal doubts about the Illinois Democrat’s politics, particularly on abortion.

“It’s a theological contradiction, from the Christian perspective, to be excited about Obama,” said the Rev. Levon Yuille, pastor of the 100-member Bible Church in Ypsilanti, Mich. “Very few black pastors have problems supporting Obama because they are fixated on this race thing.”

“The congregations are pro-Obama. My congregation is saying Obama is the lesser of two evils,” said Bishop Harry Jackson, pastor of Hope Christian Church in Beltsville, a 3,000-member majority black congregation.
“When I say that on third-term abortions, Obama has no conscience, they say [Sen. John] McCain and [Sen.] Hillary [Rodham Clinton] weren’t great examples of morality either.”

The Rev. John W. Stephenson, pastor of Heirs Covenant Church, a 300-member church in West Chester, Ohio, said he has to “educate” his members regularly.

“People say, ‘This is an opportunity that will never come again for our people,’ ” he said. “I say, ‘Yes, we are African-Americans, but we are also Christians.”

Several pastors interviewed said they have had to work overtime to tutor their flocks about Mr. Obama’s views, especially on abortion, which has disproportionately affected blacks. According to the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive health research group, black abortion rates are three times that of whites and twice that of Hispanics.

As an Illinois state senator, Mr. Obama voted against the Illinois Born Alive Infants Protection Act, a bill that protected babies who survive abortions. Last year, the senator condemned the Supreme Court’s ban on partial-birth abortion.

“Obama I am afraid of,” said the Rev. Kim Daniels, pastor of the 400-member Spoken Word Ministries in inner-city Jacksonville, Fla. “I have a problem of people voting for him because he is black. Some of our African-American preachers are so excited to see someone who looks like them even though they are not getting someone who believes like them.

“But my life as a black person does not mean more than my life as a believer. I am voting for that baby that never gets to vote,” she said.

Other voices are being raised. Ben Kinchlow, a former co-host for the Christian Broadcasting Network and author of the new book “Black Yellowdogs,” said many black churchgoers unthinkingly support the Democratic Party.

“Many black Christians voting for Obama are doing so for emotional reasons and not because they’ve studied the issues,” he said. “They think Barack Obama is the shining city on the hill; that now is the chance to move into the 21st century without what regarding what the real issues are.”

Bishop Gilbert Coleman, pastor of the 1,000-member Freedom Christian Fellowship in Philadelphia, said black believers are not knowledgeable about Mr. Obama’s beliefs.

“People blindly go to the polls and blindly pull the lever for ‘Democrat,’” he said. “We are not that divided as a congregation right now, but there are others in Philadelphia that are split over this.”

What shook him most, he said, was a recent Obama endorsement by the Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell, a confidante to President Bush and pastor of Windsor Village United Methodist Church in Houston.

“Kirbyjon is very big on economic development,” Bishop Coleman said. “But there are a lot of things Obama is saying that are very uncomfortable to Christian evangelicals.

“Some of the basic tenets of the Christian faith he does not hold to. The homosexual agenda, abortion and things he’s said about the economy are unsettling. He does not take a true position as it relates to his own Christianity.”

All the pastors interviewed said they are hammering home to their congregations the consequences of their votes.
“We are educating people about things Sen. Obama has stood for in the past and will stand for if he becomes president,” Mr. Stephenson said. “As a spiritual leader, I have a responsibility to help navigate members through these issues.”