What you get when you put JFK and MLK together?

Barack Obama.
I guess ... or at least he is the closest to an ideal answer (in my humble opinion) out of the available world ... :)

He is perhaps the most exciting and fresh-breeze type thing that has happened to US political stage, or perhaps world's political stage - since JFK [Clinton caused some fresh air too :), though of a different, unmentionable kind :)].

I think he is the single biggest combination of 1) willingness to change the world - to make it a better place, 2) the power to do so (if he wins), and 3) the oratory skills which can and hopefully, will propel him to that power - since JFK.

Before hearing him, the best oratory skills I had ever witnessed was that of MLK ("I have a dream" and others), but this guy is equally good at it, and unlike MLK (and like JFK), he is and would be part of the establishment where he wont have to struggle as hard as MLK to influence things. Cause (though it is a fact too obvious to state) good intentions alone cant make things better. One needs to have the power to translate those good intentions to actions.

Here are two of his addresses I liked the most (so far),
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r-90rO4rZA [Chicago]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9r-XG_VJZDw [Selma, Alabama]

Some other quotes from him which I liked, are below, towards the end of this entry.

PS: Though it may raise an eyebrow or two, as to why me, a person sitting half the globe away from US, is so interested / impressed / hopeful / wishful, in / of / that / that - the person who is a probable candidate for US presidency ... But as Arundhati Roy has put it in one of her speeches - US, unlike any other country in the contemporary world, or any other empire since time immemorial, can be considered a world empire - and all of us humans, notwithstanding our geographies (however remote or distant they be) - its citizens. Though I wont go that far,
but I feel, and Obama himself has put it in one of the speeches very beautifully [(as usual :)]:
"This President may occupy the White House, but for the last six years the position of leader of the free world has remained open. And it's time to fill that role once more. ... America cannot meet the threats of this century alone, but the world cannot meet them without America. We must neither retreat from the world nor try to bully it into submission – we must lead the world, by deed and example. "
What Obama is targeting for is the leadership of the free world, and so it is natural that the free world would be interested in him.
Some tidbits (which I liked a lot) from his various speeches:
"I know that I haven't spent a lot of time learning the ways of Washington, but I've been there long enough to know that the ways of Washington must change."

"My parents shared not only an improbable love, they shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation. They would give me an African name, Barack, or blessed, believing that in a tolerant America your name is no barrier to success. They imagined me going to the best schools in the land, even though they weren't rich, because in a generous America you don't have to be rich to achieve your potential. "

Shadkam Islam
http://shadkam.islam.googlepages.com/
http://shadkamislam.blogspot.com/
http://shadkam19.blogspot.com/