Looking for our own Obama

I CAN no longer track how many weeks have passed since the Senate campaign began, helped by bunglings that have defined the leading camps thus far, prompting Conrad de Quiros to quip Kapatiran might end up having the last laugh.

The Genuine Opposition, of course, has yet to fully account for the Iloilo fiasco -- a shocker, considering the incumbent governor is one of the few remaining oppositionists, and was recently martyred by a reckless government -- for which Oliver Mendoza wants the Provincial Capitol to apologize.

Team Unity, on the other hand, is wracked by disunity, as Billy Esposo recounts here, triggered by complaints at the local level. Which is really quite expected of a coalition built around the vision of money and resources flowing freely; the weakest link is always a local cog in the machine who feels he was shafted.

Reading through what's happening in the ongoing US presidential primaries, one can feel -- even from thousands of kilometers away -- a palpable energy clearly electrifying the campaign of freshman Sen. Barack Obama, Jr. of Illinois, sending fears into the camp of his more seasoned and moneyed rival, Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York. By the way, both are Chicagoans and Hillary is a prime example of the American carpetbagging tradition.

Obama's meteoric rise is spectacular: just three years back, after his successful bid for the US Senate, he was a nameless black senator largely unknown outside of Illinois; now he is aiming to become America's first black president.

Is there an Obama lurking in the ongoing Philippine senatorial campaign? Or has it lost its primacy as the springboard for presidency as recently argued by Amando Doronila?