If you have been buried under a cultural rock for the last few months unfamiliar with the charismatic leadership of new ‘it’ boy politician, Barack Obama, have no fear, writer Thulani Davis gives you a few reasons to ogle the U.S. Senate-elect Prince Charming.

1. World-Class is the only way to go.
Everyone knows by now that Obama’s parents were Kenyan and American. More interesting perhaps is that he grew up in a country with a unique multi-cultural tradition (Polynesian, Asian, black & white), where the majority of the population is made up of people of color. Oh, that’s right, Hawaii is a state that was once a separate country in the Pacific until taken over by powerful U.S. corporate interests and American troops. This background undoubtedly gives Obama insight into the struggles of Native Americans and the people of Puerto Rico, as well as many countries where U.S. troops have stomped in. He also spent four years of his childhood in Indonesia, where he got a close-up view of how the rest of the world lives. About this experience, he has said, “Both my time in Indonesia and my connection with Africa give me a very clear impression of the brutal struggle for survival that the majority of people on this planet go through -- the literal desperation of making sure you have enough to eat." He wants to promote democracy and stem terrorism around the globe, by really working on rebuilding Iraq, working towards peace “and justice” in the Middle East. And he says the U.S. should rejoin the world community.

2. And Real.
Obama came to know the domestic political realities the same way the rest of us have learned them, walking the streets as a black person. After finishing college in 1983, he became a community organizer, first in Harlem, then in Chicago, and worked with church groups to build job-training programs, reform local schools and get city services provided. One of his main projects was getting asbestos removed from public housing. Obviously from his public speeches, he cut his teeth on the black political struggle, got that preaching thing down, and makes some kind of blend of the militant past and the pragmatic present.
After being elected in 1996 as State Senator for Chicago’s South Side, Obama has fought for reform of the juvenile justice system to keep more kids out of prison. He wrote and got passed legislation requiring the videotaping of interrogations and confessions in capital cases.

3. Actually says “Racial Profiling” Out Loud
Nationally, he has been one of the few Democrats in this recently passed campaign season, especially since the end of the Howard Dean run, to speak out against racial profiling. In Illinois, he passed legislation to curb racial profiling by law enforcement. He is one of the few leaders these days to even mention, much less attack, the threat to constitutional rights being posed by the U.S. A. Patriot Act, and other Bush efforts to Big Brother us in the name of Homeland Security.

4. It’s still gotta be about the economy, stupid.
Obama reminds people that the Bush Administration has been costing us hundreds of thousands of jobs every year. He also knows that it’s going to take job creation, and training programs to bring people into the work force. He’s passed bills to give tax breaks for investment in low-income areas, and won an earned income tax credit for working families.

5. Unlike some in office, the guy is smart.
That is not just an attractive quality in a man in a debate. It means he will seek expertise on complex issues. He got his political science degree from Columbia University with a specialization in international relations. He finished Harvard Law School in 1993 magna cum laude and became the first African American president of the Law Review. This last item tells us he was a good politician even then and Harvard has been pretty damn bad, if there was no black Law Review head until the 1990s! He’s now a senior lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School.