The Need For A New Face

The world will see a new face of America the day that I am elected. My understanding of these challenges was not just shaped in the corridors of power; it has been shaped by the wider world. My father crossed an ocean to seek the dream of America. As a boy, I played barefoot with children in Indonesia. As a young man, I worked in the forgotten corners of America, where people struggled with violence and hopelessness. Whether I am at a G8 summit or in Africa, I will speak not just as someone who mastered my brief, but also as someone whose grandmother lives in a hut without indoor plumbing in a Kenyan village devastated by HIV/AIDS.

U.S. leadership has succeeded whenever a new generation of Americans has offered the world new visions, new policies and new faces. I will unite and rally Americans behind this approach by being open and honest with them at home. And I will lead an America that the world can trust and believe in once more.

Obama is a U.S. senator from Illinois and a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president of the United States.

© 2007