Jaime Viteri and Barack Obama: Chicago Politics

Center Right Jaime

I consider both these men as articulate and intelligent. Actually I admire them. I met Jaime at Lucent, and he impressed me, he was one of the best Latino leaders there. I love Obama's confidence and political savvy; but.

Both of them make me feel uneasy. I'll try to explain it here.

Before explaining myself, I agree with Frank Rich's article in the NYT  about Obama.

Forgetting History

``For this sad record, more than 4,400 Americans and some 100,000 Iraqis (a conservative estimate) paid with their lives. Some 32,000 Americans were wounded, and at least two million Iraqis, representing much of the nation’s most valuable human capital, went into exile. The war’s official cost to U.S. taxpayers is now at $750 billion. ''

``And yet here we are, slouching toward yet another 9/11 anniversary, still waiting for a correction, with even our president, an eloquent Iraq war opponent, slipping into denial. Of all the pro forma passages in Obama’s speech, perhaps the most jarring was his entreaty that Iraq’s leaders “move forward with a sense of urgency to form an inclusive government that is just, representative and accountable.” He might as well have been talking about the poisonous political deadlock in Washington. At that moment, there was no escaping the tragic fact that instead of bringing American-style democracy and freedom to Iraq, the costly war we fought there has, if anything, brought the bitter taste of Iraq’s dysfunction to America. ''

Viteri and Obama do not come from wealth, are ambitious, and  are  members of a minority.


I have a cousin in LA, when I first met him, I felt that he was not comfortable in his skin. Somehow his Mexican origin seemed to bother him. I am not American, I was very sure of myself, as a Mexican, when I got to California in 1973. I am not member of a minority, we are the majority down here in Mexico. I am a proud Mexican.

With Jaime and Barack, I feel a tinge of disconnect with their roots. They are neither there, nor all inside their own minority tribe.

They can do better, when they come to terms with what their cultural traditions have to teach them, and become less of an aspiring white man.

Just saying.