This year's US presidential election presents a choice to Americans that will also reveal who they are and where America is heading, writes James Zogby* The two candidates who have emerged from this year's gruelling presidential primaries as their respective parties' standard-bearer present Americans with a dramatic choice. For all that can be said about their differences in background, experience, political philosophies and prescriptions for the future, it is their profoundly distinct personae that I find most intriguing. Senators John McCain and Barack Obama, each in their own way, tell a story about America, who Americans are and where Americans are going. These are their personal narratives. McCain's story has been told and retold in his campaign ads. It is a story worth telling. Though younger than the "greatest generation" -- the generation that survived the Great Depression and went on to win World War II -- McCain embodies their values. The grandson and son of admirals, he was raised in a culture that emphasised sacrifice, service to country, and finding honour in performing one's duty. McCain was shot down in his first aerial mission over Vietnam, captured by the North Vietnamese, imprisoned and tortured. When his captors discovered his family lineage, McCain was offered freedom. He refused to leave, however, before his fellow POWs were freed; and so he remained a prisoner for five more years. A few years after his release, McCain left the military life so valued by his family to pursue another form of public service, running first for the US Congress and then the Senate, where he has served for 21 years. Merging the values instilled by his military upbringing with those of the American West, which he embraced, McCain is both an independent maverick and a committed conservative driven by a fervent love of his country. Obama's story, too, is well known, and the subject of his eloquently written and bestselling autobiography, Dreams from My Father. His father was a Kenyan immigrant and his mother the daughter of a working class family in Kansas. Born in Hawaii, his father abandoned the family when Barack was only two years old. His mother later remarried and moved the family to Indonesia, where he attended school before returning to Hawaii to live with his grandparents. In Hawaii, Barack completed high school and won a scholarship to Occidental College in California, later transferring to Columbia University. Remarkably introspective from a young age, Obama sought to understand himself, his mixed race identity, and the meaning of family and community in a changing America. After graduation, eschewing other opportunities, he devoted himself to public service as a community organiser, working in a depressed neighbourhood in Chicago that had been ravaged by factory closings and the loss of jobs. His mission was to empower and bring hope to those in this community who most needed change to improve their lives. After completing law school at the prestigious Harvard University, Obama once again committed himself to public service. He then ran for a state senate post in Illinois, where he focussed his energies on building ties between Republicans and Democrats to pass legislation that improved the criminal justice system and expanded healthcare coverage for children. A talented orator, a gifted organiser, and a young man with a mission, Obama ran and handily won a seat in the US Senate where his gifts and his persona helped him establish an impressive record of bipartisanship in a short period of time, catapulting him into the national spotlight. These are the narratives, as they tell them, of the two men who will compete for the presidency. Both are compelling, and both are real. And while radically different personal stories, both are authentically American, conveying as they do two distinct images of being American in the 21st century. Both men are patriots, projecting the ideals of freedom and opportunity and service to country in different ways. Without wanting to prejudice either, one image is, in fact, more traditional in its self-definition of service and the ideals it projects, while the other more expansive, encompassing a broader, more global vision. Both men now share centre stage, having proven their political skills in this difficult campaign. Each will present their competing solutions to the problems plaguing US foreign policy, the US economy, and the role of government in addressing a myriad of social issues. As compelling as these differences will be, and as substantive as the debate over their proposed solutions ought to be, always before us will be these two competing narratives and images of what it means to be an American. * The writer is president of the Arab American Institute.
