Where Are The Obamas?
Where Are the Obamas?
I wonder if we will ever have another candidate like Barack Obama.
I really do.
I watched the Obama Center in Chicago being built — steel going up, glass catching the lake light — and I can’t help but wonder: where are the strong young leaders now? Where are the ones who can speak articulately, US born, gifted at politics, and actually help the US be less divided?
Because right now? I don’t see any great Democratic candidates.
I’m not a fan of Kamala Harris. I’ll say it. She’s not a strong leader. She talks in circles. She laughs when there’s nothing funny. She had her shot and we’re still more divided, more cynical, m ore tired. Leadership isn’t a vibe. It’s backbone. It’s clarity. It’s showing up when it’s hard, not just when the cameras are on. I don’t see it in her.
I’m not a fan of Gavin Newsom either. Maybe that’s because that would bring too much California influence to the White House. And California? California is beautiful, but poor government destroyed that state. Housing no one can afford. Crime no one will name. Schools that don’t teach and cities that don’t function. We don’t need to nationalize that. We need to fix that — and he hasn’t. You can’t lead the country if you can’t lead your state out of a tent.
Obama was different.
Say what you want about policy. The man could talk. He was articulate without being arrogant. He was US born, Ivy educated, community organized. He could quote Scripture and Jay-Z in the same breath and both felt true. He walked into red rooms and blue rooms and didn’t shrink. He made people who hated politics listen to politics.
He wasn’t perfect. Nobody is. But he had it. Presence. Clarity. A sense that he’d actually read the Constitution and lived in the neighborhood.
And now?
I look around and see soundbites. I see people who poll-test their personality. I see candidates who can’t finish a sentence without a teleprompter or a TikTok. I see division as a strategy, not a problem to solve.
Where are the leaders who believe in unconditional love and hard truths? Who can say “you’re wrong” without hating you? Who can flip tables on corruption but still feed the people? Who can read King James, NIV, and the room — all at once?
Where are the ones who don’t need California money or DC consultants to sound human?
A leader.
US born. Gifted at politics. Articulate. Unbought. Unafraid.
Someone who can walk past the Obama Center and not just take a photo — but carry the work forward. Less division. More building. Real justice. Real love.
Until then, I’ll keep watching.
I’ll keep praying.
I’ll keep working.
Because God is bigger than 2016. Bigger than 2026. Bigger than any candidate.
But a country this broken still needs someone who can speak to all of us.
And I’m still waiting.
