Obama traveled to Africa, and on Aug. 21, 2006, outside Cape Town, in South Africa, he paid a visit to former Archbishop Desmond Tutu, as the Iraq war raged and the U.S. image abroad was terrible. It was on this African trip that I first sensed how Obama, with his unique biography -- African father, American mother, biracial, black identified, raised in Hawaii and Indonesia -- could be seen as a transformative figure if he secured a place on the world stage.
Tutu told Obama, "You are going to be a very credible presidential candidate."
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