Barack Obama

Barack Obama 2008 According to Exit polls in Iowa, it appears that Senator Barack Obama has a solid victory in the Iowa Caucuses. Obama 38%, Edwards 30% and Clinton 29%. Huckabee beat Romney 34% to 25%. Ron Paul beat Rudy 10% to, um, 3%. Senator Obama won in a largely white state and is connecting with voters. I am a democrat who wants to hold the White House so I want to support a candidate who can and will win. I'm thrilled for this Obama Victory tonight and wonder how things will play out now. My portrait of Barack Obama was commissioned by Rolling Stone for the current issue. The piece, a glowing portrait of a surging Obama is by Matt Taibbi. The assignment was to paint him in a traditional iconic manner. It's fun to rip politicians with scathing illustrations and visual puns, (calling all art directors!) but when an assignment gels with my views, it's so great and it's all I can do not to freeze up. As Taibbi passionately writes in his piece, "America and Barack Obama. The story begins with the world spinning off its axis, the country mired in dark times and the way of the fresh-faced savior seemingly blocked by a juggernaut agent of the Status Quo. Only in the end, in the moment that sportswriters die for and that comes once a generation in politics if we're lucky, the phenom rises to the occasion, gets the big hit in the big game and becomes a man before our very eyes. The old power recedes, and the new era is born."