An Indonesian in the White House soon?

Well, not exactly. The latest flavour of the month in America, Barack Obama, had an Indonesian step-father between the ages of six to ten and lived a bit in Jakarta. He has said he could bring back his Bahasa Indonesian quickly. But let's face it, this is a low priority. Not too many Indonesian-American voters are in the US - not yet, anyway.

But this is more than a brief phenomenon. It could turn into a flavour of the decade's remainder. Barack Obama has started a frenzy in the states. Fan clubs, teenagers getting passionate, scrutiny of his every word - all that which happens when a really attractive and smart candidate comes on the scene. And now his superb book, The Audacity of Hope .

It's also a fantastic symbol of the globalisation not just of American politics but of the world's. The very fact that his natural father was a Kenyan taps African roots, as his mother's Indonesian connection taps Asian ones. The reason, though, that he's taken off in the short term is the same one that gave John F Kennedy such a high tide in 1960 - he's just dramatically sexy and handsome.

He has a suave but honest movement, eyes that seem to concentrate on every single viewer - and voter - and a resonant voice that carries not just conviction but persuasion.

Still, even if it's sex appeal that has launched him, it's something far deeper that has given him staying power and might make him the epochal figure that heals the wounds an arrogant ruling elite has imposed on the American body politic in the first years of this millennium.

Let's start with his credentials, and just focus on one. Perhaps he had an advantage in being black in being admitted to the Harvard Law School, about the apogee of the American educational-power establishment. I doubt it.

But no one becomes editor of the Harvard Law Review because of quotas. The list of alumni in that position is a roster of some of the greatest American legal names of all times, including supreme court justices.

Hillary factor

So he starts off with a supreme advantage. He's not a charming senator like John Edwards, the blow- dried disappointing vice-presidential candidate John Kerry picked last time. His speeches address real issues and with a fresh look.

He opposed the Iraq war because he knew it was wrong, and didn't look around to count the votes. Anyway, he was smart enough, unlike Hillary Clinton, to see how the war was faring.

Of course she is the problem, if he's really serious about running, as he has all but declared. Her financing is sewn up; everything she raises in her notional re-election senatorial campaign this fall goes for 2008 and no one would dare refuse a contribution knowing how she'd consider those debts if she entered the White House.

But her negatives are overwhelming: not that she is a woman but that there is such an enduring anti-Hillary plurality in the land.

Doesn't a black face the same sort of thing? Not really. Studies in recent years show that, however long the distance to real racial equality, Americans have accepted the notion of racial equality. Even in the south, to make anti-black slurs is to get into trouble - as a couple of red-necked candidates are discovering in their races this fall.

Barack Obama isn't a stereotypical black - or a stereotypical anything. Colin Powell showed a kind of leadership and appeal that transcended colour, and many still believe he could have re-elected father Bush if put on that ticket as the vice-presidential candidate in 1992 - or won against President Clinton in 1996.

Barrack Obama comes across a brilliant, natural, soft-spoken guy who cares, thinks about the issues, speaks out directly, and uses his sex appeal for good causes.

Kennedy parallel

I remember so well the last time there was a phenomenon like this brewing. As a freshman at Stanford University in 1960, it happened to fall to me to play host to the junior senator from Massachusetts. There were political bans in force on the campus, and we didn't know if we'd get away with bringing him in.

But Jack Kennedy was already a tidal force. Our anxiety about whether an audience would greet him - Stanford being an insouciant sunny anti-political campus - turned to pride when we saw the 8,000 screaming fans awaiting him - this in February of that year.

Kennedy was only 42 at the time; Obama is now 45. The Catholic issue was a far more powerful issue in 1960 than the race issue today; my sense is that being black works for Obama.

In fact my overall sense is that we have a new more powerful force at work in Obama. Not someone like Kennedy created by wealth and spin and powerful outside forces but someone whose charisma is generated from within. I'll bet on Barack Obama.

W SCOTT THOMPSON, presidential appointee in four American presidencies, is the author of 11 books on politics. He is adjunct professor at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Massachusetts.