Kenyans greet Obama.

If Senator Barack Obama ever wants to run for President--or become a rock star--he got excellent practice when he visited Kenya in August. Thousands of people lined the streets of Nairobi, Kenya's capital, just to get a glimpse of him. Obama, a freshman Democratic Senator from Illinois, was touring Africa to raise awareness of AIDS and to reconnect with his roots. Obama's father was a goat herder-turned-economist from western Kenya. And, although he never spent much time in Kenya, many Kenyans claim Obama as one of their own. To Kenyans, he is a role model; a black man succeeding in a white man's world (he is the only African-American in the U.S. Senate); a symbol of American opportunity and multiculturalism (his mother is white and from Kansas); and a friend in a high place.