Hope is a truly powerful thing.So powerful that it helped propel Barack Obama into the White House. He’s been on my mind this last week for pretty obvious reasons. On Wednesday, around noon, as I listened to him deliver his acceptance speech at Grant Park, I was teary-eyed. And then the rest of the day I thought – what was it about him that has attracted, moved and inspired many other 40somethings like me to follow his campaign so closely and root for him from far away? I suppose a lot of us look to him because for once, here is a man who speaks from his heart and the depths of his soul. Someone who can really connect with what this generation needs.  “Yes we can!”  He makes all things seem possible.How does one grow up to become a Barack Obama? From stories and reports we find one very strong influence –  that of his unconventional and free-spirited but extraordinary mother who loved him unconditionally. Barack, who was raised by a single parent and a loving and supportive set of grandparents, story gives hope to many parents who raise children on their own. Obama has often been quoted as saying this about his mother Stanley  – “I know that she was the kindest, most generous spirit I have ever known, and that what is best in me, I owe to her.”  It’s never been easy to single parent, one would imagine, more so in the 1960s but Ann Dunham seems to have done quite an exceptional job with her only son, and his phenomenal rise over the last few years could still be attributed in part, I believe, to the roots that she had firmly planted when he was younger. In his book “Obama From Promise to Power”, Chicago Tribune writer David Mendell who had followed Obama’s career very closely for the last five years, says that Obama described his mother’s parenting style as one that was very warm and to a certain degree, hands-on  – “ You know, she was one of these parents, who, you know, was the opposite of remote, was always very present and would be your biggest cheerleader and your best friend and had sort of complete confidence in the fact that you were special in some fashion. And so as a consequence, there was no shortage of self-esteem.” To love unconditionally, even though unconventionally, for a parent to make a child feel that he is capable of anything he sets his heart and mind to, and to expose him to a sense of fairness and equality and a belief in the innate goodness of man, definitely has far reaching consequences even though that parent has long been gone. Obama has repeatedly said that it was his mother’s extreme idealism  — her continued ability to see the good in people — was the quality that he most admired in her. Perhaps, it is also this very trait that many people (jaded ones included) now find attractive in him—the overriding message of many of his speeches – “of how all of us are bound together as one, and that if we are to prosper as a country, and indeed, as a species, we must focus on the good we see in others .” Meanwhile, his rock and the love of his life, Michelle, has often been referred to as the one who keeps it “real”for himself and for their two children – Sasha and Malia. In a recent Newsweek interview, I understood why. When asked by a reporter, how she would keep it real in the White House, she spoke of talking to Hilary Clinton whom she describes as “a wonderful resource” Michelle Obama, a bright and successful woman in her own right says , “Our hope is that we do some of what we’ve been doing for the last year and a half. That we really treat our family life as separate as you can, that we keep the girls’ lives very set apart from this whole experience.”  She also said, in all humility, that she would try as much as possible to talk to, and learn from Laura Bush, Rosalyn Carter and even Caroline Kennedy and Maria Shriver.  “I’m an information gatherer. I want to talk to, and get as many perspectives from people, Republicans and Democrats alike, because there are just so few families who have experienced this. If I can talk to all of them, I will.” Concerned about how the two girls would adjust in the White House, Michelle hopes that her mother would come along to Pennsylvania Avenue and live with them. A gesture that I found to be quite endearing and in a sense, very Pinoy.“The girls are going to need her, as part of their sense of stability. And what is true for my mom is that she does anything for us and her grandkids. All they have to do is look at her with sad eyes and she’s done for.”And clearly, though she is cognizant of the huge responsibility that lies ahead for her husband, she also very certain about the ways by which he wishes to see Barack involved in the lives of their children.”He has to continue to make them a priority even as he’s the leader of the free world. I think that’s an important thing for him to model for others. It’s this notion that if he can do it, then we all have to really fight for it.”  Positive role-modeling clearly runs deep in the Obama gene pool.