Might you say American as Barack Obama? (12)
I believe the answer is:
statesperson
'barack obama?' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot tell whether this works.
'might you say american as' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'say' could be 'state' (synonyms) and 'state' is found within the answer.
'as' could be 'so' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'so' is present in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for statesperson that I've seen is " Politician".)