The expectancy and rose of the fair state,
The glass of fashion, and the mould of form,
Shakespeare, Hamlet
Barack Obama will be sworn in today as the 44th President of the United States. At the time of inauguration he is enjoying over 70% approval ratings and therein lies the major challenge for the man of the hour, the beacon of hope for so many people on so many issues ranging from the state of the World Economy, the role of Colored People in America, the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Environment, Stem Cell Research and ad infinitum.
At the time of his inauguration Obama is facing an economy that is the worst since the Great Depression of 1929 -1939. The American Economy is in a tailspin and the budget deficit, even by conservative estimates, is now over two trillion. That’s two followed by 12 zeros.
Even while he is being inaugurated he has already packaged a fiscal stimulus package of 800 billion which is on top of the 350 billion already approved, and now almost exhausted by the Congress to help failing financial and business institutions. Mr. Obama’s financial stimulus package looks to create 3 million jobs while 2.5 million Americans lost their jobs in 2008 alone. Meanwhile the redundancies and scalebacks continue. Americans, a large number of them, believe that Obama is going to bring an end to the economic woes of the US and the rest of the world believes that a resurgent US economy will pull the world economy along with it.
The US Constitution always held within it the ‘sacred and undeniable truth that all men are created equal’, and while slavery was formally abolished following the Civil War of the 1860’s, it is only today that the vast number of American people believe that the Dreams of Martin Luther King Jr. as stated in his address of August 1963 is coming true. For millions of African American, Hispanic and people of other cultures, who feel themselves somehow disenfranchised, the inauguration of Mr. Obama is seen as the silver bullet that will cure all.
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the world was believed to be going in a uni-polar direction. America was the model, the one super power and friend to all nations. While not all nations were buddy buddies with the Americans, the brutality of the nine eleven attacks of 2001, converted the whole civilized world into, if not friends, but surely acquaintances and sympathizers to Americans. However, the misguided, arrogant and snobbish attitude of the American leadership following the nine eleven attacks, means that US leadership is the most hated in the world today and the word is looking to Obama to change all that.
The US led war in Afghanistan and Iraq has turned into a quagmire with thousands killed and billions spent. Yet there is no end in sight and no solution at hand. But the whole world at large believes that Barack Obama’s presidency can somehow, counter the resurgence Taliban in Afghanistan and solve the problems in Iraq.
The Israelis too, believing in the omnipotence of an Obama presidency, has just finished a brutal and utterly despicable war to destroy the spirit and the infrastructure of Hamas before January 20th, when Obama takes office. Palestinians, too at large, believe that Hillary Clinton and Obama can somehow solve the centuries old issue of Jerusalem and finally put a stop to the slaughter of the Palestinians and their legitimate dreams.
The World is also witnessing a hitherto unparalleled destruction of its natural resources. The Polar ice-cap is melting, and global warming is now an accepted, though not an acceptable, phenomenon. Meanwhile US have been coy and have not accepted the Kyoto protocol and have not been a willing participant to international effort to reduce greenhouse gases and carbon emissions. Yet, this reluctance is largely seen as a result of the recalcitrance of the conservatives now in power and American public and the world at large believes that Obama will change everything.
America has grown distant to the world at large. Old Europe hates the snobbish mightier-than-thou attitude of the present US administration. Asians think that the US government does not get them and let’s not even talk about what the Muslim world thinks of the US.
Stem cell researchers believe Obama is their man and the proponents of a World Wide Ban on landmines believe Obama is just waiting to sign the treaty. Since Reagan withdrew in 1985 the signatories to the International Court of Justice is waiting for to welcome back the US.
Yes, everybody everywhere is waiting for Obama to take office and somehow miraculously everything is going to be alright. Pensioners believe that health insurance will be universal. Adults believe that children will start to like vegetables and fruits while Kids all over the world believe that Obama is going to declare that a side order of fries is an essential food. Hell!, we in the Maldives believe that, fishing that has been not been good in the 2nd term of George Bush’s presidency is going to improve from today onwards. To paraphrase “Obama’s in the White House and everything is gonna be all’s right with the world”.
Yes, everybody likes Obama. They have respect and admiration for the guy. Yes, we all believe, or would like to believe, that Obama is a capable man. He is going to change how things are done in Washington. The manner in which he ran the campaign and the transition gives us hope. Yet for all that he is still a man. Just a person.
He cannot put the economy back on track in a week, a month or even a year. Iraq and Afghanistan is not susceptible to ready-made solutions. The ills that we have visited on the environment are not going to be cured in a decade.
Some things can be immediately done by executive order. Guantanamo can be closed. Obama can even, with a stroke of his pen, allow for federal funds for stem cell research. He can get Congress to approve his bail-out plan in short order, meanwhile most economists do not expect the economy to start recovering this year. Meanwhile the problems in Afghanistan, as the Soviets learned to their expense and horror, are not going to be easily solved. And the havoc visited on Iraq is going to decades to undo. While the issue of Palestine ….
Will the fans and supporters of Obama, stay loyal to him for that period of time? Maybe for a month or so. Maybe even for six months. But definitely not for a year or more. This column is willing to state publicly that it is the fan base, the supporters, the democrats and the liberals that would first start to gang up on him. The conservatives and republicans, the guys who supported McCain (remember him) and Sarah Palin are going to be a little bit more subtle. Why? Because this is what they expected and said so all the time.
The liberal, the democrats, the fans and the supporters are going to turn on him because they are, ultimately, going to be disappointed. And that’s the biggest problem that Obama has. To live up to the expectations and the hopes and dreams of so many. The burden of heightened expectation is too high. Too heavy a load to carry. To paraphrase Ayn Rand, Atlas may have to shrug.
January 2009.