SOMETHING OF A MIRACLE - Obama has to redefine the US to itself, and to the world

Westminster gleanings
Anabel Loyd
The Telegraph, 17 November

The tension of Election Day in Washington, when 92 per cent of the district of Columbia voted for Barack Obama but still dared not expect victory, vanished in a collective sigh of relief when he was declared president-elect at 11pm. The euphoria began on the next breath and with unseasonably warm, damp weather rotting the residual grimacing Halloween pumpkins, Washington has a spring in its step, heedless of continuing market falls or the soldiers in fatigues and desert boots pouring in and out of the Pentagon. The opposition has gone to ground; the Grand Old Party is engaged in post mortems; the president has invited his successor and his family to the White House; African Americans have seen a second coming and it belongs to them. We forget that 40 years ago, an eyeblink in history, within the memory of most of the current population here, they could not vote. The shame and the residual cruelty of hundreds of years of slavery are still very close at hand.

Expectations are so high. The world has watched Obama win and believes that if an African American can become president of the United States of America, anything is possible. Whatever happens, Obama has transformed the US. On Wednesday morning, two African American women on the subway, one bouncing with sleepless joy, decked out in Obama tee shirt, cap, backpack and badges, agreed that his mixed-race status was important, his ability to straddle and perhaps now finally remove the barriers between two worlds. Others have suggested that his non-slave ancestry gave him a confidence and impetus that no descendant of slavery, still carrying the wounds five generations on, could have achieved. For non-Americans, it took the television shots of Jesse Jackson weeping as he watched the new president-elect to remind us of that heritage.

The less-charitable have suggested that his emotion was for himself and for a presidential bid that never was, but whatever passing regrets, that crowd in Chicago was living the moment. They were rewarded by a speech of remarkable statesmanship and gravitas, even in celebration, from a man of stature, power and serenity, already confident of his ability to lead. The typhoon of hope anticipating this election, now heralding the inauguration of the new president, is worth the laying aside of contemporary British scepticism — the urge to undermine pedestals, especially those stood on by American icons, to blow in the wind of change with the rest of the world.

What now? In an instant this week, things have appeared to get better, but staggering responsibility rests on a man with unique global status and power, but apparently little experience. He is a man who has four short years before he has to fight again the same battles, when, whatever the successes, the clarity of a message of change will be obfuscated by the inevitable compromises and failures of office, the slowing of campaign urgency in the face of government bureaucracy.

An Obama activist — expert on public policy and federalism, former member of the Clinton administration, and senior Fulbright scholar to India — dismissed my concerns over the style-versus-substance issues we are familiar with in the UK, with an explication of the machine led by and supporting the president-elect. Most of his path to the White House has been well out of the standard political limelight, but rooted in principles of community organizing learnt during years of local politics in Chicago. It is his understanding of the need for inclusiveness and community-building that has been the scaffolding for a decentralized campaign spearheaded by cutting-edge IT programmes and providers to bring the message into people’s homes. This has resonated with first-time voters to bring them into a vast community of hope, empowered by its involvement in the process of the election and the sense of its own ability to make change, demonstrated by the long patient lines of voters on November 4. This was democracy. Its result has revived America’s reputation as the land of opportunity.

Every campaign-helper received an email of thanks from the president-elect by Wednesday morning. During the campaign, they have been made to feel constantly in touch with their candidate. Countless blogs, groups, messages-boards, have kept people in the loop, part of something new, exciting, where they were essential for success. The secret of Obama’s stratospheric funding too has been in the desire to be part of this new community. People have gone on giving whatever they can manage. It is probable that the giving will begin again when it is needed, and that fears of the vast sums required to run a re-election campaign starting, on recent history, in not much more than a couple of years may be unwarranted as the community finds new resources. The sums of money spent on a campaign are beyond the imagination of poorer parts of the world. By 2012, we will know if they are well spent. Obama spoke on the night of November 4 of the time needed to make changes — if he can continue to communicate clearly the slow processes of government and be seen to be moving forward, he will hold his community together.

Once upon a time, Tony Blair preached community in the UK. He failed first by reverting to domineering leadership as he gathered all the strings of government in his hands and played puppet-master to his colleagues and, by inference, to the country. Ultimately, he failed on the back of his divisive support for President Bush in the wars that have shattered international reputations and remain at the bottom of the poisoned chalice inherited by Obama. In Washington, everyone wants peace, but the domestic and world economic situation has risen like oil to the surface, and even the current ecstasy is tinged with the sobriety of job losses and failing companies as markets continue to fall. There is little sense of the usual relaxation or the hidden infighting over appointments of the period of transition between presidential administrations. Clear decisions are already being made on roles, previously agreed in case of victory, and the president-elect is up and running and deeply involved in building new economic plans.

Concerns exist that his decision-making process may be too collegial and therefore too slow. Obama is on a knife-edge between the need to change processes of policy-making and implementation from the top-down, centralized approach initiated in the Clinton years to lay a path for the worst efforts of George W. Bush, and the importance of a fast forward decisiveness on both domestic and foreign issues. For now, he is on the case, and may achieve a balance that holds fast to consensus as the watchword whilst understanding the need for the aggression and, to quote the Washington Post, “sharp-edged approach to politics” of his new chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel. A veteran of the Clinton administration, Emanuel adds a level of continuity, experience and rigorousness of policy to the new team with what is likely to be an essential core of steel. Meanwhile, the transition website continues to build the sense of the importance of popular and individual involvement in the processes of the next administration with its opening message, “It’s your America, share your ideas.”

There are suggestions that Franklin D. Roosevelt is Obama’s role model, but, however appalling the Great Depression, Roosevelt in 1932 had far fewer balls to juggle at once, only later making the international decisions that brought the US into World War II. The new president and his secretary of state have instantly to involve themselves in the wars of their predecessors, to start the long processes of withdrawal and extrication, and attempt to play peace-maker without playing god. Opposition, quiet for now, will rear its head at the first signs of weakness or failure, and the whole world will be watching. At the same time, the president has to deal with the global economic, energy and environment issues so disastrously handled by the Bush administration. At home, campaign promises made ahead of vital and immediate measures towards economic salvage mean tax changes and, vital to the poor, health as well as education policy reforms. The new president has to redefine the US to itself and to the world. He has to maintain the hope as the wheels of government and international relations grind slow. We may have seen something of a miracle this month. They are saying in Washington, too, that the quality of the new administration will be remarkable as people hungry for change rush to accept badly paid jobs to be part of Obama’s new world. Another miracle perhaps.

So, can he do it? Well, time will tell. But, for the moment, I’ll go with the hope. Yes, he can.