"Obama has what is takes to harness the nuances of hope. He is capable of verbalizing them into tasty verbal portions readily digestible by Americans from all walks of life. That is his success story."
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By Philip Fernando in Los Angeles for Sri Lanka Guardian
(January 19, Los Angeles, Sri Lnak Guardian) Pomp and pageantry of the Barack Obama presidential inauguration is turning out to be overwhelmingly brilliant. Over a million admirers thronged to Washington DC to imbibe a glimpse of Obama’s magical aura that caused his rise to fame connecting in a manner no president had done before. He had more than a million text-messaging him on his Blackberry as he campaigned. Over 2 million had joined the MyOB.com, a web site fusing social net-working and fund raising. Over 11 million had signed up for regular emails. Over 80 international broadcasting stations relayed the pageantry from Washington.
With such an expectations overload the 44th US president must now invent a new strain of capitalism based on governmental activism replacing the one that died under George Bush’s ignominious tenure from 2000 to 2008.
The change that election results predicted and most Americans believed in is rapidly becoming a challenging prospect for Obama. In this generation that microwaves pasta and purchases over-the-counter-energy in a bottle, instant gratification is a trait seemingly hardwired into the people’s DNA. As one cynic put it, they are also still a victim of its racially biased past, the economic recession of its present and the uncertainty of its future, so Obama would be described as the Don Quixote of the modern age, elected to fulfill the impossible dream, while battling the political windmills on his administrative horizon.
Many pointed out that amidst a range of hopes and expectations, including ending the war in Iraq, getting the economy back on track, rebuilding tattered relations with numerous allies and even changing the way we eat and what we drive that is more imposing than those faced by any of his recent predecessors. Achieving all of these goals will be almost impossible. Achieving even one or two of them would be an extraordinary accomplishment.
Obama needs to have a well planned out legislative agenda, with probably no more than three or so major pieces of legislation for his first year. He must avoid getting sidetracked. Health care reform or a progressive energy bill are the kinds of legislation which will require focus and priority setting but which can easily cause great distractions. But these are the ones that will make Obama’s legacy real.
Obama of course will be evaluated on how he handles the economy and the war in Iraq. Both raise different challenges regarding hope and expectations. A drawdown of troops in Iraq is now almost inevitable. Obama must make sure to take the credit for bringing the troops home without any setbacks.
Obama has assembled a virtual dream team of economic advisers. Financial strategies that must be put in place now require expert judgment. His plan to stimulate the economy by rebuilding the infrastructure requires a willing workforce of Americans as well as citizens open to individual volunteerism for the greater good. This is civic engagement of a revolutionary type. Obama had tremendous experience as community worker in Chicago. He will need everything he got in his resolve to get a major wave of development started.
Obama has what is takes to harness the nuances of hope. He is capable of verbalizing them into tasty verbal portions readily digestible by Americans from all walks of life. That is his success story. His massage of hope, promise and potential of America came from that.
Obama has been careful to mix in the bitter harshness of reality but necessary pinches of civic engagement, personal responsibility and individual accountability during his two year election campaign. His major call to arms for Americans regarding the reality of race in America called “A More Perfect Union” received tremendous response. He put the dilemma facing everyone –racial bias and its corrosive ugliness right on America’s dinning table. The discussion that took place carried Obama to victory. He must incite a similar discussion now on the Middle East situation. The long overdue dialogue has to be completed.
Like Franklin Roosevelt, Obama inherited a crisis-the worst in 75 years, with over 7 million job losses and an unprecedented housing crisis. Ironically the Great Crash of 1929 was even a bigger calamity. Unemployment had reached 16 percent, 89 percent of stock value had been wiped out, the economy had shrunk by one-third, thousands of banks had closed, a third of the money supply had vanished, and unemployment had reached 25 percent. There were no cushion either then, as there was no unemployment insurance, no Medicare, no Medicaid, no Social Security, no welfare. FDR's answer: vast federal spending, tough new regulations on business and higher taxes.
Obama has to walk cautiously. Both Ronald Reagan in 1980 and Jimmy Carter in 1976 had a hard time getting the economy running in full steam. In the "stagflation" of the Jimmy Carter era, interest rates had reached 21 percent and inflation 13 percent. Reagan's answer was the tight money policy of Fed Chairman Paul Volcker and across-the-board tax cuts of 25 percent, while slashing the highest rates from 70 percent to 28 percent. Obama is now talking of a tax break for small businesses to go with the massive stimulus package. Obama may be thinking that the JFK tax cuts of the 1960s, also a Reagan model, was equally successful.
Obama and the Democrats are walking unchartered territory-a historic gamble, not only with their careers but with the country. If this monstrous stimulus package, plus the trillions in hot money, does not work; the immediate impact would be a major inflation. As expectations rise Obama may rely on the words of Nelson Mandela: "Where people of goodwill get together and transcend their differences for the common good, peaceful and just solutions can be found, even for those problems that seem most intractable."
The writer was the first to author a book on President-elect Obama “Barack Obama Feasting on Freedom.” He can be reached at fernandophilip@hotmail.com - Sri Lanka Guardian
With such an expectations overload the 44th US president must now invent a new strain of capitalism based on governmental activism replacing the one that died under George Bush’s ignominious tenure from 2000 to 2008.
The change that election results predicted and most Americans believed in is rapidly becoming a challenging prospect for Obama. In this generation that microwaves pasta and purchases over-the-counter-energy in a bottle, instant gratification is a trait seemingly hardwired into the people’s DNA. As one cynic put it, they are also still a victim of its racially biased past, the economic recession of its present and the uncertainty of its future, so Obama would be described as the Don Quixote of the modern age, elected to fulfill the impossible dream, while battling the political windmills on his administrative horizon.
Many pointed out that amidst a range of hopes and expectations, including ending the war in Iraq, getting the economy back on track, rebuilding tattered relations with numerous allies and even changing the way we eat and what we drive that is more imposing than those faced by any of his recent predecessors. Achieving all of these goals will be almost impossible. Achieving even one or two of them would be an extraordinary accomplishment.
Obama needs to have a well planned out legislative agenda, with probably no more than three or so major pieces of legislation for his first year. He must avoid getting sidetracked. Health care reform or a progressive energy bill are the kinds of legislation which will require focus and priority setting but which can easily cause great distractions. But these are the ones that will make Obama’s legacy real.
Obama of course will be evaluated on how he handles the economy and the war in Iraq. Both raise different challenges regarding hope and expectations. A drawdown of troops in Iraq is now almost inevitable. Obama must make sure to take the credit for bringing the troops home without any setbacks.
Obama has assembled a virtual dream team of economic advisers. Financial strategies that must be put in place now require expert judgment. His plan to stimulate the economy by rebuilding the infrastructure requires a willing workforce of Americans as well as citizens open to individual volunteerism for the greater good. This is civic engagement of a revolutionary type. Obama had tremendous experience as community worker in Chicago. He will need everything he got in his resolve to get a major wave of development started.
Obama has what is takes to harness the nuances of hope. He is capable of verbalizing them into tasty verbal portions readily digestible by Americans from all walks of life. That is his success story. His massage of hope, promise and potential of America came from that.
Obama has been careful to mix in the bitter harshness of reality but necessary pinches of civic engagement, personal responsibility and individual accountability during his two year election campaign. His major call to arms for Americans regarding the reality of race in America called “A More Perfect Union” received tremendous response. He put the dilemma facing everyone –racial bias and its corrosive ugliness right on America’s dinning table. The discussion that took place carried Obama to victory. He must incite a similar discussion now on the Middle East situation. The long overdue dialogue has to be completed.
Like Franklin Roosevelt, Obama inherited a crisis-the worst in 75 years, with over 7 million job losses and an unprecedented housing crisis. Ironically the Great Crash of 1929 was even a bigger calamity. Unemployment had reached 16 percent, 89 percent of stock value had been wiped out, the economy had shrunk by one-third, thousands of banks had closed, a third of the money supply had vanished, and unemployment had reached 25 percent. There were no cushion either then, as there was no unemployment insurance, no Medicare, no Medicaid, no Social Security, no welfare. FDR's answer: vast federal spending, tough new regulations on business and higher taxes.
Obama has to walk cautiously. Both Ronald Reagan in 1980 and Jimmy Carter in 1976 had a hard time getting the economy running in full steam. In the "stagflation" of the Jimmy Carter era, interest rates had reached 21 percent and inflation 13 percent. Reagan's answer was the tight money policy of Fed Chairman Paul Volcker and across-the-board tax cuts of 25 percent, while slashing the highest rates from 70 percent to 28 percent. Obama is now talking of a tax break for small businesses to go with the massive stimulus package. Obama may be thinking that the JFK tax cuts of the 1960s, also a Reagan model, was equally successful.
Obama and the Democrats are walking unchartered territory-a historic gamble, not only with their careers but with the country. If this monstrous stimulus package, plus the trillions in hot money, does not work; the immediate impact would be a major inflation. As expectations rise Obama may rely on the words of Nelson Mandela: "Where people of goodwill get together and transcend their differences for the common good, peaceful and just solutions can be found, even for those problems that seem most intractable."
The writer was the first to author a book on President-elect Obama “Barack Obama Feasting on Freedom.” He can be reached at fernandophilip@hotmail.com - Sri Lanka Guardian
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