A Giant Step For Mankind!

Audacity of Hope

The world’s largest democracy has spoken and the President Elect, Mr. Barack Hussain Obama, shall be inaugurated on January 20th, 2009. The American people, for the 44th commander-in-chief, have elected an Afro-American to the White House. The World went into frenzy… The Social Desirability Bias (aka Bradley Effect) factor was dismissed as the feverish imagination of the deprived. The media went into a spin that how history had been made in God blessed land of Equality, Opportunity, Hope, and The bastion of Free World. Indeed, Obama himself was proclaiming that ‘this can only happen in America’. Senator McCain in his concession speech referred to the President Elect having lived ‘an all American Dream’.

The world is convinced that this could have only happened in the United States of America while the American media tom tom-ed the historic event vindicating the stance that a member of the 13% minority which served as slaves and shoeshine, butlers at best, could be elected to the highest office by the people only in the land of the Custodians of all Free World Values and how race played a small role at the hustings’08. In fact, the British Broadcasting Corporation has cheekily hinted that the Great Britain, eternal ally and life-long buddy of the United States of America, is not ready for its black chief executive.

Let us understand that this race to the White House was ugly and highly polarised on the issues of black and white, as it was on anti-Muslim, anti-Socialism and anti-liberalism. The statistics are astounding! The Bible Belt of America and WASPs, voted over-whelmingly for John Sidney McCain III, 72 year old Senator from Arizona, and the white presidential nominee of the Republican Party. Exit polls indicate that at a national level a mere 43% of whites rallied behind Barack Obama. The truth is that this figure looks slightly respectable because 54% of the white youth (aged 18-29 years), constituting 12% of the electorate, stood rock solid behind Obama. Nearly 95% of the Afro-American populace, comprising less than 13% of the electorate voted on colour lines. In fact, a meagre 41% votes were polled from the Whites aged 30 years and above. They constitute 53% of the electorate. Latinos, Asians, and Others - who constitute 8%, 2% and 3% respectively of the total electorate size, rallied with 66%, 61%, and 65% votes. A quick ground reality check reveals that despite high electoral votes bagged by the President Elect, Obama secured 52% of the popular vote!

Looking back it seems that the nation cast its lot with the coloured son of a black-Muslim father from Kenya. But, it is note worthy that at no time during the over 21 months of tough campaigning did Obama once refer to himself as a black candidate. He presented himself as a saner alternative to the Republican policies. However, all opponents of Mr. Obama, right from the incumbent Hilary Diane Rodham Clinton, 61 year old junior Senator from New York, the First Lady of the United States from 1993 to 2001, to Senator John McCain and Sarah Louise Heath Palin, the 44 year old governor of Alaska and McCain’s sometime Roman Catholic sometime Pentecostal but conservative "Bible-believing Christian" and largely an ignorant “hockey-mom” with “lipstick” running mate constantly fanned conspiracy theories. Obama a “secret Muslim” issue, ‘latent terrorist’ issue, Reverend Jeremiah Wright controversy, Controversy surrounding Obama & Reverend Rick Warren (pastor of the Saddleback Church in Orange County and author of the mega-seller The Purpose-Driven Life), Invasion of Pakistan Controversy, negotiation with Al Qaeda & Iran controversy, “Spread the Wealth” Socialist controversy, ABC’s “Obama Dropped Flag Pin in War Statement” controversy, Iraq War Controversy, The Barack Obama Stock Controversy, Rashid Khalidi controversy, “Palling around with terrorists” controversy and Obama & 1960s radical William Ayers controversy. 

In one controversy, ‘they’ even tried to fix his birth certificate. Then there was The Jesse Jackson versus Barack Obama Controversy much to the delight of anti-Obama mainstream media. In fact, the list seems endless.

Obama was nearly held to ransom by the magical teardrop from Hilary, as he was by Joe the Plumber and the incendiary remarks of his former pastor. Attacks on Obama were never subtle; rather they were blatant and vicious. A satirical New Yorker magazine cover flaunted the Democratic presidential candidate dressed as a Muslim and his wife as a terrorist.

Interestingly, no one questioned the sanity and ability of Sarah Palin, the potential commander-in-chief, in case the septuagenarian with a history of skin cancer kicked the bucket in the White House. The media as well as the people chose to overlook footage posted on YouTube showing Republican running mate, who sees a resurgent Red Russia from her window, indulging in witchcraft.

I think, white democrat Americans who voted for Obama voted not for a black candidate, as several panelist and invitees seemed to suggest in one of the BBC sponsored debates in the Middle East, to make history but for a candidate who came across as mature, stable & reliable and incidentally happened to be a black intellectual entity with poise and grace. Yes, they did vote because Obama represented a window of Hope, of Positive Possibilities to reclaim the nation from the quagmire that the outgoing President seemed to have left America in. These are the voters, who represent the changing face of young and dynamic America, the intelligentsia, who need all their wits and unity to pull America through troubled times. In them I see a hope of the United States of America emerging as a world leader once again and hopefully also address issues of the Planet in Peril.