Obama year 1

At the time when almost anybody who cares about American politics is busy assessing Obama first year and when the Obamamaniacs have, for the most part fallen back to earth, I’m forcing myself to watch this movie. I try to contain the irritating sense of déjà vu, which makes it an unpleasing experience, but a necessary one because to the contrary of too many people, I don’t believe that Obama is too good for America.

I’m not disappointed by Obama’s first year for I think that what has happened was predictable. After all, as someone once said, experience matters. Symbolism and identity politics almost never bring results when they are used as tools to stop people from asking essential questions about political candidates. Obama is doing as well as he should be expected to do (given who he is as politician) and that’s the problem. He is a better president than George W. Bush ever was in the sense that he gives a less bellicose image of America. But is that the standard by which we must be judging all future American presidents? Is being better than Bush the sole criteria for being a good American president? If that is the case, I think that John McCain would have been a great president.

The alarming thing is that given what happened in the Democratic primary and the presidential elections of 2008 and of the popularity of Obama in the world, I don’t think that he is going to be judged on the policies of his administration and on their results. We are in an era in politics (not solely American politics) where people vote for politicians who make them feel good about who they are and who they believe is one of them.

The only critical political problem of Obama right is that many Americans have stopped feeling that he is one of them. This feeling is mainly to the fact that they saw in him what they wanted to see for people, Americans especially. Like to identity with “superpeople,” individuals such as Michael Jordan with an outstanding gift or a fantastic story who seem to be able to do what they want with the ball and who to look good while doing it. The good news for Obama is that he is transparent and flexible and that he will find a way to convince Americans that although he may not be the one, he is their guy or at least to convince them that his adversary in 2012 is not one of them. It is sad to say, but we are still living the George W. Bush era of politics for the most important things in politics are image, identity and not much else.

Thus to summarize my point in one sentence: the Obama presidency is never going to be one whose length and popularity is going to depend on results because it was branded at the beginning a transformative presidency for the United States of America, which means that Americans are only going to distance themselves for it if they stop believe the omnipotence of symbols and of swagger. I do not think that it is going to happen unless Obama stops being transparent and the One who is fighting for the people with everything he got like a great athlete trying to win the game in spite of his team. The results of the game don’t matter. It is the majesty (apparent, imagined, or real) of the athlete that is supreme.

Comments

[Craig]

I have to credit you for seeing him to be as empty hype as early as you did.. still. I was just voting for him for the *DEMOCRATIC SUPER-MAJORITY*. I thought the Liberals would actually... pass their Liberal agenda!

[Christelle]

I have no merit. I just know that history teaches us that politics isn't about the fluff, about making people feel good and believe what they want to believe, it is actually about the art of governing and moving a country forward by knowing how to force its people to confront its fears and its biases while reinforces its strength. Obama reminds mostly of the African leaders following independence, he knows that so much is expected of him and yet, he knows that saying that he cannot and shouldn't bear of those dreams would lead to his downfall. There is a reason why The Candidate, Robert Redford's movie on a presidential campaign ends while he is giving the greatest speech of his life, that is because he knows that things can only go downhill from there because people want him to uplift them, to be their Jesus, even Jesus, if he existed (and he didn't) couldn't remain Jesus if he had become an American president, but he would sure get reelected if he could convince the people that he was on their side.