Obama’s return

Obama’s victory, making him only 2nd Democrat since World War II to gain office twice, marks remarkable achievement.

The race to the US presidency was a close one and nobody really expected a sweep for President Barack Obama in a situation where the country still has to be pulled back from the worst recession it has faced since the Great Depression, along with high unemployment. Under such circumstances, President Obama’s victory, making him only the second Democrat since World War II to gain a place in office twice, marks a remarkable achievement. His policies at home, with greater benefits for the poor and middle class, clearly struck a chord with the American people, with 39 per cent of them saying that the economy had improved under him.

Yes, a savvy, intelligently planned campaign helped President Obama. His team realised the potential in honing in on non-white Americans, notably the rapidly growing Hispanic population, on women and on the young. The voting patterns, in fact, showed a deeply divided country, split by age, by belief, by race and by gender. Mitt Romney’s views on women, on reproduction, on contraception, on immigration and a host of other issues appeared to be rooted somewhere in the 1950s. His membership of the Mormon community, a deeply orthodox Christian sub-sect, may have shaped this. But the fact that similar views came from other Republicans spotlights a country within which views differ sharply. Republican Party insiders are already discussing the need for change as younger voters grow in number, women assert greater power and Latino numbers grow. All these groups identified in greater numbers with President Obama.

As far as foreign policy goes, Romney’s views on Afghanistan and Pakistan did not differ much from President Obama’s. His views on tackling ‘Islam’ in some ways were harsher. We have lost little on that front then. What we can gain from the US polling process is the calm and precision with which it was conducted and also the graciousness of the speeches of both candidates as the final results were called. As always, President Obama spoke powerfully and eloquently. We must hope that as a more experienced leader now, he can do more to unite a nation split along many lines and turn his vision for the future of his country into reality.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 8^th, 2012.