Wednesday, November 05, 2008

President Obama: how sweet that sounds?

Like many others, I stayed up to watch history being made in the United States. I got involved with the Liberal Democrat Voice live blog, playing the part of statistician and watcher over the House and Senate races, and enjoyed the experience.

And so Barack Obama has won the Presidency. It's a bit of a poisoned chalice, with the economy in crisis, the likelihood of higher levels of unemployment and a greater burden on an underfunded and inadequate social welfare safety net. The United States has never been so lacking in friends, nor has it ever been perceived to be such an obstacle to world progress on issues such as the environment and peace.

There has been so much expectation and hope placed in an Obama presidency that, at least, he begins with a vast reservoir of goodwill that he can call on and he will no doubt be given some time to achieve tangible change.

It won't be easy. He doesn't have sufficient votes in the Senate to overcome a determined filibuster - although watch out for Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, the two Republican senators from Maine, whose votes might be crucial - and there will be Democrats in the House urging him towards greater radicalism. There is little money for new initiatives, and an increasing feeling that America should raise its drawbridge against the world.

His first term will be predominantly about making the United States feel better about itself, and my gut feeling is that it will require a second term before we see just how radical Barack Obama actually is...

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