Europe Features
Will Obama euphoria lead to deep disappointment?
Nov 5, 2008, 14:44 GMT
President-elect Barack Obama with his daughters Natasha (2nd L) and Malia (2nd R) and his wife Michelle (R) wave to the crowd after he delivered his address at Grant Park in Chicago, Illinois, USA, to celebrate his victory on Election Day 04 November 2008. Obama defeated Republican presidential candidate John McCain to become the 44th President of the United States and the first black president in US history. EPA/TANNEN MAURY
Paris - As black French civil rights activists and their friends began celebrating Barack Obama's election early Wednesday in a private club in Paris, one reveler sounded a sobering, and largely unappreciated, note of caution.
'Obama is an American politician and he will govern like an American president,' said Cameroonian journalist Paul Heutching. 'Let's not jump to unrealistic conclusions just because he looks like us.'
As the world celebrates the election of the first Afro-American US president - as a symbolic watershed in American society and a repudiation of the policies of his predecessor, George W Bush - it seems as if many people, such as France's disenfranchised blacks, regard Obama as a kind of messiah capable of curing all ills.
A typically euphoric reaction was that of US television host and media mogul Oprah Winfrey, who told CNN television, 'It feels like there is a shift in consciousness... It feels like something really big and bold has happened.'
However, the groundswell of optimism raised by Obama's candidacy and victory has also inspired some observers to issue cautions.
'I am afraid that people may be pinning unreasonable hopes on Obama,' said French historian Pap Ndiaye, the author of The Black Condition: An Essay on a French Minority. 'He will be working under strict political constraints. The disappointment may be very great.'
Barney Mthombothi, editor of South Africa's weekly Financial Mail magazine, has been warning Africans against pinning unrealistic hopes on an Obama presidency for months.
'Africa often tends to behave a bit like an unwanted orphan, who suddenly discovers a famous uncle, who'll hopefully wipe away the tears and provide a protective arm. It doesn't always work that way,' Mthombothi wrote in June. 'He is going to bat for nobody else but America.'
European politicians could also be in for a letdown. In congratulating the US president-elect on Wednesday, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso called for 'a new deal for a new world.'
And EU foreign ministers meeting Tuesday in Marseille demanded that Europe be regarded by Washington as an equal partner in the future.
'One single nation can not decide everything alone,' French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said. 'The question of just what Europe is good for is no longer valid. We are now partners.'
However, Obama will probably be unwilling to relinquish Washington's leading role in hot spots like the Middle East, Iran and Afghanistan, and he may demand more real commitment than some governments are willing to give.
For example, during his visit to Paris in July, then-candidate Obama suggested that he would like to see European soldiers take over more of the fighting in Afghanistan.
'The more commitment there is (in Afghanistan) from our NATO allies... the more it frees up the United States from having to send more troops,' he said at the time.
But people in many European countries are questioning their government's engagement in what is increasingly looking like a very long conflict, and there may not be the domestic support necessary for increasing troop deployment or combat activity there.
For example, in August, after an Afghan woman and two children were killed when German soldiers opened fire on a suspicious civilian vehicle, many German politicians called for a withdrawal of their troops.
It may, in fact, not take much time for reality to bring many euphoric Obama supporters down to earth.
Australian Simon Jackman, a professor of politics at Stanford University in California, said that the inauguration of an Afro-American as US president 'will be tremendous symbolism' in the United States and around the world.
'But then, I think, when we get down to brass tacks and we have this 1 trillion dollar (US) deficit and nervous members of Congress, where does this road end?' he said. 'It could get very difficult six months in.'
Obama himself has already reminded his admirers that he is only human.
'There will be setbacks and false starts,' he said after his electoral victory. 'There are many who won't agree with every decision or policy I make as president.'
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Older Talkback
page: 1
The answer to that question is a resounding YES.
1.) The Presidency of my country should never permit an 'on-the-job-training' aspect to be the foundation of anyone holding that office. If one has never governed, one should NEVER become a candidate.
2.) If one has never served his/her country, one should never be allowed to be it's Commander-in-Chief.
Simple.
Hang on very closely to your wallets voters and your hard-earned dollars...things are about to get ugly come January 21st.
no one and i mean no one could be worse than geo. the airhead bush.
A lot of money can be found by unraveling the ties between the weapon merchants and the Pentagon.Ungag Sibel Edmonds is the first step to be taken.Investigate the ties between the neocons and the war profiteers.
Shrink the budget for defense and invest the money in renewable energy.
Sack John Bolton,impeach Cheney,close Guantanamo,undo the privatization of government duties like penal facilities,private armies like Blackwater,lots and lots of work in perspective.
'The Presidency of my country should never permit an 'on-the-job-training''
Bushed was NEVER trained to run a war or be a leader of the military. All of that experience was on the job ... and he failed miserably.
Infact, the military training Bush did get was one of drunkenness and showing up late.
You simply have a double standard and you are clearly a hypocrite.
Lets hope that Obama realizes that he is untrained and will not start to mass kill people.
..the dour euros already mouthing dissatisfaction. A set of expectations no one could meet.
He doesn't come into office for another two months, so try to be patient. After all, if someone needs to rip on the guy, at least he should have done something to deserve it first. After all, we are not liberals.
I am hoping that he pulls all of our troops from Germany and any other part of Europe .. it is time for them to defend themselves. Oh, and by the way, I know that America is a racist pig country but I was wondering are there no worthy blacks to merit election to head any European country ... or in Australia ... New Zealand ... just a thought.
The French should be very impressed by 0bama. After all, as I understand it, the worldly open-armed French have a total of 1 elected black person serving in their national government.
Maybe they aren't as progressive as they would like us to think they are?
How would anyone be disappointed?
All President-Elect Obama has promised to do is change the world, lower the sea levels, give everyone medical care (for free!), give everyone who wants it a college education (for free!), bring peace among the nations (simply by sitting down and taliking with them--why didn't anyone ever think of that before?), pay people's mortgages (for free!), pay people's fuel bills (for free!), and so on.
And he will pay for all this by imposing punitive taxation on really, really bad people: the most productive members of society. By the time he gets done with them, they won't want to work hard, build businesses, and employ others any more.
What could ever go wrong?
RJGatorEsq.:
You forgot the big one ... When he takes the oath then the 10 trillion dollars in debt vanishes into air!
And of course, the jesus-bomb factories shut down.
hey sp4 .
go in the basement and lick yourself now.
Rush Limbaugh spouts his distorted, hate-filled, divisive make-believe rhetoric in the morning ... Then his parrots come on here and post the same junk in the afternoon, almost verbatim.
And they think they're the smart ones for repeating Limbaugh's lies?
They make fools of themselves.
The next year is going to be a fun ride for American conservatives. Barry made some nice speeches, but if you look you'll see he carefully avoided outlining just exactly what he proposes to do, and when circumstances changed, so did his rhetoric and (presumably) his positions. As a result, people heard what they wanted to hear and just assumed that Barry has the same goals and objectives that they do.
Not so with Obama's failure to fully articulate any policy position is going to come back to bite him, and bite him hard. For example: some people believe that, within five minutes of assuming office, he'll issue orders to bring the troops home immediately from Iraq and Afghanistan. When that doesn't happen, these folks are going to be mighty unhappy and given his 'base' has a lot of Huffington Post and MoveOn.org types, the ranting and raving is going to be incredible!
One trend spotter here gives Barry until mid-May. Given the number of people who expect something from him who aren't going to get what they want when they want (and in full), even that might be a long time-frame.
In the past there used to be other great spirits in the USA.
Let us resuscitate one of them to inspire Obama,and teach the right wing nuts a bit of the essence of democracy.Here is Wayne Morse:
nl.youtube.com/watch?v=tSoZhyovvN4
I think all this means is that we are slipping more and more towards socialism. If that's what America wants, I say that's fine with me. Lets be honest, most of us out there won't ever own a multi-million dollar corporation that Mr. Obama's tax plans will target so heavily. Let's let this visionary take down corporate America and see what happens. It will be a fun ride and we only live once, right? What's the fun if things are stable? SHAKE IT UP OBAMA!!
To Toni from Belgium,
Go suck your socialist self. How many black leaders from your country have you every had? How many black members of your governhment do you have. Why are my friends who are form your neck of the woods happy as hell they left that dark draconian region of land to seek a better life, one unhibited from 70-80% tax rates. You are biggest phony on this forum
'In the past there used to be other great spirits in the USA.'
Unfortunately, the U.S. citizens have been sold out.
I remember Silicon Valley before it became what it is, I remember the mills in steel towns before they were closed down, I remember Texas as a major oil producer, I remember the great achievements of NASA which are no more, I remember a great many things that made the spirit of the USA and I have seen all first hand. They have all perished.
Today the USA is full of politicians that sell out citizens and mass murder for religious reasons (whether they state so or not) and give free money away to billionaires.
I wish the spirit of the USA could return, but I doubt Obama knows that spirit.
Put a fork in this pig. America is toast. May that God-forsaken country die without dragging the rest of the world with it...
...makes Rush wrong, Dan. Besides, if you post on Rush, tell those of us who do not listen to him, what he allegedly said.
I expect a huge disappointment.
The problem is in a system and not in any particular individual or even Administration.
I just read this article & comments.....good grief people...Obama is to be the pres. of the USA not of the world. Why do you expect him to clear up all the problems of Europe & the rest of the world...take care of that yourselves. Every time some one needs a handout or help with their war ...they expect the US to come to their aid...then the US gets criticized what ever they do...good , bad or indifferent. .
Do you not realize all that has happened to the USA in the past few years..the coastlines & many cities wiped out by hurricanes, floods, wildfires...I mean gone folks..some of the weirdest weather ever reported...nature has played terrible tricks & setting records. These areas can't be rebuilt, they're gone forever...people, politicians, can't do anything about that.
Then the collapse of Wall street...stores, businesses, corporations going bankrupt..people losing their homes, their jobs, their savings. In debt up to our eyeballs.
I'm not asking for your sympathy, certainly not a handout, tho a bit of understanding might be nice. We'll weather this ( no pun intended) & maybe even come out the stronger for it...but it'll take a long time, years.
I feel sorry for Obama, would have felt that way for whoever was elected. Don't even know why someone would want to wade into this mess. So good luck to him , I actually think he'll have more of a problem with his own Democratic party than the Republicans.
But there's no more Uncle Sugar...the world is on it's own. Even the illegal aliens are starting to leave the US ( I guess there's always a bright spot)...
and by the way, when are you Europeans going to start electing persons of color to a high office
When you get to be perfect, you can start criticizing those of us who aren't.. , take care of your own problems & don't make them ours, mind your own business & we'll limp along minding ours. Goodbye & lotsa luck to you
WORSE than Bush!
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Disappointment?Nov 5th, 2008 - 14:57:02
Do you mean more disappointing than Bush?
Hardly.
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