Obama, a Symbol of Reality

From this point on, what could stop Barack Obama? With less than three weeks to go before the U.S. presidential elections, the Democratic candidate appears to have won the race. Poll and bookmakers alike widely favour him. And the three debates against John McCain were deemed to have been in his favour.

Thus, in a few days, the leading nation in the world could elect a black president. A revolution in a country where one’s skin color was for a long time considered a reason for segregation. Moreover, nothing has been said with regard to it possibly being a reason for defeat once again. The famous “Bradley effect” comes to mind, named so after a black candidate for the position of Governor of California in 1982, who was believed to have won (according to voter opinion and exit polls), but at the end was beaten. Undoubtedly, the shock wave that would represent Obama’s win would be global.

This 47-year-old man, with little political experience, virtually unknown outside his State of Illinois, has run the distance without mistakes. Or almost. He got rid of an overly confident Hillary Clinton at the end of the primaries without a thank you. He took advantage of the financial crisis to outrun McCain who was caught in the storm.

His charisma, his freshness, his newness, his sex appeal were key ingredients to establish himself in the campaign, to influence fate. With the tremendous human and financial means that he has brought together through a bold use of the Internet. A first for the electoral history books.

A popular face, an elegant presence, possessing self-control and a cleverness with regard to situations that almost make one forget his agenda, without much originality. More protectionism, less of a war-like spirit, more attention paid to poor and middle classes, in short, the hallmarks of the Democratic orthodoxy. Some petitions of principle distilled with caution. Nothing allows to believe that with Barack Obama, America will know how to find solutions to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the consequences of financial chaos and recession.

If he is elected on November 4th, once the afterglow of his election passes, he will quickly have to face the grim reality. And try to create the conditions for the return of the America that we want, to take up the title of the latest book by Paul Krugman, recently crowned with the Nobel Prize for Economics. Obama, the symbol should reveal himself to be a strategist. If he does not wish to disappoint all those who see in him a new John F. Kennedy. If he does not want to be a pale imitation of myth. If he wants to finally live up to the expectations of his party.

Since Lyndon Johnson, who threw in the towel in 1968, only two Democrats have occupied the White House: Jimmy Carter, who shone little, and Bill Clinton, as skillful as he was awkward in some circumstances. With the exception of Al Gore in 2000 who was beaten at the end of a very tight race, all Democratic candidates have had but a token role. Obama has a real chance. But nothing is yet won. The memory of Aznar after the attacks in Spain in 2004, still lingers.