Will We Miss Bush?

Democrat Barack Obama has defeated Republican John McCain with fabulous numbers. After an inspiring campaign he very much deserves that victory. What a turnaround!

With those within his government he can quickly show whether he – in contrast to George Bush – really wants to work together with his political opponents. Will he become the president of all Americans? We should passionately hope ‘yes’.

January 20 will be a historical day. For the first time in history, a black American will be sworn in as the new leader of the country. At the same time, America will say goodbye to George Bush and to several decades in which Republicans determined the political agenda.

U.S. a new beacon of hope

The next day – on January 21 – the new president will wake up in the White House for the first time. He walks to the Oval Office and finds a huge pile of files. In his head circles parts of the hundreds of ‘Yes, we can’ speeches that he gave during the election campaign.

About ‘a new America’.

About the ‘promises for a better future for our children and grandchildren’.

About the U.S. as ‘a new beacon of hope in the world’.

Budget deficit

President Obama goes through the files: about the pending house crisis, about the widening budget deficit, about the almost 50 million Americans without health insurance. Oh and there’s also a little research lying there about what the rest of the world things about America. Ouch, almost everyone – after eight years Bush – hates the country that he will be boss of for the coming four years.

Obama cannot walk over water

Barack Obama did not make it easy for himself. The expectations are sooo high! Millions of Americans expect him to do miracles. But even his most loyal fans will have to admit very soon: ‘He cannot walk over water!’

Never did Obama tell the tens of thousands of voters that came to his mass gatherings: ‘My fellow Americans: you are all looking so hopefully up at me, but I cannot live up to everything just like that.’ Of course Obama did not say this. Because with pessimism (realism?) you don’t become president of America.

Believe

His personal charisma and power to convince have to make sure that Americans will keep on believing in him, even when health insurance for everyone will not come immediately, or relief for house owners-in-distress or a job for every unemployed.

He will also have to find a convincing explanation for the reason why the war in Iraq and Afghanistan does not immediately come to an end and why more (rather than less) money has to go to the Department of Defense.

Adversity

Obama will have to keep the flame, that he lit himself, burning. Will he succeed – even in times of adversity – to give America new energy? Does he have that elusive trait of great political leaders to forge paralyzing pessimism into cheerful resourcefulness?

‘It’s morning again in America’

Franklin Roosevelt was capable of that during the crisis of the thirties of the last century. John Kennedy also was a hope-giving leader in whom millions of people believed. Just like in the eighties and the Republican Ronald Reagan, who shared his cheerful plan for the future with his own Republicans and many Democrats. ‘It’s morning again in America,’ Reagan said. America followed him.

With optimism and hope, America can climb out of the valley of gloom. Barack Obama does not have much money but he does have a lot of goodwill inside and outside America. It is his biggest trump card in these times of distress. The new president will get a heroic reception in many countries. The world cannot wait to embrace him.

Opportunity

That’s great of course. But it also means that Europeans – and therefore also the Dutch – will have to give the new president a chance. Also in case he asks for more support in Iraq, Afghanistan or anywhere else in the world, for example. Are we willing to do that?

Many European politicians and citizens have disapproved of about almost everything that came from Washington. That was a rather easy situation. Maybe we actually like that simplistic attitude? Are we going to miss George Bush even if only because thinking superficially in black-and-white about the U.S. no longer suffices?

Europe will have start thinking seriously about its relationship with the U.S. That offers great opportunities, but asks for sacrifices as well.

Not only America needs to change. Europe does too.