Obama 2012

Obama plunged into his campaign this week with his State of the Union speech [receiving] an acceptable share of the ratings. He was in front of the largest audience he will have until he accepts his party’s nomination on Sept. 6 during the convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. Taking into account how things are now, we must admit he didn’t waste his opportunity. While Republicans fought against each other in Florida and avoided speaking on certain topics — such as immigration, because they don’t have a plan to overcome the crisis — Obama chose the Capitol’s scenery and the long faces of its main figures to show his most combative side.

Here we must digress and forget a little about Obama’s past four years on an international level, about the unfulfilled promises and the disappointed expectations. The American voter doesn’t care much about that. In his 77-minute-long speech last Tuesday, Obama devoted six of the total to foreign policy.

For the rest of the time, he stated his campaign message, went over his four years in office and admitted with disgust that he had not achieved his main promise: knitting together the country. However, he blamed the Republicans for having prevented him from doing that.

His campaign motto is the following: The millionaires have to pay more taxes to be able to distribute the costs of the exit from the crisis with more equity. The slogan, “We are the 99 percent,” was established by the popular movement Occupy Wall Street, which is supported by two-thirds of American society. “Right now, because of loopholes and shelters in the tax code, a quarter of all millionaires pay lower tax rates than millions of middle class households. Right now, Warren Buffett pays a lower tax rate than his secretary. Do we want to keep these tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans?”

At the beginning of his overview of his time in office, Obama didn’t deprive himself from using the old resource of his received inheritance. He said that 4 million jobs had already been lost before he took office, and the other four [million] had been lost before his economic measures started working. Ever since then, 3 million jobs were reclaimed, and more are wanted, preached the president. “In 2008, the house of cards collapsed. We learned that mortgages had been sold to people who couldn’t afford or understand them. Banks had made huge bets and bonuses with other people’s money. Regulators had looked the other way, or didn’t have the authority to stop the bad behavior. It was wrong. It was irresponsible. And it plunged our economy into a crisis that put millions out of work, saddled us with more debt, and left innocent, hardworking Americans holding the bag.”

In regards to his main promise, he needn’t remind us. He said many times that he didn’t want a country divided by political barriers. “We have never been just a collection of individuals or a collection of red states and blue states. We are, and always will be, the United States of America” was the phrase he used. Obama wanted to come across as a modern politician that was beyond political parties, an achiever that knows how to strike a balance to generate a consensus and move forward in the important topics. That didn’t happen during his administration, although nobody can claim he didn’t try. His biggest initiative, the health system reform, only made it through because it had [the support of] a good majority in Congress, after months of unsuccessfully attempting to attain bipartisan support and after delaying the most controversial aspects of the reform, like the creation of a governmental system to compete with the private health care providers. When Obama lost that legislative majority in 2010, the Capitol dead-locked, and important bills never made it through again. Among the initiatives promised by Obama, immigration reform and a law to promote the use of clean energy remain pending.

Obama didn’t avoid the topic. He admitted his failure and implied that politics can’t be fixed, that he tried but failed and that from now on he will do things his way. “But no matter what party they belong to, I bet most Americans are thinking the same thing right about now: Nothing will get done in Washington this year, or next year, or maybe even the year after that, because Washington is broken. Can you blame them for feeling a little cynical?”

One cannot blame Obama either for standing a little on the weakness of the Republicans. Last week a Washington Post poll showed that Obama has 50 percent of the public’s support, his highest peak in years. And this isn’t only due to the fact that after years, some reassuring signs have started sprouting in different sectors of the economy. It is also because after years of fruitless negotiations, Obama stood firm last July and December to rescue the bit of his health plan and a tax cut very popular among the middle class, respectively, from the Republicans’ sharp scissors.

Those won battles strengthened the president, and soon after, the Occupy movement displaced the tea party from the center of the cultural debate. The new offenders became millionaires with privileges. For the tea party members, it all was blamed on spender politicians, but above all on that black Democrat occupying the White House

But lately, tea party members haven’t been heard anywhere. The Republican debate became a Chicano game to see who could be the toughest against immigrants without resorting to hurtful phrases or racist thoughts. It had grievances, apologies, clarifications, trash about Gingrich’s wife and Romney’s businesses, crossed declarations and more mess.

Inside the noise, no Republican was heard talking about a plan to improve the economy or about the place the USA holds worldwide by someone who might come across as a threat to Obama’s re-election, which is the only thing he cares about now. On the contrary, Gingrich’s verbal excesses to make himself heard in South Carolina seem to have buried his chances in Florida and have seriously compromised his future. Because in the end, the only thing the Republican voter is interested in is that someone can overpower Obama on Nov. 6. Gingrich insists in proving that he is not that kind of conservative. He says atrocities all the time. He is far from discreet and doesn’t arouse sympathy or sound sincere in his convictions either.

Then there is only Romney left, Obama’s ideal candidate. A millionaire who pays few taxes and, to top it all, admits it. A guy that comes from a liberal state, where he appointed progressive judges and passed a health care reform that served as a model for the one Obama later made on the national level. On top on that, he’s a Mormon. All are good with Mormons, but a Mormon as president would be something new. But we welcome the innovation. But so much attention on Romney’s religious life reinforces his reputation of being boring.

So far so good, but Obama knows that he is playing on borrowed time — that the Republican nap might end soon. So much so that if Romney draws a big difference on Tuesday in Florida and the rest would give up, it would not be amusing. Except for some straggler that chooses to stay in the race to become more of a familiar face, the rest of the party will stand behind the most successful candidate. So the Mormon will become charismatic, prepared and fun, firm but with a sensitive side. Only then will the true campaign begin — the one to try to bring Obama down no matter what. It seems kind of lousy.

Especially since the 2012 Obama is already here, and he has messages, support and a plan. The theme will come later. Will he take up with the Republicans? Will he keep his whiny and annoying character from his campaign? Will we see a more combative, less peacemaking person? Will he fulfill any of his promises? A lot depends on what happens from now until November. But it is probable that he does what is in his nature, whatever can be expected from the first black president who pays the cost of staying in office. Negotiate, conciliate, move forward as much as possible, move backward only as needed. The 2012 Obama does not raise high hopes, but on the other hand, he comes across as solid against an electorate that, lacking attractive options, seems to be willing to give him another chance.