Black Times for Obama

In autumn, the political year has begun. While Spain is trying to stop corruption and several political parties vote in their own primary elections to get ready for the next regional and legislative campaigns, there is also a political campaign in the U.S., where Obama supports Democratic governors in their own campaigns, state by state.

Ruling a country is never easy; it is especially difficult when it comes to the U.S. I would not like to be in Obama’s shoes, not only because everybody in the world is keeping an eye on him, but also due to the fact that he has black clouds over him. His face has become sadder, his smile is smaller, and his head has whitened. The elected president who happily danced with Michelle Obama to celebrate his victory and joy while half the world was watching him has to face very serious problems today. He does not happily dance anymore, and his face reveals his concern and stress. Despite having served only six years as president, his appearance has drastically changed. He is noticeably older now.

He has not achieved peace between Israel and Palestine yet, nor has he managed to stop the Ukrainian conflict, no matter how many times he has held meetings with Poroshenko or Netanyahu. As for the Syrian conflict, if he did not bomb the country, the Republicans criticized him for being weak; if he did, he was attacked by the pacifists. He was also attacked for not interrupting his holiday last summer because of serious problems. However, as his director of communications, Jennifer Palmieri, said, if he had he would have caused undue alarm, and would also have been strongly criticized for doing so. The truth is that Obama, who usually neither cancels his trips nor changes his schedule drastically, did it last summer because of the Ebola issue. While the concern is global, the Dallas case shook up Americans. Spaniards were similarly shaken up by the repatriation of the missionary priest who could not be saved. Besides, this very summer he had to deal with the immigration issue (so must Spain) and the need for better security for credit cards. While credit cards are also being discussed in Spain, the so-called “black cards” are a problem of a different nature.

His flight from Cleveland to Dallas caused understandable alarm. To worsen the situation, a racial murder took place while he was at rallies in Bridgeport and Maryland. The black American population could not ignore this murder. Michael Brown, a black 18-year-old youngster, was shot six times by a white police officer while taking part in the protest in Ferguson, a suburb of St Louis, Missouri. While a peaceful demonstration was taking place on August 9, Michael was shot to death. For all these reasons and to prevent bigger problems, Obama had to hold several press conferences last summer. Regarding the murder of the black youngster, he stated that he would establish the necessary approaches to guarantee a citizen’s right to protest and demonstrate peacefully. Equally important was his public appearance to announce the creation of a crisis cabinet to solve the Ebola problem.

It is not national or international problems that are worrying but how to confront them, how citizens are told about them and how to solve them. In short, how the president faces the situation, no matter how aged his face has suddenly become, and how he admits to problems, which is the first requirement to solve them.