Obama Can Save the Western World

Press commentators are for once unanimous. All of them approve the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Barack Obama and consider it an “encouragement” for the future, rather than an acknowledgment of the past. The president has not had time to accomplish anything of significance since his recent election according to all commentators. However, it seems to me that Obama’s record as president already exists. It consists in his ability to having been elected! What more can he do? His election is, from a western viewpoint, of major importance. That is in itself enough. George Bush had the role of the bad guy, who had to avenge an America wounded by 9/11 and had to give the country its military prestige back, which he did by means of brutal force against Iraq.

Doubt has largely been dissipated today and America is once again the superpower one must fear. But this recent enterprise led to a moral collapse. America is feared, but is no longer loved. Something of its beloved character was broken under George Bush. We must understand two things: on the one hand, the secret of U.S. power does not rest in its force, but in the attraction (maybe even in the fascination) inspired by its way of life; on the other hand, what affects America also affects the rest of the world, of which she is the role model and leader.

And then Obama is elected president of the United States. At the same time as America is repudiated throughout the world, a “worldly man” becomes its chief. Both black and white, Christian and Muslim, American and African, politician and intellectual, naïve and intimidating, he alone encapsulates the world and this idealized America who claims to be its mirror and proprietor. Yesterday, we could detest America because we detested George Bush. Today, we must all love America because, lest we be pure American racists, we cannot but love Obama. This is what the Nobel Peace Prize rewarded. The Norwegians in the jury understood well that they were rewarding themselves, both their institution and the Western world, by choosing the only man on earth today who actually deserves it. Obama saved the West by saving, on his own, his country. What more can he do? The Chinese and the Russians now know they cannot count on discrediting him morally in their hope to supplant the U.S. as world power in the foreseeable future. As for the Muslims, who are used to being forcefully treated, they can now hope for an influential representative who will listen to them. They only need to understand how the world functions and become part it. Obama’s Cairo speech will be able to help them.