Friday, October 05, 2012

Obama Barac‘ked’! is Hope Fading?

The Tea-Party Tidal Wave has Managed to undo the Gains of Democrats; The Shellacking Serves as a Massive Rebuke to President Barack Obama. As Republicans gain Majority Control of the house, Obama needs to Strategically Re-Align his Policies, Priorities and recast his Presidency keeping the 2012 Re-Election in mind

It was on Tuesday, November 4, 2008 the world witnessed and welcomed an unprecedented change in the history of American democracy. A 47 year old, first timer Democrat senator from Illinois, Barack Hussein Obama, who campaigned as a technocratic agent of change, shattered more than 200 years of history by winning US Presidential elections (defeating Republican John McCain) as the first African-American president of the US. Reeling under what was termed as the worst time after the Great Depression of 1930s, the entire historic episode was dubbed as a ‘national catharsis’ – an apparent repudiation of a historically unpopular Republican president, George W. Bush, his economic and foreign policies and most importantly an embrace of Obama’s ‘audacity of hope’ and call for change. Well, those were the days; in a classic case of role reversal, exactly two years

after US embraced change, the same American people have voted against the policies of the change agent. The result of the mid-term elections (held on Tuesday November 2, 2010) was indeed a ‘stinging setback,’ for Obama who was elected with so much hope and exuberance

(see pie charts on the right). Obama’s soaring ascendency is visibly crumbling down, he is essentially facing a bleak political landscape, and one is bound to wonder and ponder if ‘change and hope’ are fading away.

As Republicans celebrate their most historic victory in 62 years, (it was in 1994 when President Bill Clinton’s Democrats lost 54 house seats, which was the biggest shift in power since Democrats lost 75 seats in 1948), Democrats led by President Obama are perhaps coming to grip with what probably went wrong. The shifting blame game has already been initiated – should the blame lie entirely on recession and a series of miscalculations or on the perceived weakness of the President or on the strength of a resurgent Republican party whose hurricane succeeded in dismantling the Democrats’ majority in the house? Probably, the stinging blow and consequently the electoral loss was fuelled by a number of parameters; on the face of it, it was the anger against President Obama’s failure to turn around the slumping economy, the frustration at the ever increasing unemployment statistics (9.6% as per available statistics), and outright fury over the billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money spent on saving the ‘too big to fail’ institutions. Statistically speaking, over $800 billion were spent on the fiscal stimulus package, while commoners lost their homes and struggled to pay their bills. According to Yardeni Research’s communiqué sent to B&E, “Apparently, lots of voters believe that Democrats’ policies over the past two years not only failed to create jobs as promised, but also might have hindered the recovery in the labour market.” Also, the fact that no ruling party has flourished politically in challenging economic times, can’t be dismissed either. Whatever be the case, the Republican avalanche has fallen on the shoulders of Obama; the voters for their part have sent a clear message to Obama and his coterie – they want sincere and consistent efforts as well as a focus on the state of economy and jobs.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
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