The Re-election of Barack Obama

The Re-election of Barack Obama

Barack Hussein Obama, congratulations to be re-elected as the president of the great United States of America, congratulations to be the second president to get re-elected at more than 7.9% of unemployment rate (the first was Franklin D. Roosevelt after the great depression), congratulations that your emotional appeal won more American hearts than Romney`s cold and dispassionate logics, congratulations for winning for a seemingly lack of better choice for Americans and (though I am a bit late) congratulations to be the first Nobel peace laureate with a killing list and boasting of killing the target!!! Now, that you are the president, you are undoubtedly the most powerful individual in the world (or the world as I know it). Months of campaigning, exhaustive fund raising, plethora of emailing and calling, grassroots organizing and at least 6 billion dollar spending and 1.2 billion advertising later, you have been granted another four years.


In the last issue, The Economist wrote, their support was for the devil they knew, Barrack Obama. That might well justify your re-election. I think, both you and Romney were equally confusing about the policies to be adopted after getting sworn in. I read some newspaper opinions, saying that they needed a microscope to differentiate between the policies of you and Mr. Romney. So Americans voted for the devil they knew. They gave you another four years for your commendable skills of creating hope, raising expectations and delivering rhetoric. Probably, America said in unison” Sir, you failed in the first chance, but here we are giving you another one, as you have better promises than Romney”. Mr. President, your middle-class populism portrayed Romney as a cruel, number crunching, profit hunting corporate boss, who would squeeze the middle class with higher taxes and unemployment. People rejected Romney, so you were the obvious winner.


As the economists say, the world economy faces four major problems right now; US fiscal cliff, Eurozone crisis, slowing growth in China and Debt problem in Japan. Naturally, your priority would be to fix your home first, as your campaign rhetoric promised. Its expected that you would, despite of your unwillingness, would go for a smaller government, cutting expenses and raising taxes for the rich. And that is where my interest lies in in this American election. When America is repairing its own home, there would naturally be less time to intervene (poking nose??) in the sovereignty of others. That means less of the so called war on terror. That means less of coercion on Iran. That means less of military intervention in the Middle East, and less of nose-poking in the South China Sea. I don’t know why India is being so jubilant in your re-election, our Sensex jumped some 85 points, giving a thumbs up to you ,when everybody knows you are going to curb on outsourcing, put stringent emigration rules( a bad news for the skilled Indians willing to settle in a cozy US jobs ), coerce India to sever all ties with Iran (which accounts for almost 10% of India`s petroleum import), and continue with keeping Pakistan as a geopolitical strategic ally( which means Pakistan continuing on ignoring the 23/11 dossiers sent by our foreign ministers). And as long as Congress is here in power, it would be business as usual.


I hate to end this in a sad tone. But, let’s get real and talk about the dirty truths. President, the great nations must bear great responsibilities. There are some real potentially precarious problems facing the world at this time. The sanity of you and Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, can save the world from a potentially nuclear war. You can act in exception to the great American double standard and catalyze real democracy in the Middle East. When the voice of the people would be reflected in the ballot boxes in the Middle East, it would be a real progressive development in the world. From Cairo to Kabul, your promises still linger in the air, the promises to change the outlook of the Muslim world towards the USA, or the great SATAN as they call it. Mr. President, you can make the world free of nuclear warheads by exemplary actions. And, you can give a real push to curb climate change and global warming, the broken promises of yours.


Mr. President, your story, a black American, born in a middle class family with a Muslim middle name, brought up in a third world country (Indonesia) by a single parent, is a classic story. Your audacity of hopes is exemplary, so is you rise to power. You represent the blacks, once oppressed and voiceless in their own country, and one of the longest exploited races in the world. But, you failed the world in the first chance. Would you act, not as a typical American President, and solve the problems the world is facing right now? Would you at least care for them?? Sadly, I am willingly pessimistic this time.