NYT: The Next President -- Why Did Obama Win?

[tazvil04]

I rarely do this, but I disagree with the NYT Editorial Board...

Obama and his campaign was never about what was wrong with this country. IMHO his message was all about what was right with this country -- what our nation could achieve if we were united in purpose and politics. It was Obama's message of union, hope and change which resonated.

He made his case well. In order to do that he did point out that the nation was headed in the wrong direction for 8 years and John McCain offered little hope in his extension of the Bush policies for another four.

But to me, this was a side story.

Obama captured the nation's fascination and support because he promise a new kind of politics. The same politics Bush promised and then proceeded to ignore with his intonations to his base. The American people wanted to be healed. They wanted a bright future. This Reaganesque vision that Obama offered of a bright future was what captured the hearts and minds of the American people.

As much as John McCain and George Bush are responsible for the America we have today.

Obama's election has always been not about today, but about tomorrow. About the future and reaching that shiny city on the hill. About America's promise, not its failures.

November 5, 2008
Editorial
The Next President
NEW YORK TIMES

This is one of those moments in history when it is worth pausing to reflect on the basic facts:

An American with the name Barack Hussein Obama, the son of a white woman and a black man he barely knew, raised by his grandparents far outside the stream of American power and wealth, has been elected the 44th president of the United States.

Showing extraordinary focus and quiet certainty, Mr. Obama swept away one political presumption after another to defeat first Hillary Clinton, who wanted to be president so badly that she lost her bearings, and then John McCain, who forsook his principles for a campaign built on anger and fear.

He offered a government that does not try to solve every problem but will do those things beyond the power of individual citizens: to regulate the economy fairly, keep the air clean and the food safe, ensure that the sick have access to health care, and educate children to compete in a globalized world.

Mr. Obama spoke candidly of the failure of Republican economic policies that promised to lift all Americans but left so many millions far behind. He committed himself to ending a bloody and pointless war. He promised to restore Americans’ civil liberties and their tattered reputation around the world.

With a message of hope and competence, he drew in legions of voters who had been disengaged and voiceless. The scenes Tuesday night of young men and women, black and white, weeping and cheering in Chicago and New York and in Atlanta’s storied Ebenezer Baptist Church were powerful and deeply moving.

Mr. Obama inherits a terrible legacy. The nation is embroiled in two wars — one of necessity in Afghanistan and one of folly in Iraq. Mr. Obama’s challenge will be to manage an orderly withdrawal from Iraq without igniting new conflicts so the Pentagon can focus its resources on the real front in the war on terror, Afghanistan.

The campaign began with the war as its central focus. By Election Day, Americans were deeply anguished about their futures and the government’s failure to prevent an economic collapse fed by greed and an orgy of deregulation. Mr. Obama will have to move quickly to impose control, coherence, transparency and fairness on the Bush administration’s jumbled bailout plan.

His administration will also have to identify all of the ways that Americans’ basic rights and fundamental values have been violated and rein that dark work back in. Climate change is a global threat, and after years of denial and inaction, this country must take the lead on addressing it. The nation must develop new, cleaner energy technologies, to reduce greenhouse gases and its dependence on foreign oil.

Mr. Obama also will have to rally sensible people to come up with immigration reform consistent with the values of a nation built by immigrants and refugees.

There are many other urgent problems that must be addressed. Tens of millions of Americans lack health insurance, including some of the country’s most vulnerable citizens — children of the working poor. Other Americans can barely pay for their insurance or are in danger of losing it along with their jobs. They must be protected.

Mr. Obama will now need the support of all Americans. Mr. McCain made an elegant concession speech Tuesday night in which he called on his followers not just to honor the vote, but to stand behind Mr. Obama. After a nasty, dispiriting campaign, he seemed on that stage to be the senator we long respected for his service to this country and his willingness to compromise.

That is a start. The nation’s many challenges are beyond the reach of any one man, or any one political party.

[stray cat]

1. I agree with you absolutely. The mandate is at least in part to change politics

as you state so well. For some it was only about specific policies but for many including myself it was also about hope for a better way of moving forward where politicians speak the truth to adults rather than dividing on the basis of emotional laden sound bites. By the way - welcome!

[tazvil04]

2. The early Obama is what sold America

Right -- it was not the image of Obama in the debates that sold people -- that may have given them confidence that indeed he could accomplish his

But it was his message to America that he provided in the beginning about hope -- and change and love of country -- in a different way...

His aspirational message --- that America is more than what it has been the last eight years --- and the commitment that America trusted he had to improve things for his children...

This is what attracted people...

The economy had a hand in it -- but it was the positive and not the negative that did it...

Barack Obama's win is just the start of a new vision for America
Posted By: Sydney Rae Pickern at Nov 5, 2008 at 07:27:57
Posted in: Foreign Correspondents , Eagle Eye
Tags:Barack Obama , US Election 2008

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/sydney_rae_pickern/blog/2008/11/05/barack_obamas_win_is_just_the_start_of_a_new_vision_for_america

Barack Obama's win is not really about politics, it is not really about which policy sounds better, or which party embodies the spirit of America. It is not about race or how many white women found themselves voting for our first black President. The one thing this election is about is somehow redefining a new vision for America, no matter how hard it might prove to be to resolve the differences that identify us as American.

It is true that the people who waited in line for hours to make sure their voice was heard in this election have chosen a leader whom they think will be instrumental in causing a rift in the system; a change in the way that our government functions at the highest levels that promises to have the most amazing and transformative ripple effect. We know that this kind of shift cannot happen over night.

But judging by the dramatic advances that we have made and seen as a civilization in the areas of science and technology in such a short time, it almost seems like it should be easy to reinvent what has become the current failings of democracy and capitalism. Clearly, the voting process has been reaffirmed. But I think a lot of us are really pushing for a fundamental restructuring of the governments role in aiding a society that has the make up of success and potential.

You see it on Main st. in Hannibal Mo, that there are those of us out there who have to literally stand up in the face of obstruction, stand up in the face of antiquated policies and belief systems and say, this is not 50 years ago, this is what today looks like and I have a new idea on how we can proceed together. I have personally witnessed progress dependent on the changing of minds. It is time to be willing to see the investment that we have all made on different levels, take flight.

Yes it is a risk, but risk taking is in our blood, our beginning, lets show the next generation what it looks like to lead.

[tazvil04]

3. Hope vs. Fear

John Moore: A message of hope vs. the tactics of fear
Posted: November 04, 2008, 10:00 PM by Kelly McParland
John Moore, Full Comment, U.S. Politics

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2008/11/04/john-moore-a-message-of-hope-vs-the-tactics-of-fear.aspx

"The propaganda was over the top. Rove’s disciples even convinced many Americans that Obama was a Muslim"


Barak Obama the Marxist, Muslim, terrorist-loving, Israel-hater will become President of the United States. All hail the wisdom of the American voters!


Much history has been made in this election but perhaps most significant is that Americans have risen above a decade of recrimination, name calling, deceit and negative campaigning. Former Bush strategist Karl Rove, who set out nine years ago to trouble his own house in pursuit of a permanent Republican majority, has today inherited the wind.


Rove’s alleged genius was the ability to create false constituencies and set them against each. It was the politics of fear, distrust and — at its worst — of hate. Urban against rural, gays against families, Muslims against America, Christians against the devil himself.


Rove and his subalterns were ably served by the nattering dim bulbs of talk radio, cable television and the Internet, who echoed key talking points and breathed life into ones too vicious or imbecilic for the candidates themselves. They hissed Obama’s middle name, concocted false controversies and then wailed in indignation when the “liberal media” ignored them. Sometimes they out and out lied.


The strategy succeeded to a point. George W. Bush was elected twice. In this election cycle, they convinced a measurable percentage of Americans that Obama was a Muslim. But mostly it failed. As I write this, Democrats are projected to gain the presidency and both houses of Congress. Some permanent majority.


The 2008 campaign represents the last pitiable gasp of Rovian electioneering. The right didn’t just throw the kitchen sink at Obama, they pulled pipes and tiles out of the floor and flung them with every ounce of force they could muster. You can’t blame them for fighting; this desperate need to stop Obama at any cost was the natural culmination of a movement that came to believe that liberalism isn’t just another vision for America, it is her mortal enemy. When you imagine yourself to be a minuteman for the very soul of your country, no tactic is beneath you.


In some quarters, the anti-Obama hysteria reached operatically comic levels. By Monday, the website Little Green Footballs was flogging video that showed Barack Obama brushing his mouth with his middle finger while referring to his opponent. A Seinfeld premise was being strip mined for conservative outrage.


No one act or individual stands better for the right’s grasping tactics than the selection of Sarah Palin as John McCain’s running mate. After a tungsten-brilliant debut, she flamed out. The Alaskan governor went from being a Rorschach test of the red-state-blue-state divide to being a diagnostic tool for delusional political thinking. One by one, the most important conservative thinkers and pundits renounced her, realizing that supporting such a patently unsuitable candidate was a bullet they simply weren’t prepared to take for the cause.


The hold-outs pulled the usual levers and came up lemons. They decried the big-city elitists who hate the rural heartland. After decades of dismissing sexism as a leftist hobgoblin, they became overnight disciples of Gloria Steinam.


Of course, the reason the hard right was ready to get down into the muck of trench warfare is that it was fighting for its own credibility. The election of Obama is a repudiation of the politics of Rove, Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity. You don’t supplicate to the Wizard of Oz after the curtain has been drawn back.


Barack Obama did not excite voters because he’s a cipher, because of the liberal media or because — as the Wall Street Journal asserted — his crowds are suffering from an irrational exuberance that might normally be found at a boy-band concert or an Arab riot. He won because he was tested for two years on the campaign trail and Americans found him to be authentic.


His opponent was an often erratic, aging man whose sole claim on the White House seemed to be that he earned it with five years of his own liberty. Robbed of their preferred weapon — fear — the Republicans may have to one day embrace the very thing that defeated them: hope.
National Post


John Moore is host of the drive home show on NewsTalk 1010 CFRB. Outside of Southern Ontario, he can be heard at www.cfrb.com

[tazvil04]

4. Election Unleashes a Flood of Hope Worldwide

November 6, 2008
Election Unleashes a Flood of Hope Worldwide
By ALAN COWELL
NEW YORK TIMES

PARIS — From the front lines of Iraq to more genteel spots like Harry’s Bar in Paris, the election of Barack Obama unlocked a floodgate of hope that a new American leader will redeem promises of change, rewrite the political script and, perhaps as important as anything else, provide a kind of leadership that will erase the bitterness of the Bush years.

Whether it was because of Mr. Obama’s youth, his race, his message or his manner, some European leaders abandoned diplomatic niceties to compete for extravagance in their praise, while others outside the United States — fascinated by an election that had been scrutinized around the globe — reached for their most telling comparisons.

“There is the feeling that for the first time since Kennedy, America has a different kind of leader,” said Alejandro Saks, an Argentine script writer in Buenos Aires. Or, as Ersin Kalaycioglu, a professor of political science in Istanbul, put it, “The U.S. needs a facelift and he’s the one who can give it.”

There were some glaring departures from the feel-good mood. One in particular illustrated the challenges that will test the president-elect: President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia chose the day to lambaste the United States and threaten new missile deployments.

The final moments of the election were covered in obsessive detail far from America. In Australia, radio stations interrupted their shows to broadcast the Obama acceptance speech. In Berlin, newspapers printed special editions.

Perhaps one of the most poignant accolades came from Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s former president, who said in a letter to Mr. Obama: “Your victory has demonstrated that no person anywhere in the world should not dare to dream of wanting to change the world for a better place.”

Significantly, though, among American troops in Iraq, the hope seemed tinged with skepticism that change in the White House would not automatically mean change in American doctrines that have meant deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“It’s not like even if Obama is elected we’ll up and leave,” said Specialist James Real, 31, of Butte, Montana, as soldiers watched the returns on television at Forward Operating Base Falcon in Iraq.

Indeed, Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Iraq itself did not “expect that much change in the American policies toward Iraq. Any changes won’t be made in one night.”

In Afghanistan, where American troops are also deployed in an increasingly bitter war, the election brought a rebuke .

“Our demand is to have no civilian casualties in Afghanistan. The fight against terrorism cannot be won by the bombardment of our villages,” said President Hamid Karzai, referring to a string of coalition airstrikes that have caused civilian casualties.

For many outsiders, Mr. Obama’s victory raised expectations that a new administration would seek new relationships across the globe.

“I think he can restore the image of America around the world, especially after Bush got us into two wars,” said David Charlot, 28, a lawyer with French and American citizenship who was among a throng of expatriate revelers outside Harry’s Bar in Paris.

The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, said something on similar lines. “Your election raises in France, in Europe, and elsewhere in the world, an immense hope,” he said in a message that called Mr. Obama’s victory “brilliant” and his campaign “exceptional.” Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany called his victory “historic” and invited Mr. Obama to return to Berlin, where he addressed a huge rally during his campaign.

Even in lands whose leaders are no friends of Washington -- such as Venezuela and Iran -- the election outcome cut through official propaganda to touch some people.

“It’s kind of nice to feel good about the United States again,” said Armando Díaz, 24, a bookkeeper in Caracas, Venezuela, where Enrique Cisneros, a storekeeper summed it up like this: “A few hours ago, the world felt like a different place.” In Iran, too, some said the American example should persuade politicians closer to home to adopt similar political ways.

‘’His election can be a lesson for the dictators of the Middle East,” said Badr-al-sadat Mofidi, the deputy editor of the daily Kargozaran newspaper. Some in Iran focused on their hopes for a change in American attitudes towards their country. ‘’The nightmare of war with the United States will fade with Obama’s election,” said Nehmat Ahmadi, a lawyer.

Indeed, for many who had watched this campaign from afar, there was a sense that the election was not just an American affair but something that touched people around the world, whatever their origin. “I want Obama to win with 99 percent, like Saddam Hussein,” said Hanin Abu Ayash, who works at a television station in Dubai and monitored early returns on his computer. “I swear if he doesn’t win, I’m going to take it personally.”

In Berlin, Anna Lemme, a 29-year-old architect, said she did not usually hurry to catch the news first thing in the morning. ‘’But this morning I jumped to the radio first thing at 5 a.m.,” she said.

There was little doubt that for some, Mr. Obama’s skin color made his victory all the more exhilarating.

“The United States is choosing a black man as its president. Maybe we can share a bit in this happiness,” Mr. Cisneros said in Caracas.

The Afghan president, Mr. Karzai, said the election had shown the American people overcoming distinctions “of race and color while electing their president” and thereby helping to bring “the same values to the rest of the world sooner or later.”

For many in Africa — and in Kenya in particular — his election evoked a deepening of pride. As President Mwai Kibaki said in a message to Mr. Obama, “your victory is not only an inspiration to millions of people all over the world, but it has special resonance with us here in Kenya” — the birthplace of Mr. Obama’s father and paternal grandparents.

That sense of association may also encourage some to believe that Mr. Obama will give Africa special attention. “We express the hope that poverty and underdevelopment in Africa, which remains a challenge for humanity, will indeed continue to receive a greater attention of the focus of the new administration,” said Kgalema Motlanthe, the South African president.

Many outside Africa competed for his attention, too.

In a statement, the 27-nation European Union said it saw “the promise of a reinforced trans-Atlantic relationship” in Mr. Obama’s election. Even big business joined in.

“From a business perspective, I’m very happy that the economic issue was at the top of the agenda in the campaign,” said Lakshmi Mittal, the head of the world’s biggest steel-maker, “and we’re very positive that we’ll see more measures to address the economic crisis with his election.”

On momentous occasions, politicians reach for big words. The French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, for instance, said that “American democracy has just lived through a marvelous moment, one of those major turning points that periodically demonstrates its vitality, its belief in the future and its trust in the values on which it was founded over two centuries.”

In Parliament in London on Wednesday, members of Britain’s three major political parties lavished praise on Mr. Obama. Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that Mr. Obama had run “an inspirational campaign, energizing politics with progressive values and his vision for the future.”

Mr. Brown mentioned several times that he planned to work closely with the new administration, said he had spoken to Mr. Obama “on many occasions,” called him a “true friend of Britain” and said: “I know Barack Obama and we share many values.”

But politicians also peer through the prism of self-interest.

In South Korea, some pondered the destiny of a free-trade agreement negotiated by the Bush administration and criticized by Mr. Obama. Lee Hae-min, South Korea’s top trade negotiator, warned that any change in the deal could undermine South Korea’s support for the deal and “open a Pandora’s box”.

In the Middle East, the focus of much tension that has drawn in successive American administrations, Saeb Erakat, an aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, urged Mr. Obama to transform the proposal for a two-state solution in the Palestine-Israel conflict “to a realistic track immediately.”

At the Vatican, a statement urged Mr. Obama to show “respect of human life” and expressed the hope that “God should illuminate the way” for him in his “great responsibility.”

Some saw a chance to patch up old feuds.

Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who displeased Washington when he withdrew Spain’s troops from Iraq in 2004, said Mr. Obama’s victory “demonstrated the vitality of this great country, and of democracy and the unstoppable force of the ballot to bring about change.”

“I am confident this opens a horizon of promise for relations between the United States and Spain,” he told a press conference in Madrid.

But even in the moment of triumph, some in Europe questioned whether Mr. Obama would really make a break with his George W. Bush, the least popular American president among Europeans in recent history.

“When Obama takes office on January 20,” the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung said in an editorial, “we will see whether the Europeans — and especially the Germans — really just had a problem with Bush’s presidency or with America itself.”

Others were less cynical. “The margin of victory was emphatic and, whatever else follows, today the world changed,” said an editorial in The Times of London, and The Guardian newspaper proclaimed: “They did it. They really did it. So often crudely caricatured by others, the American people yesterday stood in they eye of history and made an emphatic choice for change for themselves and the world.”

That was not a universal view in Moscow where one analyst, Mikhail Delyagin, compared Mr. Obama to Mikhail S. Gorbachev, who is often blamed in Russia for destroying the Soviet Union.

“Not having large-scale management experience, he has greater chances to disorganize America, to destabilize America, out of the very best intentions, as Gorbachev once did.”

But the supporters generally outnumbered the skeptics.. “We were all hoping that he would win,” said Carla Saggioro, a retired architect in Rome. “And the fact that he did with such a large margin is a sign of real change _ at least let’s hope so.”

The United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, called Mr. Obama’s election a “historic opportunity” for a stronger working relationship with the United States.

“He values highly the resolution of all the conflict issues through dialogue,” Mr. Ban said. “He has expressed publicly that he is willing to meet anybody, any country, so that will provide good opportunity not only for the United States, but also the United Nations as a whole to resolve all issues through dialogue.”

Mr. Ban said he had met Mr. Obama by chance last year on a plane flight. “He was very engaging and he knew a lot about the United Nations,” Mr. Ban said, “and I was very much encouraged.”

Alexei Barrionuevo contributed reporting from Buenos Aires, Basil Katz, Susanne Fowler, David Jolly and Katrin Bennhold from Paris, Alissa Rubin from Forward Operating Base Falcon in Iraq, Michael Slackman from Dubai, Choe Sang-Hun from Seoul, Simon Romero from Caracas, Norimitsu Onishi from Tokyo, Seth Mydans and Thomas Fuller from Bangkok, Sam Dagher and The New York Times bureau from Baghdad, Rachel Donadio and Elisabetta Povoledo from Rome, Sarah Lyall from London, Barry Bearak and Celia W. Dugger from Johannesburg, Somini Sengupta from New Delhi, Peter Gelling from Jakarta, Sabrina Tavernise from Istanbul, Sophia Kishkovsky from Moscow, Carlos H. Conde from Manila, Abdul Waheed Wafa from Kabul, Meraiah Foley from Sydney, Nicholas Kulish from Berlin, Victoria Burnett from Madrid, Nazila Fathi from Tehran and Neil MacFarquhar from New York.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/06/world/06worldreax.html?hp=&pagewanted=print