"The
page can't be turned on Obama because the opposition isn't coherent enough to
constitute a majority. On what basis could Republicans truly regain their
footing? On a return to the deregulation of the Reagan era? Certainly not."
The going is rough for Barack
Obama. It's very hard for this visionary, who hopes to prepare the ground for
radical reform, to make America a country true to its myths, domestically equitable,
and externally, the bearer of justice and liberty. It's so tough that this
idealist just recalled to his side his campaign director, thereby admitting
that to govern isn't merely to rely on the good sense and intelligence of the people,
but to go into battle day after day the way one scrapes for votes.
Reversal after reversal, the
going is so tough that they're burying this president as quickly as “Obamania” came
about: far too quickly even if the facts are there. In the latest blow, the
Supreme Court has judged the capping of corporate election contributions unconstitutional.
That means that they can finance Republicans or Democrats until they can take
no more, who in turn will repay them by defending corporate interests against common
interests. In the Congress, money will be more influential than ever. This will
complicate all the grand reforms envisaged by Barack Obama, including his plan to
extend healthcare coverage, which is threatened because by losing the seat
vacated by the death of Ted Kennedy, Democrats have lost the majority that made
it possible to prevent Republicans from blocking Senate debate. This project
was Barack Obama’s domestic priority. At the same time, his international
priority, resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is marking time. He
himself said this in the pages of Time Magazine. He has admitted that he
underestimated the difficulties of a project that isn't at all where he hoped
to have found it.
Posted
by WORLDMEETS.US
Just a year after taking office,
this president is failing in his two greatest ambitions, and that means that incumbent
Democrats will be less preoccupied with supporting the White House than with
retaining their seats in the November mid-term elections. The picture is somber,
but other American presidents have passed this way. A year after his own
election, Bill Clinton was in a much-worse situation. Not only had all his
initiatives failed, but he and his wife were the targets of attacks so vicious
that he seemed to be sinking beneath the waves. One year after his election, Ronald
Reagan wasn't in good shape, either. But both were triumphantly re-elected, as
Barack Obama may still be.
The page can't be turned on Obama
because the opposition, and this is his first trump, isn't coherent enough to
constitute a majority for a change in government. It is, so to speak, a rule that
Republicans will score points in November, since Americans regularly vote
against the White House, those in power and Washington in general. But on what
basis could this party truly regain its footing? On a return to the
deregulation of the Reagan era? No, certainly not, since the crisis provoked by
the “self-regulation” of the markets has already been tried, with the result
that Wall Street became as unpopular on the right as it is on the left.
On the contrary, Republicans
will have much more difficulty countering the offensive that Obama is launching
against the omnipotence of the banks. It's even possible that some of them will
approve of this, and at the same time, not identify themselves as one of those
to the right of the most traditionalist, religious and hostile to the evolution
of mores. Many of them won’t want to because this isn't their brand of conservatism,
and especially because as strong the right-wing is to the heart of the
Republican party, it is far from being a majority in a country that will not
bring them to power.
In the United States, it isn't
the left that is having an identity crisis, but the right. And this is Obama’s
second trump: difficulties or not, his ratings are good. He restored to the
United States the popularity that George W. Bush lost, and he curbed the crisis
on Wall Street. His “extended hand” to Tehran allowed the Iranian opposition to
pluck up its courage and, since his speeches to the Muslim world, the
jihadists have had more trouble persuading Muslims that America is the enemy. His
gestures of détente toward Moscow have brought Russia closer to the West, notably
regarding Iran, and the definition of a far more intelligent Afghan strategy
makes a Taliban victory more unlikely.
Posted
by WORLDMEETS.US
Finally, American pressure has
led Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept the principal of a
Palestinian state, which certainly isn't everything, but isn't nothing, either.
In one year, many seeds have been sown. Obama can still rebound. His last word
hasn't been spoken.
*Bernard Guetta is a
member of the oversight board of Liberation.
