The Challenges For President Barack Obama: Can He Deliver?

Submitted by Yardbroom

President - Elect Barack Obama is silhouetted as he speaks at a rally in front of Morrill Hall at the University of Nevada at Reno in Reno, Nev. Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2008. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

During the last fifty years – 1959 to Jan 2009 – nine United States Presidents have entered the Oval Office in the White House.  On 20th January 2009 President Barack Obama will be the tenth to join the club. A few are household names known for their decisiveness, clarity of thinking and the impact they have made on the world stage, as leaders of the most powerful country on earth.  A couple are known to us only because of the recent period of their tenure and what they should have done as opposed to what they did.  President Gerald Ford -1974-1977- “presided over the worst economy – at the time – since the great depression.”  One of his most controversial decisions was granting a presidential pardon to President Richard Nixon -1969-1974 – for his role in the Watergate scandal”  I recall Nixon once stating in a television interview, “I am not a crook”, that he had to make such a statement speaks for itself.  “He resigned on the 9th August 1974, in the face of likely impeachment for his role in the Watergate scandal.”

The challenges for President Barack Obama are immense, he is the first black man to hold the office of President since the ratification of the United States Constitution which became effective in 1789.  He inherits the political problems of the previous incumbent George W Bush – Jan 20, 2001 – Jan 20, 2009, “without the the generous economic position left by President Bill Clinton – 1993 to 2001, who presided over the longest period of economic expansion in American history, which included a balanced budget and reported federal surplus of $559 billion.”   Obama instead inherits if no one has noticed global recession.  On Thursday 8th Jan he “predicted that data would show that America had lost more jobs in 2008 than at any time since the second world war.”

The unemployment rate in the US has jumped from 6.8% to 7.2%, a 16 year high.  There is Guantanamo Bay, Israel and Palestine conflict, Iraq, Afghanistan, this list is not exhaustive brevity has circumscribed it.

There will be no generous settling in period for President Obama, there are the problems I have alluded to and as President John Kennedy – Jan 1961 to Nov 22nd 1963- soon found out in his first year, things can quickly go wrong.  The Bay of Pigs invasion only four months into his tenure, April 1961 when a US trained force of American immigrants exiled from Cuba invaded Cuba only to be defeated by the well equipped Cuban military, makes the point.  Relations between Cuba and America have never been the same, pre the Bay of Pigs invasion, although the Cuban missile crisis surely contributed to this impasse.

The sand traps for a US President are varied and can come from the most innocuous of events, remember President Jimmy Carter – 1977 to 1981 – in the final year of his presidency suffering the indignity of being unable to make any progress in the takeover of the American Embassy incident in Iran by Iranian students; and a later failed rescue of the hostages by the US Military.

In the broader scheme of things small incidents on the world stage can have a devastating impact on the locality in which they occur.  I will therefore briefly mention President Ronald Reagan – 1981 to 1989 .  Who took military action in our backyard to overthrow the Government of Hudson Austin who was embroiled in the melee which surrounded the death of Grenadian Prime Minister Maurice Bishop.

In the last fifty years of American dominance there have been many highs and lows for America in both domestic and foreign policy.  However, I put it to you that a black man who has come through the complexity of American politics with its many intrigues; to be elected to its highest office is not without tactical guile and intelligence.  Some say he has allegiance to particular groups and will be ineffective because he will be governed by their interests, but others with a common sense approach will know that you can only “change” things if you are in power to enact change and in politics you need the support of others or you will be reduced to always shouting from the sidelines.

President Barack Obama is clever enough not to subject himself or his people to such a peripheral role.