Friday, November 9, 2012

OBAMA IS BACK

Obama is back again, as the President of United State of America.  After the “will he win, won't he win” suspense, the Americans had given him another term, but by a slender margin, as compared to the landslide win he had at his first try. One of the bitterly fought and costliest of Presidential election of the USA, this one truly was a cliff hanger.
With the upper house of parliament (Senate) in his favour but with the house representatives against him, the rule in the next term is not going to be a smooth sail for him. Though his popularity had taken a beating lately, in his first election campaign he had given a whiff of fresh air and hope to Americans. The hope is still there (hope is always there, is it not?) but the Americans are becoming more realistic now. Those heady days of yore is gone for good for the US. Though still at top, it has to accommodate countries like China there. Accommodating a country like China at the top and staying with them is not an easy task.  
In his last avatar, he did endeavour to give wider health coverage to the citizens, particularly those at the bottom of the Pyramid. Though the economy did not go down further, it had not gone up either.  I heard in the CNN channel that 70 per cent of American feels that the country’s economy is still not doing well. The real worry for the President is going to be unemployment. He would try to institute acts like 'bring back the job', Patriotic act etc. to ensure that the jobs that America had lost in the last one and half decade in manufacturing and Services, particularly in IT; are brought back. Also he would want to enact acts that would prevent the new jobs going out. From an American perspective, he must be doing the right things, though policy wise, this will not get full acceptance from the Republicans.
Obama being a Democrat, the Indians (in India, of course), due to its democratic traditions would rejoice on his election due to factors of empathy. However, looking at history, we would realise that whenever Republicans ruled US, India benefitted more. This time also Obama leading America is not going to benefit India economically. The country needs to proactively work out strategies to align with the US. Obama & the US will always look at India to be a deterrent to China, therefore there is a possibility to be good US ally is the offing for India.
Personally I rejoice in Obama coming back. I think him becoming the President in 2008 was the right thing that happened to USA, for a country that was reeling under huge global problems at that time. He could stem the rote but could not bring back the nation to the old levels. (I do not think USA will ever come back to being undisputed numero uno nation of the world) He had factored the change and got Americans to be realistic to accept the changes happening around. That itself was a mammoth task and he had done well there. Probably in this tenure, he will try to be more assertive to bring about major changes in the country. Let us wait and watch. Whatever it is, we could expect to see a less stressed US President in Whitehouse this term.
Let us wish Barrack Hussein Obama, all the very best!

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