The Pressure of Being Barack Obama

There is no doubt that January 20 will mark a significant milestone in world affairs and even more so in the history of the United States of America. The inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the USA will be different to any other inauguration of a US President before him. Barack Obama will not only be the first African American to move into the Oval Office, but he would also have been the President-Elect with the highest approval ratings in history (over 70% according to the poll done a few days ago). And as fate would have it, Barack Obama's inauguration on January 20, takes a place a day after Martin Luther King's birthday (19 January) and that has great symbolism. Martin Luther King would have indeed wept tears of joy if he were alive today, because an African American tenant in the White House would have been part of his dream.
But besides being the first African American president, Obama comes into the office as a president carrying on his shoulders an unbelievably huge amount of pressure due to the extremely large expectations from many people. First and foremost Obama was elected and is the president of the USA and should respond to the needs and demands of the US citizens, but it looks like the whole world seems to demand and expect that he solves the world's problems.
Whether he will meet these expectations remains to be seen, and as Warren Buffet said to Tom Bronkaw on NBC "I have no doubt that Barack Obama will be a good Commander-in-Chief, but he might not be able to meet all the people's expectations."

Watching the WE ARE ONE event at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC on Sunday 18 January with the hundreds of thousands of people who braved the freezing weather to attend the event and the star-studded cast of celebrities who definitely donated their talents and time to celebrate the coming of Obama into office, one got a sense that America was yearning for a new day. One could feel a real sense of joy and a real sense of hope that things would become better. And somehow one could also sense a great sigh of relief that the Bush era was finally over.
The pressure on Barack Obama's shoulders must be tremendous although he doesn't seem to be showing it. And as we observed during the gruelling 2 years of campaigning in the primary and main elections, Obama has the amazing ability to take such pressures in his stride. There are huge expectations from the US population and the whole world.

1. Fixing The US Economy
The US and indeed the world economy is in the deepest recession ever since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Financial institutions have gone bankrupt and some had to be bailed-out at a large expense to the taxpayer. Most of the market indicators have been on a decline for a long time now. World prices of resources have been decreasing, oil price moved from over $120 to about $50 a barrel, platinum price has gone from over $2 000 per ounce to below
$1 000. And all this in a few months. This economic downturn has had huge impact on manufacturing, mining, retail and service industries. The bosses of the big three car manufacturers in the USA had to travel to Congress to beg for assistance to rescue the industry. Of course this has led to serious job losses and retrenchments.
The US population is resting its hopes on Barack Obama. They expect him to fix the economy, put America back on track, ensure that the good times come back and the economic boom returns.


2. Healing The US Society
The Bush years have polarised the US society. Some people argue that even Bill Clinton was a polarizing president, and evoked strong feelings on both sides of the divide i.e. those who liked him adored him like a god but those who didn't like him, hated him. But there is no doubt that George W Bush was a divisive president and this has mainly to do with with the controversial way that he won the 2000 presidential election against Al Gore. There are many people who still believe that the US elections in 2000 were rigged, especially in Florida. The final outcome of that election was determined by the courts and Al Gore decided not to take the matter further with the courts for the sake of the nation and for fear of tearing the country apart through a legal battle.
Then the Bush policies on the war on terror and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan led to divided opinions among the Americans.
It must however be said that some of the challenges the USA faced during the Bush era were not necessarily of Bush's creation (e.g. Sept 11, 2001 attacks and subsequent responses) but George Bush did not do a good job to take the nation along as he tried to solve them. Somehow there seemed to be a disconnect between the president and the people. As a result, towards the end of his presidency he had the lowest approval ratings in the history of the USA.
Therefore, the US American society is looking forward to a healing of the nation during the Obama presidency. There are expectations that Obama will be a unifying leader.

3. Resolving World Problems
Not just the US Americans, but the entire world seems to see Obama as a saviour. From Europe to Asia to Africa to the Americas, the entire world population has high expectations. This is likely due to a sense that the Bush administration pursued unilateralist policies and America went on its own in trying to resolve world problems. In the process the USA became isolated on the world stage.
Obama is seen as a bridge builder and one the world can do business with. Besides the high level political relationships on the world stage, common citizens of many countries expect Obama to be instrumental in solving their own problems. Be it in Africa (where Obama's father came from) or in the the occupied territories of Palestine or Cuba, people hope the Obama presidency will make a positive difference in their lives. No one knows exactly how that will happen, but they still hope in any case.
There are many hot spots in the world where a credible leadership of the US government is needed and there is a strong sense that the Obama government might stand a better chance of making a difference than the Bush government. Be it in the Sudan or the Israel-Palestinian conflict or in the relationship of Russia with Europe.

One thing is certain, Obama will need to manage the huge expectations people have and there are signs that he is fully aware of these expectations. He has already been hinting that solving some of these major challenges will take a lot of work and time and that people have to be patient.
We will only know at the end of his term how he handled the huge pressure and whether he indeed manage to meet the expectations of the 6 billion plus world population.
In the meantime let us let Washington DC and the whole of the USA have is big inauguration party on January 20, because the real hard work will begin on January 21.