Ian Boyne

The clinching of the Democratic nomination by the African American Barack Obama, a political unknown up to a few years ago, over the well-experienced, politically formidable white woman, Hillary Clinton, represents America's atonement.

It was not too long ago that blacks and whites could not go to the same schools, eat in the same restaurants, sit freely on the same buses and have their children play in the same parks. And up to the middle of the 20th century, blacks did not even have the right to vote. Now, a black man seems headed for the White House.

'America's shame'

Democratic presidential hopeful Senator Barack Obama, and his wife, Michelle, wave to the crowd during a rally earlier this year, in Houston, Texas. - File

While there are some red-neck Americans and WASPS who bemoan "what America has come to" and sees Obama's nomination as "America's shame", their blinding bigotry and crippling pre-judice disables them from seeing that Obama's phenomenal rise to prominence in the American political system is a vindication of the long-espoused libertarian and democratic values of America; it is a fulfilment of John Winthrop's City on a Hill metaphor. The black man's walking away with the coveted Democratic Party prize is not just Obama's moment; it is America's moment.

To be sure, Barack Obama is no typical African American. He is not even a Jesse Jackson or an Al Sharpton, in terms of progressive ideas and threat to white America. He could not have gone as far had he been. Indeed, he deliberately, meticulously and strategically rejected - not just downplayed - the race card and, in fact, campaigned on race-transcending themes. Even before the history of his campaign is fully documented, journalists and social scientists are commenting on the sheer genius of his political strategy and communications platform.

White-mother issue

But despite the fact that Obama has had to engage in near race-denial - and we are often reminded by the media about his white mother - the fact that a man with so much melanin in him could be acceptable to so many white Americans - including those in the Establishment - is a significant victory and vindication of the Idea of America. I have reminded progressives that in rightly attacking right-wing American foreign policy and in highlighting America's abuse of power in the world and its assumed Manifest Destiny, which cuts across party lines, we must never conflate that with the American people themselves. The American people have, on more than one significant occasion, strongly differed from their administrations.

Obama's victory in the Democratic nomination - to be formalised later this summer - is historic, momentous and telling.

It speaks volumes as to the inroads liberal thought has made in America, much to the chagrin of the right. And in terms of race, the Obama victory shows just how much progress has been made in de-stigmatising black people, though we should by no means accept the naïve view that America is about to enter racial Nirvana. But we must note the victories, even when they are incomplete.

Not ready for female

It is noteworthy that while in a CNN/Opinion Research Corp poll, 34 per cent of adults did not feel America was ready for a female president, only 26 per cent said the country was not ready for a black president. And while Hillary Clinton has been badgered by the press and pilloried - not by any means just because of her gender - the press has been clearly more favourable and deferential towards Obama. Yes, many in the liberal media feel that Obama is the better candidate and the Clintons come with enormous baggage and political liability, but the fact is that in terms of political correctness, which is strong in the United States, race trumps gender any day. It is still far more acceptable to tolerate sexist jokes and to regard them as "nothing really" than to make any joke at all on race.

Had Barack Obama not been a black man he would have been subject to far more scrutiny and criticism than he got from a press known for its fierceness and road-kill attitude, Jeremiah Wright notwithstanding. It is not just speculation that the American press has been more favourable to Obama than to Hillary Clinton. The non-partisan Centre for Media and Public Affairs, in an empirical study showed that from December to mid-February 83 per cent of the network news coverage of Obama was positive, while for Clinton, it was 53 per cent. Mark you, Hillary and, especially Bill Clinton, has been obnoxious, insensitive and inept in communication.

Right wing-dominated talk radio in America is outraged about how the more established media have gone liberal. Thank God, they would say, for Fox News Network. That has helped Barack Obama, but that should not be over played. The fact is that the man has run a brilliant tactical campaign and has been a master of emotional and psychological appeal.

He has tailored his message surgically, touching the heart-strings of a wide cross-section of Americans, particularly those who were turned off and tuned out of the system, those disillusioned and disaffected, those who had lost hope. To come talking about the audacity of hope and dispensing it when it is so scare, to make people believe in themselves again and to resurrect faith in the political project, to inveigh against lobbyists and Washington insiders who are despised as they are feared by ordinary Americans and even some elites; and to motivate the young to recapture their idealism is to win the hearts and minds of many. It is to win the democratic nomination.

If anyone thinks that charisma, inspiration, and the ability to move an audience by words and rhetoric is all fluff and not important, then the Obama phenomenon is all he needs to smell the coffee.

Change and ideas

Writing in the latest issue of the journal Washington Quarterly (Summer 2008) Charles Cook says in an article titled, 'The 2008 presidential primaries: What in America's Name is Going On?', "The appeals (by Obama) were not so much driven by ideology or really by many specific issues, but by the mantra that change and ideas are good and the more the better. Next, add idealism, romanticism, symbolism and the power of a handsome, young, charming, charismatic, even glamorous figure, a modern-day Kennedy with the hope and implied promise of a return to Camelot".

Very significantly, too, adds Cook, a seasoned analyst on Washington, is what has become known as "past partisan" - "an appeal or approach to politics that portrays itself as beyond traditional partisan politics as personified by the Bushes, Clintons and Doles."

The winning formula

It's a winning formula and I believe it is that same formula which will give the old, tired, intellectually decrepit and hawkish John McCain the fight of his over-seven-decade life.

McCain has chosen the worst pitch for his game and he will sorely regret it. To make the old, discre- dited Bush policies on Iraq and Iran his main platform is seriously to misjudge the American people and to make people question his political judgement. At a time when it is clear that the Bush Doctrine has made America more unsafe and more alienated from allies and the international community.

McCain has chosen to push his right-wing foreign policy platform, hoping to capitalise on Americans' fears. But, he is in a time warp. The American people have gone way beyond him. This is not 2004 and the ground has shifted. McCain seems to have forgotten that, in December, the National Intelligence Estimates blew up a major justification for the Bush Administration's polemic against Iran's nuclear programme by revealing that Iran had suspended its nuclear programme since 2003 though it retains uranium- enrichment goals.

That Iran cannot be contained and should not be brought to the table is only believed by a few foreign policy experts. The best minds in foreign policy establishment reject that. In his just-released book, Containment: Rebuilding a Strategy Against Global Terror, the Henry R Luce Director of the MacMillan Centre for International and Area Studies at Yale University, Ian Shapiro, shows that the bulk of the largely young Iranian population supports democratic reform, is pro-Western and has a number of competing centres of power.

Says Shapiro, " The great tragedy is that Iran, perhaps more than any other Middle Eastern country apart from Israel, has the potential to be a force for Western democratic values".

McCain's criticism of Obama that he would "talk to terrorists and enemies" betrays an appalling ignorance of United States foreign policy history and grand strategy. America has always talked to its enemies and strategically engaged - before the arrogant, unilateralist, hubristic Bush Administration. Another excellent book which has just come off the press and which shatters the Bush foreign policy is America Between the Wars - from 11/9 to 9/11 by Derek Chollet and James Goldgeier.

Franklin Roosevelt talked to Stalin and worked with him against Hitler. Saying that Iran is Germany is historical nonsense and propaganda, and Bush is certainly no Churchill! Rather than Obama's policy threatening global security, it is McCain's misguided and historically jaundiced view which does. If Iran, Syria and North Korea are not engaged, then the US security challenges cannot be met.

Intellectual ammunition

Obama has enough intellectual ammunition on his side to blow John McCain off the American political map. McCain will be crushed in any debate between the two. McCain has nothing viable to offer the American people. The international community should hope that the same genius which the Obama team has demonstrated to defeat the Billary campaign will be used to demolish the Republicans in the November elections. The facts, the best arguments and the hope are on the side of the Democrats. Their ability to convert that into victory is another matter. But having proven their prowess, they can go on to an easier target.

The American people seem ready for a new day. They want to see their troops in Iraq home; they want their country to regain the respect of allies and the international community; they want to see their country again committed to liberal internationalism and to a rules-based international system.

They want a return to multila-teralism, not crude unilateralism.

Barrack Obama has promised all that. Can he deliver? He can't do worse than John McCain!

Ian Boyne, a veteran journalist, may be reached at ianboyne1@yahoo.com. Feedback may also be sent to columns@gleanerjm.com.