Obama's win is unlikely to catapult anything at home or outside but that forecloses a possibility of a potentially more adventurist, militaristic and rightist drift of US policy for the moment.
To me, the defeat of the Republicans in US election was sealed the moment they chose an extreme right man as the running mate for the presidential candidate Romney.
Yet people kept doubting and by the time of the first presidential debate, Obama's apple-cart appeared to be all but upset.
Even then, it was hard to believe that people would go and cast their ballots not by the consistent postures on policies that mattered on lives and well-being of people but by the body language and so on in one or few debates.
Even then, elections are elections and no prediction before completed vote counts is infallible.
Now that Obama has triumphed to gain a second term, little seems to change for the US and for the world. But what is more important is that both US and the world are now saved from some dangerous policy changes at Washington that were highly likely in case of the different result in these polls.
Many in the US and beyond who believed Obama meant real change were disappointed over his first term. His omissions in so many potential avenues for change and his vulnerability to sabotage and impediment from the right were seen as his main drawbacks.
That disappointment was, however, far from enough to unseat a president who, even though belatedly, ratcheted up the populist slogans of fighting for the middle class in America. This along with the bewildering nonsense from the rivals like the issue of 'legitimate rape' and '47%' remarks really helped Obama given the fact that no corporate money could buy the voters who saw a real threat to their lives in case of a Romney win.
In strategic sense, I believe, Obama's win serves a purpose contrary to the ordinary belief. Understandably, a more militant Fergusonian Republican administration waging war here and showering missiles there would have given a more palpable sense of military superiority. But the Bush-era drainage of economy by the wars that was followed by the economic downturn shows that, America also has a limit a stretch beyond which becomes definitely counterproductive. In this sense, one more term for Obama might have well decelerated the decline of the American power.
Finally, there was an eerie parallel between these election results and those in the bitter rival of US in the South America, Venezuela. There, a united and reinvigorated opposition was rather unconvincingly predicted to upset Chavez because anti-incumbency in face of dwindling economy and rising crimes was supposed to play a crucial role. At the end, however, Chavez won with a comfortable majority reasserting that voters were not wary enough of the pro-poor Chavez to dump him in favor of a less tested opponent. In US also, the undoubted gains made by Romney after the first presidential debates made many to believe that Obama was thus a one-term president. Yet Obama's victory shows the voters, even though somewhat wary of a clumsy and compromising Obama, were not ready for a more militant adventurism of the Republicans.
Obama thus deserves four more years of presidency. Let's hope more sanity will prevail in his second term, both in domestic and foreign policy issues.
To me, the defeat of the Republicans in US election was sealed the moment they chose an extreme right man as the running mate for the presidential candidate Romney.
Yet people kept doubting and by the time of the first presidential debate, Obama's apple-cart appeared to be all but upset.
Even then, it was hard to believe that people would go and cast their ballots not by the consistent postures on policies that mattered on lives and well-being of people but by the body language and so on in one or few debates.
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| It's Obama indeed! Even Fox News says so! |
Now that Obama has triumphed to gain a second term, little seems to change for the US and for the world. But what is more important is that both US and the world are now saved from some dangerous policy changes at Washington that were highly likely in case of the different result in these polls.
Many in the US and beyond who believed Obama meant real change were disappointed over his first term. His omissions in so many potential avenues for change and his vulnerability to sabotage and impediment from the right were seen as his main drawbacks.
That disappointment was, however, far from enough to unseat a president who, even though belatedly, ratcheted up the populist slogans of fighting for the middle class in America. This along with the bewildering nonsense from the rivals like the issue of 'legitimate rape' and '47%' remarks really helped Obama given the fact that no corporate money could buy the voters who saw a real threat to their lives in case of a Romney win.
In strategic sense, I believe, Obama's win serves a purpose contrary to the ordinary belief. Understandably, a more militant Fergusonian Republican administration waging war here and showering missiles there would have given a more palpable sense of military superiority. But the Bush-era drainage of economy by the wars that was followed by the economic downturn shows that, America also has a limit a stretch beyond which becomes definitely counterproductive. In this sense, one more term for Obama might have well decelerated the decline of the American power.
Finally, there was an eerie parallel between these election results and those in the bitter rival of US in the South America, Venezuela. There, a united and reinvigorated opposition was rather unconvincingly predicted to upset Chavez because anti-incumbency in face of dwindling economy and rising crimes was supposed to play a crucial role. At the end, however, Chavez won with a comfortable majority reasserting that voters were not wary enough of the pro-poor Chavez to dump him in favor of a less tested opponent. In US also, the undoubted gains made by Romney after the first presidential debates made many to believe that Obama was thus a one-term president. Yet Obama's victory shows the voters, even though somewhat wary of a clumsy and compromising Obama, were not ready for a more militant adventurism of the Republicans.
Obama thus deserves four more years of presidency. Let's hope more sanity will prevail in his second term, both in domestic and foreign policy issues.
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