Letter From America
Obama the conqueror
BE careful what you wish for. Accusing Obama of lacking security and foreign affairs credentials, Senator John McCain had goaded Obama into making the recently concluded 8-day trip to Kuwait, Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Germany, France and the UK. As the world was treated to what looked like an Obama victory tour, McCain was reduced to a whining bystander taking potshots at him.
One had a sense that the tour was going to be a smashing success when, with the cameras rolling and the world watching, Obama sank a 40-footer effortlessly while playing basketball with US soldiers in a gymnasium in Kuwait. Call it the audacity of hoop! In contrast, when President Bush attempted a lay-up on his recent trip to Europe, it was an air ball!
In addition to all the countries Obama visited, John McCain had visited Colombia, Mexico and Canada after clinching the Republican primary victory in March. That he did not create much buzz is not Obama's fault. When major network channels sent their anchors to accompany Obama and report on his trip, McCain lashed out at the press for favouring Obama. Studies have shown, however, that although Obama garners more media coverage than McCain, the media is harsher on Obama than on McCain.
The fact is -- McCain is old news; Obama is a new and exciting face. The networks have a vested interest in covering Obama. When he is on TV, more people watch, ratings go up, and advertisers pay premium rates. This is exactly what happens when Tiger Woods plays golf.
Obama's royal reception abroad was not surprising. Presidents and prime ministers have their own intelligence sources. They know that in all likelihood Barack Obama is going to be the next US president. With that knowledge, they were going to snub Obama at their peril!
Hamid Karzai asked Obama for more US aid. Nuri al-Maliki aligned himself with Obama, saying that American soldiers should be out of Iraq by 2010, much to the dismay of McCain. General David Petraeus gave Obama a helicopter tour of Iraq. The two disagreed on Obama's troop withdrawal plans. King Abdullah of Jordan flew all night from the US to host Obama, and, breaking protocol, drove Obama to the airport himself.
Obama negotiated the mine-field that is Palestine perfectly. He reassured the American Jews by visiting the city where missiles land from Gaza, and the holocaust museum. He assuaged Israelis' concern about Iran's nuclear ambitions. All the Israeli leaders past and present -- Shimon Peres, Ehud Olmert, Ehud Barak (who joked that they have the same name) and Benjamin Netanyahu -- warmly greeted Obama in person. Unlike McCain, Obama took time to visit the Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah.
In Berlin, Obama had two tough acts to follow. Standing by the Berlin wall in 1987, President Ronald Reagan had uttered the famous words: "Mr. Gorbechev, tear down this wall!" In June 1963, President John Kennedy meant to say: "Ich bin Berliner!," or "I am a Berliner!" Instead, he said: "Ich bin ein Berliner!" which can be translated as "I am a jelly doughnut!" in German. According to many Germans, half the crowd cheered, the other half laughed!
Obama captured the current zeitgeist as he talked about his vision of shared responsibilities in an interdependent world, and bringing down the walls of racism, nativism and religious intolerance. The Obamaised (mesmerised) 200,000 Germans, waving American flags, had only cheers for Obama. Observers noted that if McCain had spoken, perhaps 200 people would have shown up along with 2,000 demonstrators!
Although German Chancellor Angela Merkel treated Obama as a head of the state in their private meetings, she did not appear in a joint press conference. Throwing protocol to the wind, French President Nicolas Sarkozy did exactly that. If Obama were to be chosen by the American people, France would be delighted, Sarkozy said. Sarkozy feels a special kinship to Obama because, like Obama's Kenyan father, Sarkozy's father was a Hungarian immigrant to France.
Obama wrapped up his tour in London, where he met the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in 10 Downing Street, and former prime minister Tony Blair and the Conservative leader of the opposition David Cameron in the Parliament Building.
Obama could not have dreamed of a better tour. Globama elicited unbridled Obamania! He looked presidential, and every bit the commander-in-chief. Obama must have bridged or closed the gap with McCain in these crucial areas. American soldiers abroad greeted Obama with wild enthusiasm.
Obama's straddling of the world stage was not to the liking of John McCain. He was continually sniping at Obama. In a cover article, The Weekly Standard, a rightwing conservative publication, had warned McCain that the only chance he had of beating Obama was by attacking him mercilessly. McCain has taken their advice and has begun swift-boating Obama.
Shamelessly, in one ad, he claimed that Obama would rather lose a war than lose a campaign. This was to impugn Obama's patriotism. Ronald Reagan used to say: "I am a citizen of the world" during his speeches at the UN. In another ad, McCain criticises Obama for saying the same in Berlin, with a not so subtle innuendo that Obama is not totally American.
Although Obama visited wounded American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, which he was visiting as a US Senator, on Pentagon's advice he canceled his visit to wounded soldiers in Germany where he was on a campaign tour, so as not to politicise the visit.
McCain pounced on the decision and aired an ad with a blatant lie: "Obama has time to play basketball, but has no time to visit wounded soldiers!" There is a subliminal message even in the mention of basketball: bigots consider basketball a black man's sport.
The Republicans have written the book on negative campaigns. They ran successful negative ads, beginning in 1988, to win presidential elections. They did not let truth stand in the way. Senator McCain has already begun his campaign of distortions, lies and covert racism against Obama. Unless the Obama campaign comes up with a successful counter strategy and antidote to neutralise the shameless lies, Obama's world tour may have been in vain.
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