Letter From America
Changing face of 'Obamarica'
AS president-elect Barack Obama selects his cabinet in preparation to hit the ground running, Americans are adjusting to the expectation that things will be different and better come inauguration day in January.
Transition from the Bush to the Obama presidency has the look of the fastest and the smoothest transition in history. With the nation mired in a deepening financial crisis and the current president abdicating his responsibilities, Obama realises that he has no time to waste.
Within a week of his election as president, Obama appointed former Democratic congressman and Bill Clinton aide Rahm Emanuel as his filter -- the White House chief of staff. Emanuel is well known for his sharp elbows; his job is to keep in check the irrational exuberances of the congressional Democrats.
Obama advisor Eric Holder, an African-American, who was a deputy attorney general under Bill Clinton, has been offered the attorney general's job. If confirmed by the Senate, Holder will be the first African-American attorney general. Obama has also tapped former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle as his Health and Human Services secretary to navigate his health care plan through the congress.
Obama supporter Governor Janet Napolitano of Arizona will be the next secretary of Homeland Security. Obama hopes to keep the current Secretary of Defense Robert Gates for a while. Expect Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico, the nation's leading Hispanic and a crucial Obama supporter, to land a big job.
The markets are closely watching Obama's pick for the Treasury secretary. Any wrong move here could be disastrous. That is why Obama is taking his time. The choice is between the Treasury secretary under Bill Clinton, the brilliant economist Lawrence Summers, who was also the president of Harvard University between 2001 and 2006, and Timothy Geithner, president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank. Women's groups are opposing Summers because of his 2005 comment implying that men were more scientifically inclined than women.
However, the real buzz is about Hillary Clinton's possible appointment as the secretary of state. Many Obama faithfuls worry that Hillary will use her position at State as a springboard for her presidential bid in 2012 (were Obama to fail as a president) or 2016, and, therefore, will not be a team player.
Such logic misses several points. By fighting Obama to a virtual draw in the Democratic primary, Hillary Clinton had earned the right to be his vice-president pick. Even after she was passed over for the VP slot, Hillary Clinton (and Bill Clinton) campaigned tirelessly to get Obama elected, especially in states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Nevada, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida, all of which Obama won. Obama owes the Clintons a lot and should offer Hillary any position she desires.
As Hillary is being vetted, Bill Clinton said that he would open up all files of the Clinton Global Initiative to help the process along. It must be remembered that there is very little policy difference between Obama and Hillary. The point Hillary was making during the primaries is that she had more experience to be the commander-in-chief. For the sake of argument, if Hillary were to undercut Obama, Obama can fire her right away.
Then Hillary will be out of a job (she has to resign her Senate seat to be the secretary of state). Hillary will serve Obama loyally and will be an excellent secretary of state. What is refreshing about Obama is that he is so confident of himself that he is picking extremely talented people to be members of his cabinet.
The contrast between Obama and George W. Bush could not be starker. By admitting George W. Bush, Yale and Harvard universities have done enormous harm to America. The children of ordinary citizens have to be geniuses to be admitted to these two premier universities. Yet, even though a C student, George W. Bush was admitted to Yale because his dad, George H. W. Bush, was a Yale alumnus, and his grand-dad, Preston Bush was a senator from Connecticut.
Bush graduated from Yale as a C student in 1968. Although the University of Texas Law School refused to admit Bush in 1970, astonishingly Harvard Business School admitted him in 1973. Bush graduated as a C student from Harvard. Clearly, as subsequent events demonstrated, Bush did not learn much, and famously remained "incurious" about world affairs.
If Yale and Harvard were not on Bush's resume, and if Bush had bounced around six low level colleges like Sarah Palin did, people would have questioned his intellect. Since Bush was given a pass because of his Yale and Harvard diplomas, the nation paid an enormous price over the last eight years for his incompetence and intellectual inferiority.
Obsession with worshipping the inferior has become a systemic disease of the Republican Party. The Republicans worship George W. Bush, who has difficulty stringing together more than a few sentences in English; Sarah Palin, who does not make much sense a lot of times; and "Joe the Plumber," who is neither an average Joe, nor has a plumber's license!
The Republican Party appeals to the prejudices of the working class whites, and persuades them to vote against their economic interests. The Republican Party caters to the needs of the wealthy; the Democratic Party looks after the interests of the poor. Yet, poor whites have been brainwashed by the Republican talking heads, who transformed them into ditto heads who vote on "cultural" issues; that is, they vote for the party of the whites, the Republican Party! According to the New York Times, some whites in the south are upset that a black man, president-elect Barack Obama, will be "lording over us." There does not seem to be much room for the eggheads in the Republican Party.
This is too bad. The whole country and the world are moving forward. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had predicted 45 years ago, more and more people will be judged not by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character. It appears that some whites in the southern states of America are clinging to their prejudicial past and falling behind.
If the Republican Party leaders do not wake up fast, with young and moderate whites, Hispanics, Asian and African Americans shunning it, the Republican Party will shrink to a regional party of the South. Latest polls show that 61% of Americans have an unfavourable opinion of the Republican Party.
These days, Americans are excited about Obama's inauguration and the prospect of an Obama presidency. Every time Obama's name is mentioned in a public meeting or on a TV talk show there is spontaneous applause.
According to newspaper reports, thousands of "Obama babies" are on the way! (How do they get this kind of information?) Americans celebrate happy events in a productive, or shall we say, reproductive way. Nine months from the election night, the "Obama babies" will hit the earth!
Such events are not unprecedented. Thousands of "Kennedy babies" arrived approximately nine months after Senator John F. Kennedy's election victory in November 1960. One baby in particular was born almost exactly nine months later, on August 4, 1961. His name is Barack Hussein Obama!
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