Obama Brings A New Dawn, With A Dash Of Presidents Past
The Age
Saturday January 17, 2009
The US hopes Barack Obama can reproduce the spirit of some of its greatest leaders, writes Anne Davies.
WHEN Barack Obama rises to take the oath of office on the steps of the Capitol next week, he will usher in a new era in America.Sweeping aside the remaining racial barriers now truly seems possible; the US might again engage with the rest of the world in negotiations before it unleashes its power; and the White House will soon belong to a new generation, the BlackBerry/Facebook generation, where everyone participates.What could be more fitting that this inauguration falls close to the 200th birthday of Abraham Lincoln, a fellow politician from Illinois who, by ordering the emancipation of slaves in 1863, set America on its long and sometimes troubled course towards racial unity?For America's 40.7 million African Americans - who make up 13.5 per cent of the population - Wednesday's inauguration will be a moment of extreme emotion. Many will shed tears of joy and relief but also of sorrow for the years of lost opportunities and hardship.Thousands of black churches in America have rented buses to take their people to the capital to be part of this moment.For the rest of America, indeed the world, the new presidency is inspiring.For some it is just the relief of finally seeing the back of George Bush, whose approval ratings have plumbed historic lows.For others, Mr Obama personifies a more united society, one that will take a more global view as it tackles some of the most pressing problems of our age. He is the man who blends race and an international childhood into a single smart yet cool package. Yet he seems somehow like a regular guy who cherishes his family.With such expectations resting on his slender shoulders, Barack Obama is under serious pressure to deliver a truly spine-tingling inauguration speech.It's not just about putting on a good show. Inauguration speeches are powerful political levers that can be used to jolt the nation onto a new track by clearly spelling out a common understanding and galvanising people into a different mindset."Kennedy's inaugural address was world-changing, heralding the commencement of a new American administration and foreign policy determined upon a peaceful victory in the West's long Cold War struggle with the Soviet Union over the world's future direction," says Ted Sorensen, once Kennedy's speechwriter and now a lawyer and historian.Mr Obama was asked last weekend by the American Broadcasting Company's George Stephanopoulos what he had been drawing on for inspiration."You know, I have been reading Lincoln. I am not sure whether that's been wise because every time you read that second inaugural, you start getting intimidated, especially because it's really short," he said.He also singled out John Kennedy's inauguration speech, which Mr Sorensen helped write."When you have a successful presidential speech of any sort, it's because that president is able to put their finger on the moment we're in," Mr Obama said."My focus is to try to be able to describe in simple, plain terms the challenges we face, but then also to let people know I have every intention of working with the American people so that we meet those challenges."Lincoln used his first inaugural speech to reassure the South that he would adopt a hands-off policy toward slavery, even though he personally opposed it, and persuade the southern states to remain in the union. Within weeks, the civil war had broken out after the South fired on Fort Sumter in South Carolina.Four years later, Lincoln gave his second inaugural speech, the one that Obama so admires. It was the last days of a bloody four-year civil war that had claimed 620,000 soldiers and an unknown number of civilians. The South surrendered a month after his speech but the nation was still deeply divided.Lincoln's challenge was to "bind up the nation's wounds" and create "a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations".Kennedy, too, stood at a crossroads, in an era when the Cold War raged and science had made major advances, including nuclear weapons with the capacity to wipe out humanity.Kennedy wanted to harness this extraordinary paradox of American power to both save lives and destroy the planet.Like Barack Obama, he had a vision of an America as a catalyst for "a grand and global alliance" that would "tackle the enemies of tyranny, poverty disease and war itself"."Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country," Kennedy urged Americans from the steps of the Capitol in 1961.But it is Franklin Roosevelt's inauguration in the depths of the Great Depression that seems to most parallel Obama's circumstances.On March4, 1933, Roosevelt soberly laid out for the American people the depths of their country's economic woes, but promised that a restoration of America's fortunes was possible."The only thing we have to fear is fear itself - nameless, unreasoning, unbiased terror which paralyses needed efforts to convert retreat into advance," he said in his famous speech.He then mapped out his plan to get the 25per cent of Americans who were unemployed back to work.Now, facing the most serious economic crisis in post-war history, Americans are frightened again.
© 2009 The Age