Click to play videoForty-seven-year-old African-American Barack Hussain Obama was elected President of the United States of America on November 4, 2008.
A year after his election, US President Barack Obama still needs time to turn the myriad campaign promises into policy. Democrats defeated at the hands of Republicans in the race for Governorship in Virginia and New Jersey may just be a backlash of Obama's unfulfilled promises.
The question that was being asked on CNN-IBN's Face The Nation was: Has Barack Obama failed to be the change? On the panel of experts to discuss the issue were: Chairman of the US India Political Action Committee (USINPAC) Sanjay Puri; senior journalist Saeed Naqvi; and former diplomat, K C Singh.
At the beginning of the debate, 70 per cent agreed that Barack Obama had failed to be the change while 30 per cent disagreed.
How much change?
Two crucial governorships of the United States of America – Virginia and New Jersey has been lost by the Democrats. The international image of Barack Obama of becoming the opposite of George W Bush and changing the policies on the ground is in question.
Saeed Naqvi tried to bring into perspective two things. He said, "Sometimes people run away from things that they do not like rather than going to something that they adore. And people in America were tired with two terms of Bush administration and wanted a change. Why not Hillary? Because Hillary smacked of something old. And they went for this completely new face who was credible, plausible, black and who in fact answered the American dream in an exaggerated way almost. Remember, a prophet is not without honour save in his own country. Inside, there is a problem."
Sanjay Puri had a different opinion on this matter and thought that the loss of the two crucial governorships of Virginia and New Jersey was any sign of things to come.
He said, "The expectations on which Obama came in is just as impossible for anybody to meet. Also you have to see the problems that President Obama has inherited – two wars, an economy in shambles and healthcare system that needed fixing – so obviously it's been a year which seems like an eternity but it's not a lot in a political scheme to get things done."
Internationally, Obama is deploying the same tactics of the surge in Iraq. The Palestinians have said that there is no difference in policies of Bush and Obama. Is this simply a Bush building consensus and doing the same policies?
K C Singh deferred in the statement about the international polices of the Obama administration from the Bush administration.
"There is distinct change in the tone of US diplomacy and that change is from unilateralism you have come down to dialogue. Obama set out two special envoys – one for Af-Pak and one for West Asia. He has realised that unilateralism had changed the perception of US abroad, particularly in the Islamic world. Because of the evangelical and Baptist background of Bush and the support that he had in the US, it was becoming almost like a crusade against the Islamic world and Obama's speech on June 6, at the Cairo University is extremely important where he ran across a range of issues with the Arabs."
Obama's only presidential policy achievement in the Middle East has been his speech with the Muslim world.
On this, KC Singh responded by saying, "These are complex issues which are not amenable to simple solutions but the very fact that the tone has changed and the perception of US has begun to be change. He has to keep the pressure up."
Naqvi said, "Much more is happening than is in the public domain as far as we are concerned. The Guantanamo Bay has not been shut down, which was one of Obama's promises, the drone attacks are continuing, random killings are going on. The postulate that Obama put forward of not compromising ideas to achieve our safety doesn't really seem to be holding.
"These are the realities of power. Today you are living in a world of security, international security, and intelligence agencies. Obama simply can't say that he will shut it if he is told that there will be a bombing in New York by his agencies. You do not know what literature is being furnished to him," reasoned Naqvi.
He also said that we should not be judging him too early. He has changed to tone of international diplomacy. "Today in Iran, the people on the street drawn sustenance from the fact that there is Obama in the White House."
The change of tone in international policy is undeniable. What could Obama have done in the policy issues to uphold the image of a "Bush reverse."
K C Singh opined that Obama came as a transformative president saddle with financial crisis at home and inherited the two wars abroad.
"The distinction between Bush and Obama is that Bush left Afghanistan half done in 2002 which allowed Taliban to come back in 2006 where as Obama has brought the focus back to the vortex of terror and that he realises that as an American president he has to ensure that there is security for US and security for the allies and that cannot be achieved if you withdraw troops from Afghanistan," added Singh.
Radicalism vs pragmatism
Obama is coming out not as a radical but as a pragmatist, a consensus builder.
K C Singh agreed on the statement and said that that was the way his leadership was.
"You look at the broad sweep of what he has done. The Prague speech early in his presidency was about global zero, a world without nuclear weapons and he moved on it. He gave instructions to his people, they sat down with the Russians and decided on some cuts."
India was fearing the pressure on Indo-US nuclear deal and nuclear disarmament, but that has not come as of yet.
"It has not come as yet, but various things are moving. Later this month, US is coming out with what is called the Nuclear Posture Review and then he wants a summit before the NPT review which is in May-June next year. Slowly, he is moving the pieces forward," said Singh.
He also said that Obama is espousing climate change and thinks India is an important component in this and had invited our Prime Minister to US to be his first state guest.
"On China he has dropped his idealism because he has postponed his meeting with Dalai Lama, Bush perhaps wouldn't have done it but he has done it pragmatically because he is going China later this month. It is a recognition that for economic issues it is really US and China now," opined Singh.
Sanjay Puri agreed with the assessment of K C Singh but said that we needed to look at the internal politics that is currently taking shape in US.
He said, "His party is against sending more troops to Afghanistan and rely on Republican support in order to carry that forward and internal politics plays a important role in how things shape out. Decision making for Afghanistan is taking a lot of time because he getting inputs from lot of people."
A popular rating of 53 per cent are giving Obama an approval rating. Is it a disappointed verdict or is it a normal rating?
Sanjay Puri felt that he should have been in the 60 per cent rating.
"This is the reality of 10 per cent unemployment factor because they had said that the stimulus would bring the unemployment rate down to 8 per cent and the healthcare debate turned against them to a large extent and that dragged them down," added Puri.
There was a lot of fear when Obama became president that India had to fear from ideological concerns of Obama on disarmament, climate change, protectionism and free trade. Does India need to fear from Obama's ideological concerns.
"India has to fear for only one reason because India went overboard on the Bush factor and that was unrealistic, it was not sustainable. Therefore, it is the reality that real politics will determine our relations.
Final words came from K C Singh when he said, "Bush and Regan were instinctive presidents, for Bush it was love, for Obama it will be friendship."
Final results of the SMS/Web poll: Has Barack Obama failed to be the change?
Yes: 69 per cent
No: 31 per cent
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