Barack Obama's new era of responsibility in a winter of hardship

“In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government, while I shall have the most solemn one to “preserve, protect, and defend it.”

(Abraham Lincoln ; First inaugural address; Monday, March 4 1861)

“On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, urgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war —seeking to dissolve the Union and divide effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came.”

(Abraham Lincoln ; Second inaugural address; Saturday, March 4 1865)

“That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our healthcare is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.”

(Barack Obama ; inaugural address; Tuesday, January 20 2009)

“But I think sometimes that one can intuit what Lincoln—who had no special relish for this kind of thing—believed he was really doing: he was showing his enemies that there could be no compromise and that there was no going back. He was telling them — and what fools they were not to notice this — that he would coldly incinerate Atlanta before he would see the Union undone. He was announcing that his earlier legalistic respect for the “property rights” of slaveholders had been misconstrued as permission for treason, and that he didn’t like being taken advantage of, no sir, not by half. He was spelling it out — in a ‘fiery message, writ in burning rows of steel’, as Julia Ward Howe put it.”

(Christopher Hitchens: Newsweek “The man who made us whole” — Abraham Lincoln)

Whether Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States of America, becomes one of the all time great leaders of the free world is a question that only history will be able to answer with any degree of accuracy. That he is not someone to be taken lightly by those who believe that offering an olive branch is a sign of weakness will be demonstrated far sooner.

Like Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president, Obama inherits a Union that is saddled with enormous challenges and character defining issues that would test the resolve of any president, never mind one who has the added responsibility of being the first African American to reach the White House. A country at war, economic meltdown, climate change, terrorism and, not least, a loss of confidence in the government by not only Americans but the global community as well.

Like Lincoln, Obama will not compromise with those that attack the US on his watch and, as he makes plain in his inaugural speech, while the challenges may be daunting the plan is for America to lead once more.

Yet, in saying goodbye to George W Bush and thanking him for his service to his country, Obama will have realised that circumstances do not always allow a president to pursue those avenues mapped out in election campaigns nor implement the measures promised on the way to becoming commander in chief. In an instance, on 9/11/2001, commercial jet airliners under the control of terrorists started crashing into buildings and hijacked a presidency. Everything that Bush had done before or planned for the months and years ahead was forever transformed into a quest for securing America and responding to enemies, real or perceived. History will undoubtedly judge Bush far kinder than those who, even now, forget the catalyst that turned his presidency into an interventionist campaign that will take some years to unravel.

Notwithstanding, Obama offers hope and a clean slate for all who share his vision of peace and dignity. A “smart power” foreign policy that seeks engagement and partnership ahead of military intervention subject to the proviso that, should the former not prove possible, the latter is not excluded. Like Lincoln, the congressman from Illinois, Obama, the senator from Illinois, will not be found wanting should the safety of the United States come under threat.

The Obama administration recognised and prioritised other global threats that impact on the USA. Energy will be found from sources that reduce her dependence on other regions and climate change policies reviewed. How far they will be able to progress will depend largely on the impact of the financial crisis, which is gripping the planet.

Domestically the plan is to fast-forward civil programmes in an effort to create jobs and kick-start the economy. In terms of the market an acceptance that, while it might be a source of incredible wealth, the realisation that it has the potential to inflict near irreparable harm if left wholly unregulated. Expect a whole raft of new regulations being introduced to safeguard against a repeat of the 2008 market implosion. Whether there will also be a move towards protectionism and away from free trade should become apparent shortly.

Home and away the Obama presidency offers hope and huge expectation from this son of a Kenyan immigrant. What he achieves amid the strictures of prevailing conditions and unforeseen future events, time will tell. That he has forever broken the glass ceiling for African Americans at home and blacks worldwide cannot be disputed.

The response has been acceptance that, while it might not have been one of the all time great inaugural day speeches, it offers hope for change and a new direction for the USA. Wall Street was not as convinced, posting the biggest loss in inaugural day history.

Welcome President Obama — the journey has begun.