Obama: Renewal of America's Promise
From time to time, just when it seems they have run out of the world's goodwill, America pulls a surprise out of the bag. Last November, with two inconclusive wars still in progress and the world gripped in the downward spiral of financial crisis, Americans elected Barack Obama to the presidency. And the world has simply fallen in love with the man and the American Way once more.
Millions crammed Washington D.C., many of them traveling for days to be an anonymous face in the crowd. But that is not what is truly impressive: billions of people around the world watched the proceedings, feeling they were truly part of the celebrations and the hopefulness. This was a spectacle unprecedented in its reach, its impact and in its profoundly unifying themes. The Obama inauguration theme was Renewal of America's Promise - one that resonates not only with the American people but with the world's.
During the last few decades it has been quite fashionable to fault America: for its wastefulness, for its bullying, and sometimes for its stupidity. But over those same decades, we have realized that when America is weak the rest of the world cannot be strong. Barack Obama ( a technopile, a man of color, a politician of soaring rhetoric ) brings a refreshing new look into what is possible in the world we share. At a time when there seems to be a surfeit of despair, Obama personifies that gnawing suspicion that the world could be a better place - but only if it is better led. However, the expectations on Obama could be too large. He could not, after all, walk over water. But we all desperately need to imagine him to be greater than he could possibly be. For our own sake.
