51. ... Welcome Obama

by FOO YEE PING, The Star

Barack Obama is showing a slip on the polls but the momentum is heightening as the battle for the White House gets top ratings everywhere. Will it be goodbye Bush, hello Obama? Americans will decide in less than eight weeks.

It's been called the ultimate reality show, Made-in-America (where else), and as the world awaits who gets voted off, the glitter of the main star attraction seems a little less shiny for now.

Democratic contender Barack Obama, taunted by the John McCain campaign as the biggest celebrity on earth, isn’t occupying the prime spotlight currently; a mother of five from Alaska seems to have stolen the thunder, at least for the moment.

But a largely pro-Democrat audience who turned up for a Tuesday talk, Inside the News: Race and the Race, organised by The New York Times, was clearly rooting for their man.

“It’s not that we are desperate for a black president, but we want justice,” said an African-American woman during the Q and A.

Alluding to last week’s Republican National Convention which was attended mostly by white delegates, she asked: “Was that America?”

To her, the Democrat Party was more reflective of the diversity of the United States.

But in reality, there are only 10 states that are in play in the general election. These are the swing states, among which are Michigan, Colorado, Wisconsin, Missouri, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

“We are not seeing the campaign the way the swing states see it,” said NYT op-ed columnist Gail Collins. For example, New York, a true-blue state, will hardly see Obama and his Republican nemesis John McCain in the next few weeks before election day.

The two African-Americans on the panel – professor of humanities Henry Louis Gates Jr and NYT columnist Bob Herbert – felt that Obama had not “connected” with the working-class American yet.

According to Gates, it was too simplistic to dismiss a white voter as racist if he did not pick a black candidate.

The point is: create empathy and convince people that he is on their side; these voters are waiting to be wooed.

“It is incumbent upon Obama to do what John F. Kennedy did in West Virginia,” he said, turning to 1960 history when Kennedy, a Catholic, won the support of the mostly Protestant state.

Herbert, declaring that he did not trust most polls, said he believed that Obama was even further behind McCain than was reflected in the surveys now.

He said Obama must pursue the working-class American who has to struggle in these days of an economic slump.

“He has not done so in a compelling way. There is still a certain stiffness and reservation in him, an almost professorial approach from him,” he said.

In that sense, Gates said, “looking back, Hillary Clinton would have made a better candidate.”

“The working class responded very well to her. Obama hasn’t found his voice yet,” he said.

Both panellists – Obama supporters – felt that although Hillary seemed cold at the beginning of the primary campaign she later became very effective in conveying the message that she felt the pain of those struggling over bread and butter issues.

“She would have also done better in distinguishing her job and policies from McCain’s,” Herbert said.

Still, it was a credit to the Obama campaign for succeeding in snatching the nomination from Hillary, which was hers to lose.

Obama, Herbert said, should have however steamrolled ahead now with his adorable family, projecting the image that he knew about raising a family and getting to college.

The US media has scrutinised speeches made at the recently concluded party conventions and found that Republicans mentioned God most often, followed by words such as taxes, change and business.

Democrats, on the other hand, spoke most frequently about “change”. Other oft-used terms were McCain, energy, Bush and jobs.

Gates, on his part, found it odd that Obama made no mention of Martin Luther King Jr during his address at the party convention, although that day was the 45th anniversary of the civil rights leader’s famous “I have a dream” speech.

These days, nothing about the candidates escapes public scrutiny.

Body language is one favourite subject.

“When Sarah Palin and John McCain make an appearance together, there’s always a brief hug, but no kissing,” late-night show host David Letterman joked.

“It’s just like Bill and Hillary.”

Democrats, who have been chanting “eight is enough”, simply can’t wait to bid farewell to the two terms of the Bush administration.

Will it be goodbye Bush, hello Obama?

Americans will decide in less than eight weeks.