America won, Obama has to win over the world

OBAMANIACS UNITE! CNN-IBN panel debates if India has an equivalent of Barack Obama.

                  

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All praises and clichés for Barack Obama are now exhausted. He has made history by becoming America’s first black President; his countrymen expect him to change their lives for the better and the world hopes he will be reasonable and moderate.

Are miracles expected from Obama? What does his victory in the US Presidential election mean for the US, the world and India? CNN-IBN’s Editor-in-Chief Rajdeep Sardesai asked to historian Ramachandra Guha, Dalit commentator Chandrabhan Prasad, Rajya Sabha MP Jay Panda, CNN Correspondent in Delhi Sara Sidner, and Toby Chaudhuri, a Democratic strategist and communications director for Campaign for America’s Future.

Racial divide over in America?

Obama’s election means that Americans who feel disadvantaged or think they have not been given a fair chance get that “extra spark” of hope, said Sidner.

Race relationships have not changed dramatically with Obama’s success but people now feel that they can make something concrete with their hopes and expectations. “People can longer use the excuse that ‘we have been waiting all these years and we don’t even have a black President,” said Sidner.

The most remarkable thing about Obama’s campaign is that he has made race incidental, said Guha. “Through his style of campaigning, through his intellect and persuasiveness of his arguments he has shown that he is far and away the best candidate for President. I think that is really Obama’s victory: he has made race irrelevant.”

US President George W Bush ranks very low in approval ratings and is now being called a lame duck. Did Obama just make use of the anti-incumbency factor and there is no revolution here?

No, there is a political revolution, said Chaudhuri. “Asian-Americans, Hispanics, lots more African-Americans, young voters and single women vote for Obama. This election is not just a change election—a change from the past—but a sea change election,” he said.

America and the world

Obama has earned goodwill across the world, but will he be able to improve America’s standing in the world?

“He will have to,” said Chaudhuri. The global financial crisis and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will compel him to engage with the world.

“People are looking at one another with new eyes in America and the rest of the world is also looking at America with new eyes. All of a sudden America is that shining city on the hill.”