Charismatic Obama does it again

Anil Narendra  

Baral Obama registered an overwhelming victory over his Republican rival Mitt Romney and was elected President of United States of America for the second time. Advocate of strong relation with India, Obama is the first non-white President, who has reached the White House. After a keen and expensive electioneering, he succeeded in registering an easy victory over his opponent. Belying the forecast of a victory with a very narrow margin, Obama secured votes in quite a large number in Virginia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Colorado, Ohio and New Hampshire in comparison to the first round. He got 303 votes from vote college of 535, whereas Romney could secure only 206 votes. Pre-poll surveys were indicating a neck-to-neck fight. Famous Wall Street Journal had predicted the victory of Mitt Romney even before the counting of votes. Romney himself has even prepared his speech, but when it was declared that Ohio has elected Obama, things started changing. Within a minute, the whole world came to know that 51-year old Obama would once again occupy the White House and will head the most influential country of the world. The game was changed by the deciding States in this close contest with Republican Mitt Romney, but the margin of victory or defeat in Ohio, Florida, Virginia was one or two percent. Obama’s lead in popularity votes too was one percent. This second victory of Obama was made possible with the support of Afro-American, Latin American, Asian and middle urban White groups. As per American political traditions, Romney conceded to his defeat in Boston and congratulated Obama. After his defeat, thanking the country, Mitt Romney said, ‘the country has elected some one else as the President. I and my wife Anne along with all of you pray for America and the new President...the country is passing through a difficult phase. This is not the time for partisan interests and political slogan...I believe in America, I believe in American people. I contested the elections because I am concerned about America. Now the elections are over, but our principles would remain firm and I am confident that these principles only will continue leading us.’ In fact, Obama was in a position of advantage from the very beginning in this close contest in US Presidential elections. He had the advantage of being the incumbent President of America and Americans have always been historically indifferent in removing their Commander-in-Chief. American voters hardly put their stake on another contestant and it was quite a difficult task for the Republican candidate Mitt Romney to persuade the voters in his favour. Romney was pitted against a President, who had been popular even in the face of bad US economy. In fact, if we look at the US Presidential elections since the end of the Second World War, then we will realize that only three incumbent Presidents lost the elections. These are: Gerald Ford (1975), Jimmy Carter (1980) and George W Bush (1992). Of these, two didn’t have any mass following. Ford was the Vice-President under Richard Nixon and he became President after Nixon resigned. He failed to create a mass-base for himself, because he never conducted any election campaign for the post of President. Former Vice-President George W Bush was dependent on the supporters of his former boss President Ronald Reagan and unfortunately, he had to face charismatic Bill Clinton at a time when the cold war had just ended and a new technological field had just developed in the new economy. Carter was the only President, who had a real mass following. But, he was defeated by Ronald Reagan, who was the most charismatic President after the War. Obama is neither Jimmy Carter or George Bush or Gerald Ford. He has also not won the elections on the strength of any former boss. He is a charismatic and inspiring orator and he continues to be the favourite among the Americans. Under such circumstances, it was not that easy to defeat him. We congratulate President Barak Obama and hope for stronger Indo-US relations.