Obamania - Triumph of America
06-11-2008

Kaushik Thinnaneri Ganesan

Living in the same city as Barack Obama is just another reason for me to have supported him, but by far, the least important. When I started following American politics a good many years ago, in India, one of the most enduring memories was of George Bush's not-so-bright-nature and America's "Big Brotherness", not much more.

As I sit here today, working in a financial firm in downtown Chicago, at the time of the worst economic crisis to hit both America and the world for more than just one generation, I realize that I have come a long way from Chennai to Chicago, not just in distance. The last few months have been filled with interesting discussions about who America's next President might be, and how it would impact Americans and the world.

Agreed, the USA is no way as strong as it has been for the past century, in influencing the world. America has shown signs of weakness, and other countries are growing more rapidly than America ever did. Still, make no mistake; America is the most dominant global player in today's increasingly volatile world.

That George Bush has totally messed around with the Office of the President of the United States of America is well-known to everyone, including John McCain and most other Republicans. Still, this (mis)match of a statesman like Barack Obama and a war-veteran like John McCain made little sense to me, as most others.

With all due respect to Mr. McCain's credentials on foreign policy (which is just about the only thing he has been hankering on, for most part of his "campaign"), he is, by no means, qualified to play such a dynamic and multi-faceted role in deciding the affairs of such an important nation, that too, in a period of global turmoil.

The disparity was striking -- on the one hand, we had a well (ivy-league)-educated gentleman from a diverse background, with a calm demeanour, impressive stature and solid plan of action to tackle the current crisis and on the other, we had a self-described maverick 72-year-old known to have a not-so-calm temper with not much education (if any, it was military).

Obama exuded a passion on serving the nation not seen before, at least by this generation. His election slogan "Yes We Can", though reminiscent of Kamal Hassan's Unnam Mudiyum Thambi, meant much more than the fancy slogan it sounded like.

I will, for briefness' sake, not go into the details of each candidate's policies or what he planned to do, but one striking aspect as far as policies are concerned is that while Obama's campaign genuinely covered what he planned to do via concrete measures, McCain's, for most part, revolved around ill-directed attempts at maligning Obama. Seriously, Bill Ayers?

If Obama sat on the board of an anti-poverty organization along with Bill Ayers, a once-upon-a-time local terrorist now a distinguished Professor of Education at a premier university in America, how in this wide world can that be an issue to question Obama's character? I was more than just baffled.

But to me, the choice of both candidates' Veeps was a classic highlight of their personas. Obama chose a well-educated, experienced man capable of taking independent informed decisions backed by strong knowledge. McCain chose a hockey-mom (pit-bull with a lipstick, if you like) with little or no foreign policy experience, someone who got her passport only 2 years back and who is supposed to have said that dinosaurs existed 4000 years ago.

Oh yes, she also said that her state's (Alaska) proximity to Russia gave her foreign policy experience. Whew, and there's more I won't take the pains to elaborate now. Simply, this choice that each candidate made, showed his thinking. Obama was sincere and wanted to have good strong experienced backing, McCain went for someone who (he "thought") would fetch him votes.

A friend of mine countered me saying Obama's choice of Biden was to attract the old white population, and that John Edwards would have been the better choice. Possible, still, there is nothing wrong about Biden's candidature and I am sure he will be a very apt Vice President to Obama.

And as the days went by, it became more and more obvious how important education is. For someone like me who came to the US to pursue his Master's, I did not really associate "education" to instilling good thinking power and etiquette as much as when I saw how Obama-Biden performed, compared to how badly McCain-Palin did.

Accepted, I cannot generalize education's impact on thinking and etiquette, still, here the influence was unmistakable. Ultimately, I might seem (and probably am) biased. I am probably even not as well-informed as one ought to be, but this much information and knowledge I have acquired over the past few months has convinced me enough that America needs someone like Obama.

McCain may be well-meaning in wanting to be American President, but unfortunately, we have an easily better candidate at hand. It was only befitting of the man that he made it to the Oval Office the way he did. Here's to the first African-American President of the United States of America.

In the end, America deserved Obama as much as Obama deserves America - not many people in the world could have said it more beautifully than Obama himself - "If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer."

And in case any of you thought I voted for Obama, No, I am still an Indian passport holder and will, in all probability, never get to vote in an American election, but isn't it fair that as responsible citizens of ONE world, we have well-informed opinions on issues of global importance for Lokakshemam?

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