by B. R. GOWANI
Always elections
The United States is the only country in the world which is always in the election mode, where when the actual elections are not taking place, then the election campaigns are on, and if not that then either the potential candidates are acting as such or the news media is constantly reminding us about that.
There are good chances that the outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is going to be one of the Democratic Party’s presidential candidates in 2016. At present she is testifying in the Congress about last September’s attack on the US Embassy in Libya in which four US citizens died, including the US ambassador. The carefully cultivated relations Hillary had developed with the Republicans have suffered a setback. Some of the Republican Congresspersons questioning Hillary about her and her department’s negligence, if there was any, in providing enough security to the embassy staff, are themselves the potential Republican presidential candidates.
There are limitations imposed on the presidents by the big campaign contributors, which restricts their ability to achieve some of the things, out of the many, they had promised to the voters. Then there are some presidents who self-impose constrains on themselves for reasons such as not to spoil the chances of those family members who have a plan to run for the highest office. President Bill Clinton (1993-2001) was aware that Hillary will run for the office. And Hillary, if she wins in 2016 or later, will be thinking about their daughter Chelsea.
Obama’s options
Obama shouldn’t have any such problem. Michelle, his wife, has no plan to enter politics. And his daughters are too young. And even if they decide to run, it will be after a couple of decades.
So Obama is free to do lot of things. No doubt, he’ll face many hurdles because the House is controlled by the Republicans.
In the second term, Obama has to deal with the legacy and other issues, including the immigration, gun control, and Palestine.
In this situation, if Obama is genuinely interested in tackling the problems, the only alternative left for him is to use his presidential powers, or the “bully pulpit” in the words of one of his predecessors, Theodore Roosevelt. And by directly reaching out to the people throughout the second term.
B. R. Gowani can be reached at brgowani@hotmail.com