by B. R. GOWANI
Meg Whitman (left), who ran for California governor, with former First Lady Nancy Reagan (center) and Carly Fiorina, the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard. Fiorina ran for a US Senate seat from California but lost. Not a bad news. PHOTO/Meg Whitman
There are countries such as Somalia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan which are always in crisis, whereas there is one country in the world, the United States, which is always in elections. This time it was the mid-term one. But mind you, the more elections do not mean that the country is more democratic. And that is so true of the US. The corporations spent millions of dollars to get their candidates in office to get laws enacted beneficial to their businesses. Sometime the corporate (current or former) heads would directly seek the office.
The former Ebay CEO Margaret Whitman, a billionaire, spent $160 million (!) in her bid for the California governorship to serve the people. She lost. (Good for the Californians who’ll now have Jerry Brown as their governor.) If she really was interested in serving people, she could have started so many non-profit organizations with that amount of money.
The people fed up with the role of big money in the US should work towards making all the elected positions a one six-year or an eight-year term period, and should propose to hold all the elections (that is, presidential, gubernatorial, and Congressional) at the same time, that is, once every six or eight years. This will save people the trauma of seeing their dreams and hopes being shattered every two years; it will then be a six or an eight year affair. If the common people’s condition were to improve it would have improved more than two centuries ago when the US declared its independence from Britain. The talk of 2012 elections is already in the news.
President Barack Obama
It is very rare that a leader is offered an historic opportunity to do something of significance. On the other hand, it is very frequent that most of the leaders afforded such an opportunity fail* to utilize it. Half of Obama’s first term is over and not much was achieved. Even the health care bill was not that great–and could not be because of the drugs and insurance industries.
At this juncture, it is easy to predict that Obama can’t be reelected. But to say the same thing about 2012, one has to, like economists, support that statement with a qualifier: “All things remaining the same.” However, as we all know things never remain exactly the same. Besides, it can get better or can take a worst detour. And the people in the US know, that the country is in all probability headed for the latter route. Besides, the mid-term election losses are not a new phenomenon; it has happened in the past with both the Democrats and Republicans.
As the 2012 election strategy, Obama, accompanied with all his charm, may choose the Clinton path of “triangulation” by relying more on Republican ideas of less government and balancing the budget. But he should be careful not to underestimate any of his opponents, especially, Sarah Palin who is learning fast the ABCD of politics. Recently in an interview she said she would run for president if no one else was willing to:
“Or whether there’s nobody willing to do it, to make the tough choices and not care what the critics are going to say about you, just going forward according to what I believe the priorities should be.
“If there’s nobody else to do it, then of course I would believe that we should do this.”
No one else willing to do it! As if it is a back-breaking fruit and vegetable picking job in California.
Leaders start worrying about their legacy at the end of their second term. However, in case of Obama, being the first colored president in United States’ history of more than 130 years, it would be advisable for him to start thinking about it as soon as possible, that is, if he really wants to leave one. And legacy requires that he must concentrate on important issues affecting the common people and also minorities related issues.
Obama doesn’t have to worry about the Peace Prize as the Sweden-based Noble committee awarded him one right at the beginning of his term!
One final note: Obama need not worry about the foreign front; he could continue the war on terror because that was not even an issue during the elections.
B. R. Gowani can be reached at brgowani@hotmail.com
*(Iran’s Khomeini bungled up when he took over power after the Shah was overthrown. He indulged in imposing Islamic laws and killing his opponents. Pakistan’s Z. A. Bhutto had the great chance to rein in the discredited military after the break-up of Pakistan in 1971 but instead he strengthened the military by sending it in the province of Balochistan to crush the independence movement. He could have offered more autonomy to that province’s suppressed and neglected people whose grievances were, and still are, genuine.)