Can Obama deliver after poll setback?-Thursday, Nov 4, 2010,

Can Obama deliver after poll setback?

Published: Thursday, Nov 4, 2010, 21:37 IST

Place: Mumbai | Agency: DNA

US President Barack Obama

India will play host to a lameduck US president, crippled by a serious mid-term election setback. Like many of his predecessors, Barack Obama has led his party to defeat, thanks to a weak economy and high unemployment rates.

The Democrats have lost 60 seats in the house of representatives in what is seen as the biggest swing in 72 years. In the Senate, the Democrats lost six seats, but maintain a slender majority.

On the face of it, this could mean that the remaining two years of Obama’s presidency will be tough to negotiate. However, this need not be so. In America’s system of checks and balances, governance does not depend on cooperation between the legislature (Congress) and the executive (the president). In fact, the government often works better when the same party does not control the Congress and White House. Since comfort often leads to complacency, a little friction keeps everyone on their toes.

Obama has his work cut out for him if he wants to prove himself to his country and the world. The US economy is still wobbly, and middle and lower America are still hurting. Added to that is the ever-increasing bill for Iraq and Afghanistan.

Though a pullout has been announced for one and the other is imminent, the war on terror shows no signs of ending. Two recent incidents — the FBI’s apprehension of a man willing to blow up Washington DC’s subway and the ink-toner bombs found in two US-bound planes — shows how close the terror threat is.

Obama’s problem is that he came to power riding a massive swell of hope in a country depressed by the George Bush years. But by the time he took over, the US economy had imploded. This election setback is a message that Americans still don’t see light at the end of the tunnel after more than two years of fiscal and monetary pick-me-ups.

Obama need not despair. Both Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton bounced back from similar mid-term setbacks. The Tea Party movement, for instance, has not done as well as expected and, contrarily, some of the Republican candidates who did win, did so on Tea Party support.

The Tea Party movement is a flank attack on the Republican ethos which the Democrats and Obama might be able to use to their advantage. For countries like India, this election may be good news because there is now a counter to Obama’s protectionist tendencies. Republican administrations have always been kinder to India.