The Speeches to the White House

Last Tuesday, on November 4, 2008 Barack Hussein Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States. His way to the White House has been marked by great speeches. I want to start with the keynote address at the Democratic Convention on July 27, 2004 in Boston. It was the first time he and his central message became known to a broader audience beyond the borders of Illinois (not to me though):

There is not a liberal America and a conservative America — there is the United States of America. There is not a black America and a white America and Latino America and Asian America — there's the United States of America.

At the end of 2004 Obama didn't feel ready for running for president in 2008. Within the next 2 years he had changed his mind no longer ruling out to run:

When the election is over and my book tour is done, I will think about how I can be most useful to the country and how I can reconcile that with being a good dad and a good husband. I haven't completely decided or unraveled that puzzle yet.

It was the time when the media recognized his qualifications but questioned his experience to be ready in 2008. But there was no question he was going to play a bigger role in American politics in the future. At the end of October in 2006 the Time had a cover story on "why Barack Obama could be the next President". And the German author Florian Gathmann wrote recently in retrospect (German) to his 2-months scholarship in the summer of 2006 at the Chicago Tribune that there was no way around Obama:

In den folgenden zwei Monaten, die ich in Chicago bei der "Tribune" verbringe, ist an Barack Obama kein Vorbeikommen mehr.

His article "Der Gesegnete" (German, "The Blessed") was released on October 27, 2006 in German newspaper Thüringer Allgemeine, refering to Obama's first name Barack meaning "blessed" in Swahili. On February 10, 2007 Obama finally announced his candidacy giving the guideline for his politics:

That is our purpose here today. That is why I'm in this race. Not just to hold an office, but to gather with you to transform a nation. I want to win that next battle — for justice and opportunity. I want to win that next battle — for better schools, and better jobs, and better health care for all. I want us to take up the unfinished business of perfecting our union, and building a better America.

It's this style of patriotism - loving the country, but looking for ways to perfect it, not ideologically! - that's so atypical for a politician and that impresses me the most.

But on July 7, 2007, when I flew to the US to work for one year in Philadelphia, I still had not heard of Obama at all. It must have been at some point within the next 3 months that I got to know him since I remember being all for Obama already at the Democratic debate at Drexel University in Philadelphia on October 30, 2007.

Eventually, on January 3, 2008 the primary season started - when Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton was still expected to wrap up the nomination of the Democratic party on Super Tuesday (February 5, 2008). But she had a false start with losing Iowa to Obama - and no plan for beyond Super Tuesday.

Obama had it's own struggles with the unwelcome race issue bubbling up incarnated by Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Obama's pastor for 20 years. He could rebut the cliche of the "angry black man" by giving a speech on race in Philadelphia on March 18, 2008. He analyzed that "black anger" and "white resentments" result from historical discrimination and social injustice (and the perception of it) nowadays - and that they have to be taken seriously. But it takes more than talking about the symptoms to fix one single cause. The idea must be to overcome race:

It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper. [..]

This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can't learn; that those kids who don't look like us are somebody else's problem. [..]

This time we want to talk about how the lines in the emergency room are filled with whites and blacks and Hispanics who do not have health care. [..]

This time we want to talk about the shuttered mills that once provided a decent life for men and women of every race, and the homes for sale that once belonged to Americans from every religion, every region, every walk of life. This time we want to talk about the fact that the real problem is not that someone who doesn't look like you might take your job. [..]

This time we want to talk about the men and women of every color and creed who serve together, and fight together, and bleed together under the same proud flag.

Again the central points are 1. perfecting the 2. one America.

At the end Obama secured the nomination as Democratic candidate for the presidential election with the last primaries on June 3, 2008. In the evening he gave his nomination speech in St. Paul with the main focus on reuniting the party after the tough fight with Hillary Clinton. His opponent on the Republican ticket was Senator John McCain who secured his candidacy 3 months before on March 4, 2008.

On a campaign tour around the world Obama introduced himself to international leaders in the Middle East and Europe. The highlight on this tour was for sure his speech on July 24th, 2008 in Berlin to 200,000 people around the Victory Column in Berlin - and the millions in front of the TV screens in the US. Here he put his message with profound references to history not only of Berlin into a global context:

The walls between old allies on either side of the Atlantic cannot stand. The walls between the countries with the most and those with the least cannot stand. The walls between races and tribes; natives and immigrants; Christian and Muslim and Jew cannot stand. These now are the walls we must tear down. [..]

In this century - in this city of all cities - we must reject the Cold War mind-set of the past, and resolve to work with Russia when we can, to stand up for our values when we must, and to seek a partnership that extends across this entire continent.

Unfortunately, it was only two weeks later when so many called for the next Cold War when the conflict for South Ossetia between Russia and Georgia broke out - and called Obama's inexperience to people's mind and his comfortable lead in the polls started to shrink. But while many Western politicians including McCain ("Today, we are all Georgians!") were very fast to blame the Russians while the the sequence of events wasn't actually that clear.

Another three weeks later, on August 28, 2008 Obama accepted the nomination at the Democratic Convention in Denver after choosing Joe Biden as his running mate for Vice President. With the general election entering the critical stage his speech was much more aggressive, but still he did not divide the country but only separated himself clearly from John McCain:

The times are too serious, the stakes are too high for this same partisan playbook. So let us agree that patriotism has no party. I love this country, and so do you, and so does John McCain. The men and women who serve in our battlefields may be Democrats and Republicans and Independents, but they have fought together and bled together and some died together under the same proud flag. They have not served a Red America or a Blue America - they have served the United States of America.

The next day McCain presented Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate for Vice President. In my opinion he chose her to appeal to both disappointed Democratic voters of Hillary Clinton in the primaries and to the conservative Republican base. The surprising choice seemed to work out for McCain by electrifying the Republican base. He even took the lead in CNN's national polls of polls in early and mid September.

It was not before Palin gave two disastrous interviews and especially the economic crisis became acute that Obama gained ground again. McCain was criticized for his crisis management, not having a consistent campaign. He couldn't untie himself from the Bush government, which was hold responsible for the economic crisis, despite his reputation as maverick. As last argument he tried to denounce Obama as friend of a terrorist (because of his alleged connection to Bill Ayers) and socialist (because of his tax plan) while Obama could simply keep a steady hand: In his 30-minutes infomercial six days before the election Obama presented his program without even mentioning Bush or McCain. Simply everything played into Obama's cards. On November 4, 2008, after a nearly flawless campaign of more than 20 months, Senator Barack Hussein Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States and gave his victory speech later in the evening in Chicago.

So what do I expect from the President Obama? Not less than "changing the world"! That doesn't mean he is supposed to fix all problems the US face at the moment or even the world. He will have a hard time to solve only part of them within the next 4 years: tumbling economy, 2 wars, crumbling infrastructure, cracked image in the world, inefficient social security systems and imbalances in the constitutional powers. But I expect him to introduce another tone in US politics, to reach across the aisle not only in the US but also work together with the partners in a multilateral world.

I might be naive but I'm positive this will allow Obama to address the problems. If some of them can't be solved in his first term and not even in a possible second term it still might pave the way for the future. The world isn't just black and white as it was seen in the last 8 years. Obama often showed in the debates or his speeches that he is willing to see gray shades - and hopefully this change leads the world into a bright future :)