By Kurt Davis '09
Columnist

You cannot underestimate the enormity of the election of Barack Obama and what it means for America. America attempts to claim with odd fanaticism that it is more color-blind than the rest of the world. The blood shed and lives lost for the end of slavery, the combating of Jim Crow laws and segregation, and the acceptance of mixed-race unions and the voting rights of all seemed validated more than ever in the past. This election will and should be one marked by excitement for all Americans. With that said, the celebration is over. For those of us who always believed that a black man could be elected president in America and/or voted against our Republican leaning, we are ready to see what president-elect Barack Obama has planned for America.

Under President George W. Bush, America continues to watch its economy sink to lows unimaginable almost eight years ago when former President Bill Clinton walked out of the White House . . . It is amazing how much a President can be missed after you have had a drunk and abusive relationship with another President for eight years. President Bush has run down America’s international standing, accomplishing the unlikely feat of making many Americans question a long accepted idea of American exceptionalism in the world. In the end, America will have lost many aspects of its soft and hard power throughout the world, gaining more foes than friends by the time President Bush makes his final exit from the White House. The exit polls and the shifts in several states’ voting trends display the scale of disapproval this country has laid on President Bush and the chance it is wiling to take with Mr. Obama.

With a victory for history comes the mess of a lifetime. Mr. Obama displayed intelligence and a security in his ability to manage and engage other intelligent people in the choices he has made for cabinet positions and his inside advisory teams. Encircling yourself (all not yet confirmed) with professionals that include Robert Gates, Hillary Clinton, Larry Summers, Tim Geithner, and Paul Volcker signals to America that the Bush patronage system will be uprooted and replaced with a patronage system that, at some level, considers one’s intelligence and qualifications for the position. While this “dream team,” as some commentators have labeled it, may excite many supporters, it is important to remember that similar labels were applied to the cabinet formed after the 2000 election as well.

A failing economy will need more than the confidence engendered by the names placed on Mr. Obama’s economic team. Be careful about stimulus packages, especially with industries that can’t even lay out a viable business model for the future and/or have not turned a true profit in years (excluding the passive income elements of their balance sheets). Pledging tax cuts to 95% of the families in America was a great punch line in the election, but rewriting the tax code will require more than catchy phrases. The code embodies a mishmash of lobbyist and congressional interests that is hard to understand even for the most learned scholars. Rewriting it would be nice, but finding a coalition to push changes through will be hard. Add in the idea of universal health care, more spending on infrastructure, education, energy reform and so on, then top it off with lack of government savings and ballooning debt, and we’re talking about an almost impossible task. The full scope of the economic mess Mr. Obama must deal with will shut down the post-election celebration like the arrival of your ex-mother-in-law at your second wedding.

Internationally, the election of Mr. Obama was welcomed with great excitement but also great opposition. In many cases this opposition took the form of the usual antagonism of some parties. Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev thought it quite necessary to try to overshadow Mr. Obama’s election with a speech that ordered missiles be stationed against NATO’s borders in the Baltic enclaves of Kaliningrad—the former German city—on the Polish border in a naked attempt to reassert Russian nationalism. Al Qaeda has already made it clear that it respects Malcolm X more as a figure than it does Mr. Obama as a person, labeling Mr. Obama the “house negro.”

It should be clear to the most liberal of Obama supporters that some adversaries do not want to sit down at a table and discuss simple differences in policies and beliefs. What Mr. Obama does to combat this type of adversary, and other international problems such as Pakistan-India relations, Palestine, and Guantanamo Bay, will make all the difference.

Mr. Obama is young and intelligent and brings hope to many. Winning support from a good amount of independents and Republicans like me, he can have some assurance in the fact that he has a broad base of support. Still, this broad base cannot be taken for granted. Mr. Obama must still unite America, a country divided on so many issues. His exceptional ability to grapple with rhetoric and symbolism will be helpful, but it cannot overcome the need for detail and specificity.

The voting blocks that will welcome the most basic of change to the White House—removal of President Bush from the Oval Office—is not the supreme or golden coalition that some may imagine. All of Mr. Obama’s supporters will be as disappointed at some point as supporters of any president may be. However, the Democrats and Mr. Obama should be careful not to overstep like the previous party. Tax changes, trade deals, stimulus and bailout packages, and international deal-making—from wars to alliances—will upset some people but hopefully for Mr. Obama not too many. It should be remembered that Mr. Obama’s 52% of the popular vote is not that of a Roosevelt or Reagan landslide. Despite a gigantic financial advantage, 46% of the electorate voted against the Democrats. If anything, Mr. Obama’s victory resembles that of Bill Clinton in 1992 . . . and the Republicans took back the power only two years later.

Mr. Obama must not become too liberal, too much rhetoric without detail, and too much of a nice guy (Remember Jimmy Carter?). It is great to see change come to the White House in the form of a new president. But if that is the only good change, then the hope will quickly crumble along with the coalition. Party control is cyclical and the Republicans may look weak now but that could easily change in seconds. Good Bye Bush and Good Luck Obama.

Email: kdavis@virginia.edu