A year on from his historic election and the cheers have long since faded. Many of President Barack Obama’s campaign promises remain unfulfilled, and the national unemployment rate is approaching 10 per cent.
It was a night to remember: In Chicago’s Grant Park one year ago, I watched as a giant surging crowd celebrated Barack Obama’s election as the 44th president of the United States.
I can remember the electricity in the air, the anticipation of history in the making, the chants of “OBAMA! OBAMA! OBAMA!”, the tears that streamed down many people’s faces, the roar when the new president elect and his wife and children walked out onto a brightly lit stage.
“This is our moment. This is our time,” Obama declared, “to put our people back to work … to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace … to restore the American Dream.”
This week I returned to Chicago, to stand in the empty, windswept space of Grant Park. The cheers have long since faded. The national unemployment rate is approaching 10%. Many of Obama’s campaign promises remain unfulfilled and he faces what might be the most momentous decision of his presidency: how to fight the war in Afghanistan.
As president, Obama has had bruising political fights over economic stimulus and health care reform.
He has been the target of angry personal attacks from conservatives, in a deeply polarized political environment that hardly represents the kind of change Obama promised.
Mounting job losses remain his biggest domestic challenge. Obama’s public approval ratings dropped sharply for months until inching upward just recently.
On the streets of Chicago today people gave the president a lukewarm rating:
“There was a lot of expectations and it’s probably hard to meet all of them,” shrugged Obama supporter George Takhtayshe. Barbara King defended Obama saying, “He’s done all he can, from the way it started, what he had to go pick up.” But Tracy Theodopoulos complained, “It seems like some of the campaign promises haven’t been met, and I’m a little disappointed.”
Growing impatience
The letdown is not surprising, says University of Chicago analyst Michael Dawson. “The expectations were set way too high,” Dawson told me. “People were expecting a romanticized version of the Kennedy Administration.”
One of those growing impatient with Obama is immigration reform activist Herbert Moreno, who runs education and literacy programs in Chicago’s Hispanic community. Moreno worked for Obama’s election; now he wants action.
“A lot of people are disappointed, especially because we heard those promises,” said Moreno, a 50 year old naturalized American from El Salvador. “We had high hopes for real reform and we’re beginning to feel let down by the no action by this administration towards immigration reform.”
The new president has been warmly received overseas, and even unexpectedly won the Nobel peace prize for his “efforts to strengthen international diplomacy.”
But Obama couldn’t snare the Olympic prize for his home town.
His efforts to break the Middle East peace process deadlock have floundered; and his pledge to shut down the prison at Guantanamo Bay within a year now seems likely to be broken.
The biggest challenge in Obama’s Year Two—and perhaps the rest of his time in office—remains Afghanistan. October was the deadliest month of the war for US troops.
“Theres a real potential for the war in Afghanistan to become the defining moment in Obama’s career, in terms of how he is viewed domestically and internationally,” Dawson says.
With that in mind, the most significant image of Obama--one year on-- may not be from that raucous election night rally in Chicago, but from a somber ceremony at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, last month. Obama silently saluted as flag-draped coffins were carried in procession - a president bearing witness to the return of American soldiers killed in a long war in a land far away.
It was a night to remember: In Chicago’s Grant Park one year ago, I watched as a giant surging crowd celebrated Barack Obama’s election as the 44th president of the United States.
The biggest challenge in Obama’s Year Two—and perhaps the rest of his time in office—remains Afghanistan. October was the deadliest month of the war for US troops.
