The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Barack Hussein Obama was right. ÒAmericans . . . still believe in an America where anything is possible.Ó And they have just proved it to the world by sweeping him into the White House. They voted to break with George W. BushÕs sorry legacy and to restore a nationÕs pride and self-confidence in what the charismatic Obama calls Òthe fierce urgency of now.Ó Americans on Tuesday reshaped their very history, born in freedom and slavery, by electing their first black president, in a gesture of reconciliation and redress that left many weeping with joy Ð and relief. In handing not only the White House but also Congress to the Democrats, they also rebuffed the powerful Republican neo-conservative ideology that has dominated their political life since Ronald Reagan first won election back in 1980. For John McCain, the decent old Republican warrior, defeat is bitter but not shameful. Americans craved change after BushÕs reckless imperial presidency, and the damage he did to U.S. interests by invading Iraq on a lie and by throwing legal rights to the winds. They recoiled from his careless governance that allowed New Orleans to sink and the Wall Street credit crisis to go viral. While most Canadians cheered for Obama over McCain, Prime Minister Stephen Harper may have less reason to celebrate. In Bush, Harper had an ally on such issues as the Middle East, free trade and go-slow efforts to curb climate change. Under Obama, the US may tilt in very different directions. Democrats likely will push for protectionism and a ÒthickerÓ border that impedes the flow of people, goods and services. Harper may face pressure, as well, to keep troops in Afghanistan past our 2011 exit date. But Canadian concerns were the last thing on U.S. minds Tuesday. How far Obama can meet the dizzy expectations he fanned during the $2 billion race for the presidency is uncertain. At root, his instincts both in terms of American domestic and foreign policy are more Main Street than revolutionary. He has no magic formula to heal a slumping U.S. economy and make good on $1 trillion in promised tax cuts and new spending, much less to improve AmericaÕs image abroad by successfully concluding wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, exorcising Islamist extremism, weaning the U.S. from its Mideast oil addiction, containing IranÕs nuclear ambitions or cooling a warming planet. It will be a hard slog. And from day one he will face painful choices: How much tax relief and spending can the nationÕs broken budget absorb? How much mortgage relief? How much for health care, education, infrastructure, green initiatives? And how far does he dare disappoint?
