Obamafication.

Mike Tomasky assesses the recent spur of Obama-hate quite accurately in his piece titled, "Hate Obama? You may not be a racist. But you will be white.".

I am personally not a fan of Obama's public health care. My reason is simple - I do not believe that it is sustainable in the long run. Of course the incumbent health care isn't sustainable either, but the alternative, in my view is just as bad. Especially after the government budget deficit is projected to remain over 1 trillion dollars for the next decade. This is going back to the Regan and Bush sr. era, except now there is an ongoing recession; even if the worst bits of the recession is over, as analysts say, the left over effects are still being felt by the main street.

I digress.

I intend to talk about Obama. When Obama won, the headlines from then can be summarized as A NEW DAWN AFTER AN ETERNITY SPENT IN DARKNESS - darkness here being the Bush Administration. I feel we made a cult figure out of Obama even before the man resumed office. We took his campaign rhetorics and went along with it, expressing our awe at the man's (potential) capacity to right the wrongs made by Bush.

So far Obama's delivery in his promises is going less than impeccably. Guantanamo Bay is still operating (EDIT: Guantanamo won't close by January 2010 - Obama) - even though the trail for the perpetrators of 9/11 has been ordered. US troops are still in Iraq; okay granted the crucial bill was passed, and a ray of hope has emerged, it still doesn't guarantee anything. Afghanistan is still a mess. Pakistan is deteriorating.

Politics aside, US unemployment rate broke into double digits last month, jobs are still being lost, companies are still not hiring, and China continues to peg its exchange rate against the dollars. In a nutshell, eleven months after Obama assumed office, the United States is still being screwed.

Because of the impossible ideals we built around Obama, making him nothing short of a miracle worker, the current state of the world and primarily the US economy is breeding discontent with the Obama administration. We are beginning to doubt his capability - which, I am not questioning, but simply reiterating that thanks to our sky high expectations, whatever Obama does henceforth is not going to be enough. Unless one day we wake to find that unemployment rate has gone down to its natural level, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has miraculously ended, China is allowing the Yuan to float against the US $ etc. Basically, Obama has to deliver us Utopia to silence the critics.

Of course the racial factor will ALWAYS be there. I'd like to give USofA the benefit of the doubt and assume that the race factor is a small proportion of people - mostly prevalent in the white conservative camps. Someone mentioned a very valid point last night on BBC's World Have Your Say. Because Obama is African-American, and because race has been such a highly debated, and controversial issue in the USA, a lot of people voted for Obama simply because he was black. Similarly, a lot of them voted for McCain just because he is white. The speaker actually went on to explain, if instead of Obama it were Hilary Clinton running for presidency, a lot of the feminist advocates would vote for Hilary just because she is a woman. And the alternative is true too.

What I am trying to highlight here is that the post-Obama euphoria is subsiding. And people are beginning to realize that Obama is not a miracle worker. That Iraq and Afghanistan will take time to be mitigated; that the financial crisis will also take time to level out and for the US economy to start growing sustainably again.

Obama needs time.

Whether he gets it or not will most certainly influence the future of world politics.

More edits: Veto of Iraq's Election Law Could Force Delay in Vote, and China Holds Firm on Major Issues in Obama's Visit. More backlash in the horizon? It'd be a shame if Obama is ousted from office even before his first term as President reaches its half way mark. Give the guy some time, world at large. Please?