The Hindu Business Line : US presidential race

The US presidential election this year is being held in the context of widespread public resentment against the Bush Administration and the plummeting ratings of the President himself.

It is not just the understandable failings of any human enterprise that are at the back of the resentment. People everywhere, whatever the country, and whatever the party in the saddle, are willing to judge their government by the efforts it makes in good faith to do the best it can in the people’s and nation’s interest, even if they do not yield the desired or promised results.

Bedevilling the presidency is the sense of deep distrust and even betrayal of all the values that are universally cherished. A feeling has gained ground that it has not kept faith with its people by telling them the truth and has, in fact, taken them for a ride on many matters.

Not merely the American public, but world opinion, was dumbfounded and shocked by the monstrous fibs a la the story of the wolf and the lamb, fabricated for the invasion of Iraq, in violation of international law and basic decency and humanity. The result is an entirely avoidable entanglement whose cost may soon cross a trillion dollars which, in the hands of so many poor countries of the world, would have made for their bright future, ridding them of the scourges of poverty, disease and ignorance.

The miasma of amorality has been fouling up the general perception in other respects as well. Quite a few persons in the higher reaches of the Administration have been either implicated or caught red-handed in highly unsavoury and corrupt activities. In short, the present Administration, in the eyes of the intelligentsia, the media and the people at large, is in pretty low esteem.

Incandescent credentials

A continued hold by the Republican Party on the presidency is extremely unlikely not only from this standpoint, but also because of the uninspiring choice on offer in comparison with the charismatic and dynamic duo of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in the Democratic slate.

For name and fame, and for her political experience both as a former First Lady and the Senator from a very important State like New York, it is hard to beat Ms Clinton; Mr Obama has captured the imagination, especially the Generation Next, by his energy and eloquence. Any day, especially in vivid contrast to the disrepute the Republican presidency is in, their incandescent credentials will put either of them far ahead in the race.

But whether they will be able to make good their claims to be the harbingers of change in the Washington ethos is another question altogether.

All the presidential hopefuls on the stump are also promising to bring about a turnaround in this regard.

Indeed, there is not a single election that I can recall in which the candidates in the field have not grandiloquently talked of getting the Washington setup out of the rut into which it had fallen, and curing the ills and evils flowing from the entrenched lobbies and interests.

The problem precisely is in knowing the nature and content of the change that is needed or possible, and the exact modalities to be adopted for effecting it.

Any change to be seen as substantive and enduring will have to achieve the following: Dismantling the ‘military-industrial’ complex and disbanding the influence-peddlers and ‘five-percenters’; increased measure of public accountability, propriety and probity; respect for the views and concerns of other nations in a spirit of humility; and root-and-branch reform of the encrusted bureaucracy so as to attune it to modern times without its rigidities.

A tall order on every count! Good luck, candidates, and may the best person win!

B. S. RAGHAVAN