The Hindu Business Line : ‘We can’t let Main Street suffer’

New Delhi, Nov. 5 From a no-experience Senator of just over two years to the President of the US; from the log cabin to the White House; from the Civil War of 1861-1865 to Martin Luther King’s dream; from Little Rock where the federal government used troops to enforce integration in schools to 53 per cent of Americans voting for an African-American; all bringing forth the final denouement of November 4, 2008.

Look at it whichever way, by electing Mr Barack Obama as their President, the American people have written out the first rough draft on which a thousand books will be based. Publishers, amongst a few billion others, will be overjoyed.

Mr Obama received 364 of electoral college votes against 163 of Mr McCain’s.

The whole world has welcomed Mr Obama’s election to the highest office in the US, for just one reason: even two years ago, no one would have thought it possible for a black to become President.

The sheer drama of the unexpected happy outcome, too, has added to the sheen of the election result.

“Hello, Chicago,” said Mr Obama, shortly after his rival, Mr John McCain, had conceded the election, “If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible… tonight is your answer.” Change has come to America, he said in his victory speech.

Referring to America’s economic problems, he said “There are mothers and fathers who will lie awake after their children fall asleep and wonder how they’ll make the mortgage, or pay their doctor’s bills, or save enough for college…The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even one term but…we as a people will get there.”

But he did not say how. He did, however, say “Let us remember that if this financial crisis taught us anything, it’s that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers - in this country, we rise or fall as one nation; as one people.”

Mr Obama’s pronouncements so far on the economic crisis have not been very comforting. He has talked the language of trade barriers as a way of reviving the domestic economy and getting Americans back into jobs.

Wait and watch

India has many reasons to furrow its brows. Mr Obama has spoken of reducing outsourcing, of cutting back on H1B visas, of intervening in Kashmir, and of insisting that India sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).

How far he will go down this road will become clear soon. After that, it usually takes about a year for new Presidents to revert relations to normal. Until then, India can only wait and watch.