The Hindu Business Line : Obama’s style of leadership

To become the President of the most powerful, affluent and advanced nation on earth at the young age of 47 and to make history by being the first African-American ever to win the coveted prize, and that too by scoring over heavyweights of the likes of Hillary Clinton and John McCain, who had been dominating national politics for far longer periods, is pretty heady stuff by any standards.

“Yes, we can”

Mr Barack Obama’s triumphant advent on the American political scene is no accident, nor is it a matter of luck. He has earned the recognition by virtue of his impressive scholastic accomplishments and appealing personal qualities. No presidential candidate in recent memory had been known for such power of expression, turn of phrase, profundity of ideas and inspirational oratory.

With his “Yes, we can!” he has roused the human spirit to face up to challenges without flinching; it is now being chanted all over the US and the world, and has also been set to music. There is great promise in him of blending the traits of both a man of thought and a man of action.

Endowed with these gifts as he is, Mr Obama has throughout maintained a dignified and modest bearing. He dealt with his political adversaries during the primaries and the subsequent presidential campaign with the respect and consideration due to them, never hitting them below the belt and indulging in personal attacks. He is self-confident without being overbearing, articulate without being off-putting, assertive without being offensive, composed without being dull.

He spurned funding by the government for his presidential campaign, and blazoned a new trail by enthusing large masses of people, both whites and blacks, to make small contributions of five, ten or fifteen dollars according to their capacity to the campaign chest and taking the amount collected thereby close to an unprecedented one trillion dollars.

There is no doubt that the unassailable stature and authority he has acquired as the President will command ready acceptance and the US Congress with his party persons in preponderant majority would be more than willing to assure easy passage to his agenda.

Vital aspect

Mr Obama, as a student of history, will certainly be aware that a gifted and charismatic President does not necessarily become an effective or successful President. Here again, Mr Obama has shown himself a leader with a difference which should enable him to stamp his personality on the presidency.

He has been briskly assembling his team for Cabinet positions and for pivotal and sensitive slots, and the entire process looks like being completed during the interregnum between the election and assumption of office.

The most vital aspect of the process that sets it distinctly, if not uniquely, apart is Mr Obama’s large-heartedness and nobility in deliberately seeking out known critics and political opponents, declaring that he wanted strong personalities with strong opinions around him, as encouraging dissent is the surest way of arriving at the best decisions.

He has made Hillary Clinton, a political superstar in her own right, who, during the primaries, had been hard-hitting in questioning his inexperience, the Secretary of State, the most important post next to the President.

He has retained Robert Gates, a Republican and a George Bush appointee, as the Secretary for Defence. His other selections too, in the objective appraisal of analysts and observers, have met the stringent criteria of calibre and competence.

Thus, when he takes office, not only will the whole Government be in position, but a lot of preparatory work would have gone into hammering out the policies and proposals as also strategies and action plans that will give a flying start to his presidency.

B. S. RAGHAVAN