Opinion

Bimpe Archer: Obama presidency fell far short of early promise

Barack Obama - great singer but what did he achieve? 
Barack Obama - great singer but what did he achieve?  Barack Obama - great singer but what did he achieve? 

SO today Barack Obama’s presidency of the United States officially ends.

Regular readers of this column will know that I have never been his biggest fan. If that comes as a surprise to the rest of you, fear not, you’re in good company. My husband was similarly nonplussed at my outrage during a parlour game when he was trying to guess `my biggest hero’ and he suggested America’s 44th president.

I don’t think he was racially profiling my tastes (why would one mixed-race idealist not admire another who had made it to one of the most `powerful’ jobs in the world?). I’m sure it was more a case that he was desperately casting about for the most heroic figure in the world at the time (parlour games do tend to ramp up feelings of anxiety and desperation).

Let’s face it, there are slim pickings these days and Obama has been the go-to guy for those who do not believe liberal is a dirty word.

But I’ve long felt that has been a trap of lazy thinking which people have fallen into because of what Obama represents – America’s first black president - rather than what he actually did. Now, as his presidency ends, a clear-sighted look at it shows it fell far short of what that early optimism promised.

He soared to power borrowing the rhetoric of the civil rights movement and tapping into that hope.

And it was not simply the hope of African-Americans, but also those voters concerned for the legacy they will leave future generations, in one rousing speech claiming: “We will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment… when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.”

I don’t blame him for his hyperbole. No election has ever been won by the person who candidly admits: “I’m going to give it a go, but, being optimistic, we have a 50/50 chance of achieving anything on this manifesto, and the law of unintended consequences means even what we do manage to get changed may cause more damage in the long run”.

[Can you tell this idealist is somewhat jaded?]

He has been attacked for failing to hold to his famous `red line’ over Syria, with the deployment of chemical weapons by President Assad’s regime met with complete inaction by the US.

While that is at best embarrassing and at worst a complete dereliction of moral responsibility to the killed and maimed of Aleppo, we have no way of knowing what horror the alternative – military action – would have unleashed.

There are no easy choices when dealing with a ruthless disregard for humanity on that scale.

I do not intend to traduce Obama here. I said I wasn’t his biggest fan, not that I dislike the man. There is nothing to suggest he is not a thoroughly decent man who did the best that his limitations and those placed upon him permitted.

But I do get frustrated when those limitations are wilfully ignored in favour of myth by the very people who would excoriate any other president with his record.

Research by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism show more than 7,000 people were killed during Mr Obama’s tenure by military drones in what under his watch has turned war increasingly into a high stakes computer game.

It believes almost 900 have been civilians, including as many as 110 children.

I know had that been done under George W Bush’s watch it would have played very differently in the popular narrative. He oversaw the killing of a relatively small 174 reported civilians in 58 strikes and yet missed out on the Nobel Peace Prize won by his successor.

The same people who denounced Bush as a warmonger fall over themselves to talk about how `cool’ Obama is, with his soul singing and mic dropping.

Perhaps, but there are questions to answer there too.

Obama’s style has launched a thousand internet memes and gifs, but surely we should expect more of a leader than that he be a mere cipher for his race.

Yes, there should be more people of colour and women leading the countries of the world. But they should be leading them to a better place.

Still, when you consider who is taking over that particular top job, while Obama may not have achieved what was hoped for, at least what he represented was positive.

Such is the world today, maybe that is all we can truly hope for in our leaders.

@BimpeIN