The Audacity of Hype: Why Obama’s strength has actually been his weakness

20 January 2009. Can it really be a year since Barack Obama’s inauguration? I remember it with such clarity. I was so inspired and for the first time in years I could visualise a better future. One year on, does it still look so rosy? Sadly no. The poor guy has been beset by baying masses throwing tea parties on Pennsylvania Ave, Republicans rising up against his proposals and the Democrats rebelling. His approval rating fell to 47 percent in the latest Gallup poll – the lowest for any president in recent history. 2012 midterms are looking in the balance. But why?

In my view his big problem has been the gap between his rhetoric and the reality. Obama is an excellent communicator, possibly the best speaker the White House has known in the televisual age, but ultimately it is this incredible presentation style and statesmanlike manner that have shot him in the foot. He is just too good at the talk.

This is the curse of the great orator. That man can talk BIG, but his calls for massive, transformative change have been followed up with watered down actions that are disappointingly twentieth century. While he describes himself as a postmodern – even feminist – man, his presentation style is actually more befitting of the archetypal heroic alpha male. And a hero is what America thought they were getting: someone who would single-handedly kick butt with the economy, win wars and revive America’s flailing spirit.

Ronald Inglehart describes this as the “Authoritarian reflex” that triggers a need for a hero, he says: “Rapid change leads to severe insecurity, giving rise to a powerful need for predictability. In secularised societies, severe insecurity brings a readiness to defer to strong leaders, in hopes that superior men of iron will can lead their people to safety. This phenomenon frequently occurs in response to military defeat or economic or political collapse.” (Inglehart, 1997: 38)

Let us not forget, he took over at a time of both economic and political collapse in the US. And while he readily promised a return to the good old days of the American dream, the reality is that he could never deliver on such a promise, at least not in his first year. The kind of change he called for – for a better America, and therefore a better world – can also not be achieved without the people taking some responsibility for change too. I don’t think that voters realised that their actions would be a central part of making change a reality. In finding comfort in his big words, we forgot that Obama is still only human and even if he had balls of steel he could not drive through massive change alone.

Personally I don’t think he’s done a bad job considering the poisoned chalice that he was handed by Bush and the ongoing display of utter vitriol that he receives from his (many) critics. It must take some fortitude to handle with grace such a cascade of criticism that calls you a nazi, a communist, and casts aspersions on your race and religion. So I’m choosing to look back on his first year with delight rather than despair for the following reasons:

• He made a good start with the plans for Guantanamo releases.
• The fact that nuclear disarmament is even talked about in the White House is amazing.
• He got in quick with his commitment to ban torture by US soldiers.
• He is attempting healthcare reform. If you’ve seen Sicko, you’ll know America needs that.
• He made an optimistic extension of the hand of peace to Iran.
• It is a relief to have a president in power who accepts that climate change is a reality.
• The core of his economic renewal plans rely on a surge of green jobs.
• While Cop(out)hagen was a disaster, at least he was there. The Republicans would have boycotted the talks.

Here’s to a better 2010 for Obama. Let’s hope he can use his superior communication skills more sparingly next year and focus on the job in hand. Let’s celebrate the path for change that he is forging if for no other reason than by virtue of his difference to the mainstream (his colour in itself is flushing out a cascade of prejudices that have remained largely dormant since the civil rights movement in the 60s). He may be down in the polls, but he’s still a hero in my book.