by Rick Lowe
It looks like Barak Obama will win the presidency of the United States today and history will be made with the first black (although his mother is white and his father is black) to win the office.
There is no doubt that he has a great delivery and a pleasant way about him. But that does not change the circumstances he will face in office which will all but guarantee he cannot fulfil his promises.
I'm willing to bet dollars to donuts that he starts to back track in his inauguration speech as the economic reality of his political promises start to set in. And this I believe will lead to dissatisfaction with his presidency sooner rather than later.
Mind you, the more Obama promised the more McCain promised. So the same reality will face John McCain should he be able to turn things around and win, which is highly unlikely.
The only parallel of this apparent rout to be by Obama I can think of is when America turned to Ronald Reagan after Jimmy Carter's disastrous four years. I don't recall there being a similar excitement with Bill Clinton, at least when he won his first term as president.
The main difference to my mind is the policies Obama pledges to follow; socialised health care, moving away from free trade and being the great provider for Americans, adding more restrictions on business, policies that could close tax havens, raising taxes on some people etc will have the effect of slowing the US economy even more. Much like the policies of Roosevelt are said to have delayed the rebound from the Great Depression.
At the end of the day we all need to wish Obama well, and hope that his economic advisors steer him away from these self destructive policies as The Bahamas is highly dependent on the US, and this is unlikely to change in the years ahead.
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