EDITORIAL - Obama's 'shellacking'

American voters gave the Democrats a drubbing this week in the hotly contested midterm elections for congressional, state and local offices. President Barack Obama described the results as a "shellacking" and many are already writing his political obituary.

There are predictions that frustrated voters who so severely punished the Democrats, resulting in the biggest turnover in more than 70 years, will ride this anger all the way into the 2012 presidential elections. The emergence of a new, more cohesive right-wing element calling itself the Tea Party movement became united around the rejection of bigger government and played a major role in the Republicans' win in some key states.

If it's any consolation to Obama, he can read the results as part of a trend witnessed in former presidencies, including that of Democrat Bill Clinton, who was elected on a wave of popularity in 1992. Two years later, his party lost 53 House and seven Senate seats. Then there was George W. Bush, the Republican president who was re-elected in 2004 and lost control of the House two years later. As predicted by 2010 election watchers, the Senate has remained in Democratic hands, albeit by a slim margin.

Seen as a referendum on Obama's presidency, the American voters appear unimpressed by what the administration has been able to achieve in two years - US$800 billion stimulus package, partial control of the auto industry, health-care reform, bank bail-outs and stringent regulation of financial institutions. Many find it difficult to explain the repudiation of a Congress that has accomplished so much in so short a time.

It is clear that people in the Midwest and other industrial regions of the US where the job loss is felt hardest have no interest in attempts to mend a broken financial system. It does not matter that Obama inherited two wars and an economy in shambles when he moved into the White House. So what is it that Americans really want? The consensus is that when one in 10 persons is unemployed and millions are losing their homes in foreclosures, people become angry.

Overall, Americans do not appear all that interested in foreign affairs. As far as the ordinary man is concerned all politics is local. He wants a job because having job is the only way he can take care of his family and fulfil his aspirations.

Piles of money

While government is not expected to create all the jobs, the government is expected to create the environment that will make investors start new businesses and expand old ones. There is sufficient evidence that many profitable American corporations are sitting on piles of money, but will not expand to absorb the labour glut. Maybe they need to be motivated with strong incentives. Mr Obama must see clearly now that it is imperative that he pushes an aggressive job-creation agenda if he is to get people back to work. Economic growth is the only thing that will heal some of the disillusion being felt across the country.

In the meantime, the rush to write Mr Obama's political obituary may be premature. Bill Clinton did it before him by mustering political acuity and winning back the hearts and minds of a majority of the American people. Great leaders learn from their failures. Obama's audacity of hope may well become the audacity of fighting back.

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