Barack Obama is certainly a gem of a person, apart from the startling facts about his winning the Presidentship, his color, his age; he has also stood with the theme of 'CHANGE'. Before going into a little depth, let me quickly state a few points that i feel makes him stand apart...
John McCain was initially not even a part of the probable race; the real fight was between Hillary and Barack, about who is going to be the democratic candidate for the Presidential race. At that time, Americans were in a dilemma to choose from either a black or a woman, both first timers in the American history. After a lot of effort put in from both of them, Barack Obama was chosen as the democratic candidate for the race to the coveted post.
Now, let me digress a little here, i would like to explain who the democrats are? There are two major political followings in almost all the occidental (western) countries, let us focus here only on USA. In America, they have Republicans and Democrats; George Bush belongs to the Republican Party while Bill Clinton belongs to Democratic. From a superficial glance, the ideological difference between the two parties - Republicans favor the rich while Democrats think much of the middle class and the poor. Democrats feel the rich should be taxed more and more and the money should be used for the upliftment of the poor, while Republicans feel rich drive a nation on the path of success and hence they should be availed rebates, facilities and other sanctions, so that they flourish, and hence the nation.
So, Barack Obama is a democrat, and hence thinks of the majority of Americans and not the few with white collars. His previous comments about outsourcing and other stuff showed more of his democratic attire. But as soon as he donned the Presidential attire and retrospected things, he had to alter his stance a little. Recently in G20 summit, he stated that America has to walk along with developing and developed nations towards the highway of prosperity.
He very well understands that amidst the storming recession and pouring bailouts, no country can stand alone, there has to be a mutual respect and there has to be mutual economic affairs. Limitless amount of bailout money would be required to calm down this monetary conflagration. And Mr. President is a cool and intelligent guy with a very smart team of professionals and not "war heroes". Men like him are made to bring organizations/nations/civilizations out of crises.
In such times, no nation can afford to say anything derogatory about two nations in particular, India and China, the two nations that have an unmatchable workforce and offer an immensely huge potential market, solely driven by emotions.
--sudharm baxi
