American Politics in the Context of Obama’s Election and First 100 Days Essay Example for Free

American Politics in the Context of Obamas Election and first-year one C Days EssayThe alternative of Barack Hussein Obama as the 44th President of the United States is a watershed in the history of American politics. In a country were blacks were once prohibited from select just because of the color of their skin, his ascent into the White House is indeed a milestone. Obamas victory is practically attributed to several factors, including changes in voting behavior and public opinion and constant media exposure.Popular support of his goernance did not end with the election hype a 2009 Associated Press-GfK poll revealed that about 48% of Americans were satisfied with the scotch outcomes of the Obama presidencys first 100 old age (Philstar. com n. pag. ). The rise of the Obama regime had a tremendous impact on American politics. It brought about the prospect of women and minorities gaining a greater voice in political institutions. besides Obamas first 100 days in office told a different story. His first 100 days revealed that the substance of his regime remained largely the same as that of George W. pubic hairs.This just goes to show that in the context of Obamas election and first 100 days, American politics changed its style but hold its hegemonic and elitist nature. Winning the nomination proved to be a greater challenge for Obama than winning the general elections. Because of a national political machine attached to her and her husband, Hillary Clinton was initially chosen by the Democrat Party to sprain its presidential candidate (Ceaser, Busch and Pitney 15). Although Obama was young, charismatic, cerebral and self-assured, the Democrats were apprehensive about his lack of experience in the political position (Ceaser, Busch and Pitney 16).This weakness would probably not sit well with the American electorate, who were desperate for a leader who could domesticate the damaging mistakes of the Republican administration (Ceaser, Busch and Pi tney 15). But shifts in the economic and demographic profile of American voters rendered Obama a much suitable presidential candidate than Clinton. As of 2004, about 56. 6% of American voters were below 30 years old (Dahl n. pag. ). Majority of these individuals grew up using the Internet as an indispensable tool for massage, information and leisure.When the Clintons staged their last national campaign in 1996, the Internet was just a fledgling industry. Obamas youth and tech savvy (he kept a Blackberry with him at all times), therefore, would make him more appealing to the aforementioned voters age group than Clinton (Ceaser, Busch and Pitney 106). Obama must have been aware of these advantages of his his election campaign involved mainly the utilization of the Internet. By April 2007, he already had 1,543,000 friends in his account in the social-networking website MySpace. com. In sharp contrast, Clinton only had 41,500 people in her network (Dupuis and Boeckelman 123).In the spring of 2008, Obama had at least 1 million friends in Twitter, while Clinton only had 330,000. Although they had the same number of Facebook friends during this period, the websites largest pro-Obama group had over 500,000 members, while the largest Facebook group that supported Clinton only had 30,000 members (Tapscott 252). Furthermore, Obamas rhetoric reflected the American publics disenchantment with traditional political ideologies. His slogan, Change You Can Believe In, appealed to voters because it did not bombard them with highfaluting dogmas.Rather, it showed them that change meant exploring for bare-ass solutions to problems. The American people did not have to make do with traditional solutions which Obama believed have already failed them in the past. For instance, he is constantly criticized for his relative youth and limited high-level government inexperience. Obama downplayed this attack by claiming that beam of light Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld have an awful lot of experience, and yet have engineered what I think is one of the biggest foreign polity failures in our recent history (Dupuis and Boeckelman 123).Through this argument, he pointed out that adherence to convention is not unceasingly the best for the nation. There are instances when the government and the people must work together and come up with new solutions. In addition, Obama created a firm connection between himself and the people by letting them go that he also underwent their plights. In his campaign speeches, he often used his experience as the son of a working woman and as the husband of a working woman in methodicalness to show to the people that he knew how it felt to be in their shoes (Leanne 52).He knew how it was to be poor, marginalized and to work hard just to keep ends meet. Thus, his cynicism towards conventional ideologies he and so many other Americans remained impoverished condescension their application. Given such a populist and down-to-earth campaign s trategy, it was no longer surprising if Obama won a landslide victory in the 2008 national elections. But his first 100 days in office revealed that his regime was essentially the same as that of George W. scrubs. Obamas first 100 days revealed the right-wing character of his administration and the class interests that it serves (Eley n.pag. ). If there was any difference at all, it was the approach Bush assumed a warmonger-like stance to obtain the presidency, while Obama adopted a populist one. Obama continued the Bush administrations militarist and aggressive foreign policy. Although he promised that he will all American troops out of Iraq, troop levels in Iraq remained virtually unchanged. Furthermore, Obama expanded the war in Afghanistan and even encompassing it to Pakistan. Worse, he proposed a defense budget worth $664 billion believed to be the largest appropriation for military expense in American history (Eley n. pag. ).The prison camp at Guantanamo Bay remains open, despite Obamas pledge to eventually close it down. As a result, its inmates are at risk of being shipped to US military prisons such as those in Iraq and Afghanistan, where they can be paroxysmd and or killed in secret. chthonian the guise of moving on, he blocked all investigations and or criminal prosecution of parties that were responsible for the torture of detainees in US military prisons across the world. Obamas government also intervened in the procedures of several judicature cases in order to deny habeas corpus to detainees in US military prisons in Afghanistan (Eley n.pag. ). While Obama was grumpy perpetuating Bushs foreign policy, the American economy further deteriorated. Mounting layoffs took place, along with wage cuts, foundation foreclosures and depreciation of real estate value and retirement savings. These developments, in turn, resulted in escalating hunger and homelessness. But kinda of creating concrete solutions to put an end to these calamities, the Oba ma administration used billions of dollars in public funds to bail fiscal institutions such as AIG, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch out of bankruptcy.Worsening the situation was that these banks were discovered to have been doling out commodious portions of the bailout money to their executives as bonuses (Eley n. pag. ). It is very ironic that Obama, a black man who experienced growing up poor and marginalized, would end up perpetuating the repressive and anti-poor policies of his predecessor. But what Obama did reflected the recourse that the US most probably resorted to in order to steer itself from the economic crisis tighten its grip over the Third World.It is during the current economic crisis that the US needs unlimited access to the natural resources of the Third World more than ever before. Thus, the Obama administrations promise of change was replaced with the de facto continuation of the Bush regime. Works Cited AP Poll After Obamas 100 Days, US on Right Track. 24 Ap ril 2009. Philstar. com. 4 whitethorn 2009 http//www. philstar. com/Article. aspx? articleId=460799 publicationSubCategoryId=200. Ceaser, James W. , Andrew E. Busch, and John J. Pitney. Epic Journey The 2008 Elections and American Politics. New York Rowman Littlefield, 2009. Dahl, Melissa.Youth Vote May have been Key in Obamas Win. 5 November 2008. MSNBC. 4 May 2009 http//www. msnbc. com/id/27525497. Dupuis, Martin, and Keith Boeckelman. Barack Obama The New Face of American Politics. Santa Barbara Greenwood Publishing Group, 2008. Eley, Tom. Obamas 100 Days. 29 April 2009. GlobalResearch. ca. 4 May 2009 http//www. globalresearch. ca/index. php? context=vaaid=13419. Leanne, Shel. Say It Like Obama The Power of Speaking with Purpose and Vision. New York McGraw-Hill Professional, 2008. Tapscott, Don. Grown Up Digital How the Net Generation is changing Your World. New York McGraw-Hill Professional, 2008.