Change and Obama

Barack Obama has been President of the United States for about two weeks, but already he has hit the first rocks on what will be a pretty turbulent Presidency.

News comes from the US that his nominee for the post of Secretary of Health and Human Services, former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, has withdrawn his nomination due to questions about his tax records. Obama had already lost one proposed nominee in New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, who was to be Secretary of Commerce.

Obama won the election running a campaign pledging change. He pledged to do things differently, in order to produce different results. Obama said he would turn his back on the Washington elite, the insiders, the lobbyists. He would create a new way of governing.

Now, despite my admiration for Obama as a thinker and an orator, I took these comments with a grain of salt. Not because I underestimate Obama the man - he just got elected President of the United States, tough under any circumstances, but even tougher when you are a person of colour. No, I doubted whether he would be able to carry out this pledge because of the great entrenchment of the American political system.

The US Congress, despite being dominated by Democrats, is still there, with its committee systems and the Senate with its filibustering. The US Constitution still provides the separation of powers it always has, and Obama will still need to get important measures approved and passed by both houses on Capitol Hill.

But, above all that, is that when you look for people to work for you, you look first to people with experience in the areas in which you are dealing. Despite Obama's campaign rhetoric, these people are the Washington elite, the insiders, the lobbyists. People like Richardson and Daschle.

And then there is how people in America get elected to public office. There is so much money and influence flowing through Washington that to get a fair, objective analysis of proposed measures is almost impossible. Put simply, elected officials need to dance with the one that brung them.

Obama's great achievement in shedding this money and influence was to use low level internet fundraising to collect massive amounts of money for his campaign. Most of the campaign funds were donated by people giving amounts as small as $20. This means that Obama was at the beck-and-call of no great interest group, no lobbyists and no multinational corporations. Unfortunately, that cannot be said for almost everyone else in Washington.

Obama faces a tough four (but, probably eight) years, but, then again, being President is a tough job. Will he succeed in fundamentally changing the way America is governed? I doubt it. However, change always happens in small increments.