In September of 2005, the world came to see America’s image tarnished by the horrors of Hurricane Katrina and the failure of the richest country in the world to deal effectively with a natural disaster in its own backyard. The world saw the looting. They saw the criminals preying on vulnerable victims, the poor and the dispossessed in the middle of a tragedy. A disproportionate number of the hardest hit victims were black.
Only one year earlier, the world community that had seen America at its finest, providing relief to the victims of the Asian tsunami disaster, now observed an America humiliated by its own ineptness in dealing with the crisis. The national pride that was observed as the country united in the wake of the September 11, 2001 bombings, that took the lives of almost 3,000 Americans, quickly vanished. The global press was rightly brutal in its criticism. It was America’s darkest hour.
Today, the string of successive victories that Barack Obama, the U.S. Senator from the State of Illinois, is racking up against his rival Hillary Rodham Clinton in his quest to become the President of the United States of America stands in stark contrast to the images that America showed the world during the dark days of Katrina. This is the America that most have come to know. This is the America which has provided a place of work for many of us who emigrated here in search of alternative opportunities. These are the positive images of blacks in America whose story is not often told to a global audience. It is a part of America that makes this immigrant proud. It is a wonderful land of opportunity.
Yes, America has its share of difficulties. Those who are on work assignments here know them better than most. At the outset, many at home and in the U.S. focused only on the racial discrimination that persists and immediately wrote-off Obama’s candidacy. They said that America is not ready for a black president. Well, so far, he has been winning in what has often been regarded as a racist South, with big wins in Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia and Louisiana.
He has also been winning the crossover vote in what may be loosely described as lily-whites states such as Wisconsin, Idaho, Maine, Nebraska, Alaska, Minnesota, North Dakota, Utah, Maine and Iowa.
Unlike any other politician, black or white, who has come before, his call for unity across, color, creed and political party lines has struck a pleasing note across these heterogeneous cohort groups. And, they are responding with their money, with their endorsements and with their votes at the ballot box. Picking up major endorsement from labor unions and major newspapers, he now stands on the threshold of taking Texas, the only major state that stands in the way of his being elected as the Democratic nominee who will contest the general election against his Republican counterpart, John McCain in November. The outlook is good. Seven of the state’s major newspapers have given him a ringing endorsement. And he is packing-in crowds, as large as 27,000, in response to his call.
The national polls are giving Obama the lead in any head-to-head contest with McCain for the Presidency. As in the case of the 1960 Kennedy-Nixon Presidential debates, the television cameras are not likely to be kind to the 71-year-old McCain, in much the same way that they were not kind to Richard Nixon, who although only four years older than Kennedy did not present well before the cameras. With both Obama and McCain uncomfortable with personal tax cuts, a position that is harmful to the interests of the people of Nevis and St. Kitts and the products that we sell, the only real advantage that Mc Cain holds, for many voters, is a stronger stance on national defense.
The question that remains is whether McCain’s stronger position on national defense will prove to be more appealing to the electorate than Obama’s powerful message of change. With Obama’s campaign coffers expanding at the rate of one million dollars a day, there appears to be very little that stands in the way of his becoming the 44th President of the United States of America.
To my mind, the forces that are at play that have propelled Obama to the front of the line are often lost on many observers. There is no question that discrimination persists in many areas. But, as the country transforms itself, there are other on-going powerful forces at play. Unlike any other, America has a healthy incentive system that rewards winners and punishes losers.
It is my view, that the lily-white communities that are propelling Obama forward are looking at this outstanding talent and rendering a very different non-racist appraisal. It is the same non-racist valuation of talent that we have seen at work in basketball, football, baseball, the performing arts and increasingly in the workplace.
When the Los Angeles Lakers procures the services of basketball star Kobe Bryant there is an expectation that he would deliver a championship. The system is saying that if you can deliver a win that gives the firm a competitive edge that positively affects its bottom line, you will be hired and paid well. In this dispensation, the practice of discrimination becomes extremely expensive. The firm that slams the door shot on raw talent places itself at a competitive disadvantage.
This thirst for raw talent is best observed in the class room where the elite corporations are picking off newly-minted black MBAs and offering them large sign-on bonuses long before they graduate from school and set foot on the job. This same thirst for raw talent is also being observed in the highly competitive world of executive recruitment where corporations are on the prowl for top talented executives with a proven track record in administering large and complex organizations. They are bidding their services away with huge multi-million sign-on bonuses and buying them out of huge stock options in which they are vested in their incumbent firms.
The entire compensation structure is built around a system of processes that rewards winners and sets aside losers. Employees across America are fully attuned to these incentive bonus systems that reward work effort. They have become an entrenched part of the corporate culture that drives America and makes it work. In this competitive environment raw talent, education and professional experience are the dominant factors that matter.
America views Obama in much the same way. He has gone to the finest schools that money can buy. He is a Graduate of the Harvard University Law School. He has served his community providing legal services in his hometown representing the dispossessed. He has put his time in on the shop floor and worked his way up in the State of Illinois Legislature. Along the way, he has honed his oratory skills. Combined, this is the comparative advantage that he holds over his opponents that gives him the competitive edge. An America that that is highly-sensitized to these assets and understands the importance of winning is responding in unison, “YES, WE CAN”.
Obama brought these skills to market before a national audience at the Democratic Convention in Boston on July 27, 2004. He mesmerized a national audience to such an extent that he was elected to the United States Senate in November 2004, only four months later, capturing 70 percent of the vote. By so doing, he became the third African American Senator to be popularly elected in a U.S. State-wide contest
Obama now stands on the threshold of greatness, with an excellent chance of being named the 44th President of the United States of America. He embodies our hopes dreams and aspirations. This is the America that many of us have hoped for. It remains a Land of Opportunity like none other.
