I was driving behind a ‘tro-tro’ a few days ago. The inscription on the back of the vehicle was: BARACK OBAMA, an indication that Obama, with ancestral home in the western Kenyan village of Kogelo, has made it into our national lexicon, a lexicon that is pregnant with an ‘audacity of hope’ for him to become the president of the ‘free world,’ USA. Her grandmother, Sarah Onyango Obama, is watching keenly. The lion’s paw!
The rhythms of electioneering campaigning are buzzing from across the mighty Atlantic Ocean. Africans, African Americans, as well as Black people and people of colour throughout the world; and also Asians and Europeans, seem to have their fingers crossed for history to be made – for messianic Barack Obama to ascend to the presidency, as the first black president of the USA.
But beyond race, other fingers are also tightly crossed for another important history to be made – for a woman to get closer to the presidency of the USA. After all, what is a democracy if the rulers are predominantly males and the other half of the population – women, are left out on the fringes to stare? In the USA, the intersection of race and gender, two key historically disadvantaged categories of the population, have the potential to be explosive. Race is a delicate issue. But estrogen is power! Women are powerful. You didn’t know? The lion’s paw!
So – here is a news flash for all Obama watchers in Ghana: Women could cost Obama the Presidency of the USA! Unlike Obama and Ghana’s NPP and NDC which, despite relentless lobbying, did not select a woman for the vice presidential slot, Obama’s contender, Senator John McCain, surprised everyone with the selection of a little-known woman, Sarah Palin, as his running mate, the first in the history of his political party. And, Palin is dazzling and buzzing! As Governor of oil-rich Alaska, she has the highest approval ratings of any Governor in the USA.
Like many women throughout the world who struggle to make it in a man’s world, Palin, mother of five, defies the sheer gravity of balancing family and career. She is gorgeous and spots a beautiful hair-do folded into a mighty bold heap atop her head, fully packaged – to interrogate the world. But best of all, she is not just a pretty face. She is fascinating, confident, intelligent, sharp-tongued and eloquent, having worked as a TV reporter. She is a religious conservative. She holds a journalism degree and brings something Obama has but McCain doesn’t have – veneer. Beware when a determined woman takes on a challenge! Lion’s paw!
Until three weeks ago, Barack Obama was flying high; he was beloved and almost unstoppable. But this year’s American presidential election seems to be increasingly centred on a popularity contest. First, it was Obama who was a clear winner, with just about everyone gasping for breath for every word that dropped from his mouth. His charisma, his eloquence, his slim built, his exotic origins and obviously Islamic-sounding ‘funny name’ made him an enigma and a darling boy who could do no wrong. He appeared to have become the crown prince for the American presidency. Europe is in love with him; Asians are in awe. If Obama was standing for President of the world, he would chalk a landslide victory. But in the USA, the tide is currently changing with the entrance of a woman into the campaign of the opposition.
Palin has a star appeal. She looks good; sounds good. Even her prescription eyeglasses have become a class act in eyeglass fashion! It is selling off the shelves! With her addition, McCain is suddenly glowing in the polls, aged and cancer-damaged cheeks and all. Palin appears to be quickly busting the rock star popularity Obama has enjoyed unopposed for months. A craze for Palin is increasing, a sort of Palinmania. If her increasing shine doesn’t dim, if Palinmania increases to a nonsensical degree, Obama might as well consider the White House as a house that is not yet ready for a Blackman, much like the biblical Moses saw the Promised Land but his feet never touched that land. We would wait to see.
Glory can be transient; in today, out tomorrow. No wonder Obama’s popularity is dimming since the newer kid on the block, Sarah Palin, stormed the scene, flying high. Who could have predicted that a day after Obama accepted the nomination as Presidential candidate on August 28, an event that was strategically scheduled to coincide with the 45th year anniversary of Dr Martin Luther King’s immortal “I have a dream” speech, McCain will roll Palin down on his ticket!
Her arrival on the scene has added excitement to an otherwise drab candidacy of an aging Senator with a not so pretty smile. There is a bounce in McCain’s ratings in the polls 45 days to the US elections. For a kicker, he is even echoing Obama’s ‘change’ rhetoric that catapulted him to the hearts of Americans and the world.
Before Palin stormed onto the scene as McCain’s running mate, there was another woman, Hillary Clinton, former First Lady and wife of former US President Bill Clinton. For more than one year, she was locked in a near blood-letting tussle, neck-to-neck, toe-to-toe with Obama for the Democratic party’s nomination. And the son of Africa won.
Then came the issue of Obama’s running mate. The argument was, since Hillary had a large following, what she described as the “18 millions cracks in the glass ceiling,” it made sense for Obama to select her as running mate, to appease and deliver her disappointed followers to the Obama campaign. The eighteen million consisted of Hillary loyalists who were excited for the possibility of seeing the first woman in the White House as President. Her loss was therefore a painful loss to many of her supporters. It is therefore Hillary’s near win, and especially the passions her candidacy and later, her loss ignited in people that together with the entrance of Palin, might conspire to cost Obama the presidency.
But Obama decided otherwise. He is no fool! Ghana’s NDC watchers might be able to relate to the fears that might have influenced Obama’s decision not to have Hillary Clinton on his ticket. Just imagine Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings as running mate of Mills! It would guarantee that team Rawlings-Konadu will breathe heavily down the thick neck of Mills.
For two decades, Hillary and Bill Clinton have been two power-brokers and impregnable players on the American political scene. Having team Hillary-Bill breath heavily down Obama’s skinny frame and increasingly greying head hair in the White House could potentially have resulted in a power clash, much like a Konadu-Mills blaze. These two powerful couples, the Clintons and Rawlingses, although from two different continents, constitute a kind of two-for-the-price-of-one, one-item-covers-all, or buy-one-buy-all offerings. To be your own man/woman, no one needs to be overburdened with excess baggage of political power-brokers.
With the present likelihood that Palin might bring to McCain millions of disgruntled Hillary Clinton voters, Obama might now be saying to himself: “Damn! Why didn’t I just choose Hillary?” But it’s too late now. Damn if you do; damn if you don’t! Fact: Women matter! The lion’s paw!
+233-208286817; dorisdartey@yahoo.com
No comments:
Post a Comment