Obama 'still encapsulates a brighter tomorrow'

If truth be told you probably won't remember what you were doing a year ago today. Skip related content

Barack Hussein Obama will, as it was the night he was elected the 44th President of the United States.

Momentarily the world stood still, from New York to New Delhi, Warsaw to Damascus, Madrid to Panama City, to celebrate an historic victory as we witnessed what some phrased a "new birth of freedom".

In a speech comprising of precisely 2,051 words the first black president of the US spoke to the world from his home city of Chicago, proclaiming "it's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this date in this election at this defining moment, change has come to America".

Today, one year later, just what is the reality, how can we judge Obama's first year in office, and to what extent has change "Obama style" manifested itself?

His critics are lining up to take pot shots.

In his new book The Audacity to Win: The Inside Story and Lessons of Barack Obama's Historic Victory, David Plouffee sets out Obama's conviction that the US "needed deep, fundamental change; Washington wasn't thinking long-term, the special interests and lobbyists had too much power, and the American people needed to once again trust and engage in their democracy.".

Yet Plouffe claims that while a lot has happened during Obama's first year, the audacity of winning has given way to the timidity of governing.

For academic Catherine Lutz, the 44th President of the United States was elected amid hopes that he would roll back his country's global dominance.

She berates the fact that now he is commander-in-chief he presides over an unprecedented network of military bases that is still expanding.

Birth of a new freedom? Not so according to Lutz, she highlights how many of the Obama administration's diplomatic efforts are being directed towards maintaining and garnering new access for the US military across the globe.

The global reach of the US military today is unprecedented and unparalleled.

Officially, more than 190,000 troops and 115,000 civilian employees are massed in approximately 900 military facilities in 46 countries and territories (the unofficial figure is far greater).

In the UK criticism has been even more stinging.

Last month Mehdi Hasan, political editor of the New Statesman, continued the offensive when he opined:

"Obama promised a sharp break from the Bush era, yet he seemed to have stepped into the shoes of his disgraced predecessor. It is easy to snipe at Obama, but his election in itself was a remarkable achievement, and his survival to the end of his term of office might be as much as we can hope for."

Can we find any solace for Obama? It's easy to forget that he inherited Bush's inbox from hell.

Take healthcare reform, the bete noire of US politics ever since Hillary Clinton's plan for universal coverage failed 14 years ago.

Progress has been painfully slow over the past year.

However, when one takes into account the conservative, sceptical nature of the American electorate, it's hardly surprising they have not yet been wooed yet.

Had it not been for the huge expectations in the United States and abroad, Obama's first 12 months in office might seem more of a success.

Where change has come, we can more confidently point to incrementally benign effects.

Obama can take comfort in shepherding the US economy back to growth, though rampant unemployment presents a grave political threat.

His Nobel prize suggests he made good on a promise to rescue the US image abroad.

He has also successfully lifted curbs on federal funding for stem cell research, banned torture, outlawed pay discrimination for female workers, reined in predatory credit card companies and launched a push for a green energy economy.

And on the international front he has transformed the climate for US diplomacy, and promised a "new beginning" with the Muslim world during a powerful speech in Cairo.

Don't forget the genuinely progressive policies on tax that Obama is developing.

They may not make the headlines, but they will nevertheless redistribute income from the top 5 per cent earners above $200,000 to the other 95 per cent.

One year on, Barack Husein Obama cannot bask in a glorious presidential legacy.

Yet he has never aspired to.

This is no time to carp from the sidelines.

Change is hard, as we on the Left well know. Oscar Wilde acknowledged that whilst socialism is great, it takes up too many evenings.

Obama still encapsulates a brighter tomorrow in his demeanour, belief system and the hope that manifested itself so gloriously a year ago today.

His vision and inspiration remain the best opportunity for a re-ordering of a global world that as progressives, we yearn and clamour for, and aspire to.

Richard Robinson is parliamenary researcher for Andy Reed MP.