Obama: It’s all relative

These are extraordinary times. Unlike other Presidents across recent history, Barack Obama has faced yet insurmountable difficulties in his re-election. In 1996 especially but also in 2004, incumbent Presidents Clinton and Bush capitalised on not having to contest their party’s primary to develop an electoral advantage.

Why then is Obama struggling so badly to gain a sustained and meaningful lead in the polls? Fans of the West Wing series will recall our favourite Press Secretary, CJ Craig, repeatedly talking about the importance of expectations. Four years ago, Obama’s resounding victory set expectations sky high. Inevitably, four years later, voters feel let down because…well, it turns out Obama isn’t Superman, or Super-President.

In spite of Republican attempts to label him as socialist, Obama has been a disappointment for those of on the Left, like myself. ‘Obamacare’ steers well clear of a public option – incorporating most parts of the original Republican proposal. The lights are still on at Guantanamo Bay. Obama renewed the Bush Tax Cuts for the Wealthy in his fiscal flirts with the right, and, given his timid reforms in banking and the revolving door between his administration and Wall Street, many would say Obama is a corporate sell-out.

Notwithstanding his failures, if we set aside our ambitious expectations, Obama has achieved a lot. While the War in Afghanistan drones on, the war in Iraq is history. Bin Laden is dead and those who could be convinced that the US is not a warmongering imperialist, have been. The economy isn’t yet going full steam, and jobs are still scarce, but all it should take is a glance across the shoulder to Europe for Americans to become grateful for Obama’s pro-growth policies, and his successful management of the Auto-industry’s collapse. It is difficult to believe that anyone could have done awfully better, especially when your main trading partners’ economies are tanking.

Obama is not the perfect candidate. But if science can give us any insight into politics, it is that low-entropy systems, such as those that successfully breed positive change, are a highly improbable event. It would take the ‘perfect storm’ to produce all the change that the US and the world urgently needs. While Obama’s achievements in office may all be relative; with Romney, all losses are absolute: starting in world peace, passing by the world economy, ending in the crushing the welfare of the American people. But perhaps the biggest blow delivered by a Romney victory is to democracy, as we open the doors for our hopes and dreams to continue to be suppressed by the overwhelming power of the wealthy.