A discussion paper presented by Earle St. Aubin Scarlett at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Sir Arthur Lewis Institute for Social and Economic Change
Candidate Barack Obama’s stirring victory in 2008 under the mantra “hope and change” engendered great excitement for a renewed America and a refreshing approach to statecraft. At the outset, he faced serious difficulties: first, being the first black person at the helm of the United States – with all the historical implications and attendant overlay; second, a global financial crisis of monumental proportions; and third, US involvement in two unpopular wars, Iraq (which he had opposed), and Afghanistan which he reluctantly accepted. In addition to these three major issues, there was a sagging US image abroad, large national debt, high unemployment, neuralgia over immigration, and an ineffectual US Congress due largely to a corrosive partisan unwillingness to compromise on an array of presidential initiatives, graphically evident in a contentious struggle over the Affordable Health Care Act—a revival of the debates of states and individual rights and the role of the government in solving domestic ills.
Read more:
http://www.uwi.edu/salises/pdf/Paper_by_EarleScarlett.pdf
