It is about 3 hours before the ig change in US politics, as hopefully in world's politics as well. I felt the enthusiasm of people while being in US and it makes me follow what happens now.
Because the elections of 2008 are the topic of my master thesis, I would like to make same small analysis, just before the inauguration.
1. What will be in Obama's speech
There are of course many topics which will be covered in the speech. Obviously the economy, and most probably Obama will repeat parts of his speech from the election day. He will address the issue that he needs help from all Americans to make a change and it won't be a easy tasks, and all Americans had to get prepared for not easy times.
Secondly he has to address the issue of country's security, hopefully he will mention something about closing Guantanamo prison (as a human rights lawyer I think he should do it). I am still curious what he will say about wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I have still in my mind his words from the campaign "We have to take the nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists" (only countries has nuclear weapons!). It makes me think what will be his position in the relation with Iran, Israel, Pakistan?
I don't think he will say a lot about world politics or international relation besides the security issue. I just hope or rather would like to hear about his plans for the global politics, his plan for fighting with global problems, helping the failed states, eradicating poverty, improving security in the developing world. And as the first Afro-American president who even during the campaign was traveling to Kenya, to the country of is father origins, I think he should do it (and that is not American point of view:) ).
There might be one more thing, very important in the speech - the bipartisanship. I think (or rather hope) that Obama wants to seek for the wide cooperation within the country. He wrote about it in his second book - "The Audacity of Hope". He wrote about his first time in the Capitol meeting the politicians and only the few of them, the oldest generation could easily cooperate for the better future. This situation used to be normal just after the second world war, because the politicians had the some background (most of them were soldiers in the was). In the last cupple of years both parties couldn't cooperate with other almost at all. In the book Obama dislike it, and hopefully bipartisanship will the the direction where his politics would go.
2. The meaning of Obama's speech
There is right now more then 2 million people in Washington or maybe even more already. In the universities students are organizing watch parties, many people watch the news at home, most probably the speech will be seen by most of the world.
There are very high expectations towards Barack Obama. What make this day even more special he will be the first Afro-American president in the history. He takes the country after the second less popular president in US history (first one was Nixon who had to resign because of Watergate). There is a lot of things to fix in US (economy and the biggest crisis in the last years) as well as in the world (Afghanistan, Iraq, Guantanamo, Energy crisis, failed states).
All of this leads me to the thought - Americans expect that this speech will be as important as "I have a dream speech" of Martin Luther King in 1963. Those two events will be compared and connected. Barack Obama will be standing in the some place as Martin Luther King, and he will be speaking as a first Afro-American president, while Martin Luther King spoke of his desire for a future where blacks and whites, among others, would coexist harmoniously as equals.
Maybe Obama's speech will be the last stage of Martin's Luther King dream being realized.
Or maybe he is just good selling product for all media, and this whole enthusiasm is caused by good PR?
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