US President is making progress
Obama has already achieved more than his critics give him credit for
Tuesday's series of gubernatorial elections in the US are being viewed by some analysts and media outlets as a referendum on the first year of Barack Obama's presidency. That is simply a gross overstatement of the significance of these races.
Gubernatorial races in the US are quirky, state-focused events. While the main parties field candidates, local loyalties, state issues and regional quirks are huge factors. The reality is that it has been a year since the world celebrated the election of Obama on a cold night in Chicago's Grant Park. Since then, Obama has had to face the worst economic slump since the Great Depression. Within weeks of coming to office, he had organised and sold to the Senate and House of Representatives a $700 billion (Dh2.5 trillion) economic stimulus package. Statistics released last week show that the US is officially out of recession.
A year on, he still faces foreign policy challenges in Afghanistan, withdrawing from Iraq, building consensus in the Middle East, dealing with the Goldstone Report, with Iran's nuclear programme, on climate change and with North Korea. The list is long and complicated, but patience is a virtue. He has earned a Nobel Prize for the promise of what is to come.
Most importantly, he is not George W. Bush.
