The man in the middle

My first evening in New York, I met Ayca, a young academic and anti-war activist teaching at Columbia University. When I asked Ayca how she chose Obama over Hillary, she looked at me, shocked that I didn’t know that Obama was the obvious choice — he was the dynamic one, the only one who actually has a stance against the war.

“There is something hypnotic about him,” my friend Hovig said, “he hypnotises people when he speaks.” Hovig is an artist, in his fifties, originally from Armenia and married to a blue-eyed American woman, with two grown American children. “It’s not because his policies are better?” I asked. “I don’t know what all the policies are,” he said, “I know he makes sense when he speaks, he has that power.” His sisters, he said, are glued to the TV when Obama talks.

“Everybody loves the guy and sometimes I just don’t understand why,” Hovig joked. Yet it is true — people are enamoured with Obama for a variety of reasons that can’t be rationalised, given his lack of experience.

Striding across a New York avenue, Claire, my American friend from Florida who works at a consulting firm, explained, “There is really no substantial difference between Clinton and Obama in policies except on healthcare.” “I wasn’t sure whom I was supporting,” she admitted, “until I heard Obama’s speech on race.” It was the March speech in which Obama spoke openly about inter-racial tensions in America. “Anyone who can talk about race in America in these terms in front of the whole country,” she said matter-of-factly, “really deserves to be president.”

In Rhode Island at a dinner for my brother’s graduation, I heard the young graduate sitting opposite me talk about Obama. An American, she speaks Arabic and has studied and worked in Egypt. “In Egypt,” she said, “people hated America because of the war. But after Obama became a candidate, people would hear I was American and cheer ‘Obama!’” The way people in foreign countries think about America, she thinks, would change if Obama were to become president. And given Obama’s willingness to hold diplomatic talks in Iran and the Middle East, America’s approach to the world would hopefully change as well.

Later that evening, a distinguished looking man in his late sixties told me he was an old friend and supporter of the Clintons. He was the ambassador in London under Bill Clinton. Now, he is the chairman of a company and on the board of Morgan Stanley and a handful of other companies. Inevitably, I asked him what he thinks about Obama.

“As a businessman,” the former ambassador said, “I’m a little worried about how good Obama would be for business.” I wondered if he was referring to outsourcing. Obama has expressed some concern over the loss of jobs in America, but, on the whole, no one believes that Obama would, or could reverse the logic of globalisation to China and India. He is worried, the former ambassador explained, that with Obama there might be an increase in spending on social welfare programmes the country can’t afford. I pointed out that the continuing war in Iraq is a huge financial burden and Obama would also be the most likely to exit the war. “I’m of the school of thought that believes you leave with the person who brought you to the dance,” the former ambassador said, concluding our conversation, “and I came into politics with the Clintons.”

At a ceremony the next day, Robert Redford, the actor, in his seventies now, addressed the graduating class. He painted a grave picture of the current politics in America and spoke of the urgent need for Hope, Change, and Change Without Delay. Just short of taking Obama’s name, Redford endorsed his campaign to cheers from the audience.

Back in New York, Claire asked me if I wanted to join her for an ‘Obamaerobics’ class. Obamaerobics is an enterprising fundraiser for Obama, spearheaded by two enthusiastic young aerobics instructors. Our smiling teachers were in bright T-shirts that had ‘Obamaerobics’ on the back and ‘Barack Your Body’ printed across the front. They handed us clipboards to fill in our donation forms. Soon we were jumping, dancing, and doing push-ups to the beat of happy music.

Every once in a while, in the middle of a routine, our instructor shouted out ‘Can we do it?’ — the Obama Campaign rally cry. Everybody jumped up and screamed back, ‘Yes we can!’

Aashti Bhartia studied anthropology at Columbia University and is a freelance writer aashti.b@gmail.com