What’s the Obama Factor? – The Differences Between The Popularities of President Obama and Former President Bush

Barack Obama has entered the White House with one of the highest ever opinion ratings for an incoming president. He has entered the office with the nation’s biggest economic meltdown since the Great Depression, the dire situation in the Middle East worsening and with critical problems in sectors including education, healthcare and finance. Arguably his biggest task though to distinguish himself from his predecessor is to restore the faith of his nation and the rest of the world in the ability of the American government to solve these problems. Inevitably people will be disappointed with the Obama administration given the impossibility of him solving the backlog of problems the nation has – the quantity left behind by the now Former President Bush is arguably too significant. However, many of the millions of people who showed up to his inauguration seem to show faith that he can somehow pull of this momentous feat, demonstrating the legendary status he seems to have inherited as the first African American president. Can President Obama really live up to this hype and expectation from the electorate, or is this simply the American public expressing their relief that “change has come to America”?

Aside from the policy differences, maybe the notion that someone young, fresh and different is driving Obama’s opinion ratings through the roof. Currently most of his policies are popular with the American people; that’s a factor that simply cannot be ignored. However, when you examine some of the portrayals of the new President, it makes me wonder what is so different about Barack Obama that makes him seem exponentially more popular than his predecessor.

"He's the fake Spidey - nobody can point like the real Obama"

In the above cartoon, Obama is shown with Spiderman as they attempt to subdue a fake, evil Obama. Unless my memory isn’t recalling correctly, I don’t think I’ve ever seen President Bush standing besides another fictional character so prominently known for with fighting for justice and good in the world even after 9/11 where opinion polls had him as the most popular US president ever. After his extraordinarily close fight with Al Gore to become the president in 2000, replacing Clinton who was one of the more popular Presidents in recent memory, its perhaps not surprising that George Bush wasn’t instantly turned into a pop culture icon. However, if we are to judge popularity based on opinion ratings, what is so different about Obama that instantly turns him into the face for all that is good and just for America?

It could be argued that Obama is simply a leader for the times. When people are losing money, out of work and desperate to keep a roof over their heads, this elicits a deep personal emotional response that makes them want to believe that they can change their fortunes. Regardless of how comparatively indifferent the external world is today than the world of two weeks ago when George Bush was still president, people simply are moved by Obama’s inspiring rhetoric, and subsequently believe his words compared with the hollow words of former-President Bush.

When comparing the position Obama is in today to Bush’s position post 9/11, its still surprising though that while Bush was higher in the opinion polls, Obama arguably still has the unsubstantiated position as someone who is capable of fixing most of America’s largest problems when in actual fact he has yet to prove himself as capable of solving them. One could argue that Bush’s leadership and decision making after September 11 is what resulted in the sweeping and almost united position in US public opinion since the beginning of polling. However, I think its more likely the result of the American public being in shock after the catastrophic events of the day. Compared to the Global Economic Recession we face today, 9/11 seemed more like a cyclonic wave of emotions which tore down the fabric of the nation, while today’s situation involves harsh winds which are slowly chipping away at the fabric but ultimately result in the same potential for damage. In essence, while the damage involved in both situations is extremely severe, the shock of the situation prompted a more universal and immediate reaction by the US public. Almost anything the president said promising retaliation would have galvanised the support of the nation, immediately blocking out any other bad policies which may have otherwise tainted his support.

This shows us the unreliability that can be associated with polling when trying to determine the true popularity of individuals as the bias involved in particular situations is likely to mask an underlying feeling of unsatisfactory behaviour, or perhaps the ‘don’t care’/’don’t know’ response that many individuals who lack political interest express.

The ironic thing about the current situation is that policy-wise, Obama has yet to prove himself to be the big change from the Bush doctrine that many Americans expect. While a week into his presidency Obama may have expressed a large number of policy changes which his administration is planning to implement, so far relatively few have been realised. Some of the promises he has kept so far include directing military leaders to end the war in Iraq, releasing presidential records (something that Bush attempted to make ‘more difficult’), as well as appointing at least one, but eventually only one Republican to his cabinet. With the notable exception of beginning to end the war in Iraq, its a fairly mundane list. If you want to see more of his promises, there’s a rather good website which tracks the progress of all of them which you can find here. I’m not trying to condemn this since Obama has had virtually no time to make any substantial changes, especially when most need to go through congress. However, it does show that the American public have faith and trust in his promises, and are willing to believe that in some time, the vast majority of them will be realised. What is so special about Obama that causes people to have this blind faith about his promises?

Many people might respond to this question by coming back to his ability to inspire the American people with his intricate, inspiring speaking ability which allows Americans to unite under his cause for the betterment of the nation. Before last week I probably would have given this as my answer, but a recent segment of John Stewart’s ‘Changefest 09’ made me realise that perhaps this isn’t the case. “Freedom is a universal gift of almighty god” and “The god-given promise that all are equal, all are free” sound almost the same – in fact, if it wasn’t said the first quote was from George Bush and the second from Barack Obama, perhaps both could have easily been attributed to the most recent president. Keeping aside the litany of made on the show, it proves a rather serious point – that while Obama might be able to deliver more on the ‘inspirational-quote per minute quota’, ultimately all presidents in some way communicate many of the same ideological statements he has made during his presidential campaign, and strive to fulfil them during their term/s in office. While it would be ridiculous not to include this factor in determining why President Obama seems so much more popular than President Bush, perhaps its not as extensive as the recent hype actually portrays.

If its not that Obama is a leader for the times, that Bush’s popularity during 9/11 didn’t stem from reacting to America’s united position, that Obama has been able to deliver on key policies or that his inspirational speech is somehow unique to him alone, than what explains Obama Mania? While its certainly debatable, my answer to this question would be simply that Obama expresses himself like a human being.

From the inception of his career, Obama certainly made some big political decisions which guided him to the US senate for the last two terms before he because president. However, the most startling thing to me personally was how different he seemed from the tired old Bush. He has a young family, himself and his wife Michelle not yet in their 50’s and their two children only 7 and 10. He is a passionate author, publishing two best selling books. He is hooked to his Blackberry and couldn’t do without it now or in his presidential campaign, and was an avid collector and fan of Superman comics as a kid, posing in front of a statue in traditional Clark Kent style. To me he seems like a human being compared to the more unknown nature of George Bush’s history. I should note that its unfair to say that what we see of these leaders indicates what they’re like away from the publicity – I’m sure that George has a huge array of interesting hobbies, interests and passions which he would love to share with us all, and probably has at some point. However, its Obama’s humanity that shines through him as a leader, its the fact that we probably can all identify with him in some way that gives him his X-factor as a leader. In more recent times, the buzz word for this is being ‘in-touch’.

Being a fan of Superman made him a prime candidate to appear in a Marvel comic book alongside Spidey, coming from a young family many Americans can identify with his discussion of how annoyed he was that his kids’ school shutdown because of “a bit of ice”, we really respect his decision right or wrong to begin plans to pull US troops out of Iraq because we all care deeply about their health, we feel good knowing that he has an inclusive government with individuals from across his party and others because we hope unity will allow us to make better decisions, and we agree with him that its best for government to be transparent and open, since when its closed we never truly get a real grasp of why we went into Iraq in the first place. I’m sure you get the picture by now.

I think its these human things which characterise Obama as America’s president for ‘real change’. Whether we see this change or not is another matter entirely. The fact that Obama connects with his people and that his people are able to connect with him is restoring faith in government, providing a solid platform for reforms which lead to the betterment of USA, and subsequently the rest of the world.