I can certainly be a bit glum about the decline of America. This financial crisis is the metaphor for the decline of America. Yet, as we get ready for yet another media blitz — the Democratic convention for Barack Obama and his newly anointed running mate Joe Biden — a story in today’s Economist bears keeping in mind. It evinces thoughts of an American Dream that is still alive and prospering.
Eight years ago Barack Obama was thoroughly humiliated at the Democratic Convention in Los Angeles. He had recently lost a congressional primary in Chicago, and both his political and personal bank accounts were empty. The rental car company rejected his credit card. He failed to get hold of a floor pass and ended up watching the proceedings on a big screen in a car park. He returned home with his tail between his legs before the week was out—and left the celebrations to the people who mattered, not least the Clintons, who took every chance to seize the limelight from the Gores.
This year Mr Obama is the Democratic convention. The Pepsi Centre in Denver will be chock-a-block with people cheering about “hope” and “change”. On August 28th Mr Obama will deliver his acceptance speech at a local football stadium, Invesco Field, before an audience of more than 70,000. The man who could not get a floor pass in Los Angeles has a better than even chance of winning the presidential election in November—the current Intrade market odds are running 61 to 38 in his favour—and thereby becoming America’s first non-white president.
This is certainly a remarkable turnaround — a story almost made for Hollywood. A black man with an Islamic middle name, penniless and shut out, rises to prominence and stands on the verge of becoming the ‘most powerful man in the world.’
It’s enough to make a cynic like me hopeful.
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