<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>What he showed: Resolve, grace, decency, energy, restraint
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->WHILE I was inspired by Mr Barack Obama's audacity to take on the white Washington political establishment, along with millions, I was concerned about his inexperience. Yet perhaps this is not such a great deficit. After all, he took on several elderly, experienced warhorses, including two distinguished ones, and beat them all.
It has been said that Mr Obama did not come up with a detailed programme. Yet a campaign is not so much about a detailed programme (which will change anyway when a candidate becomes president) as taking the measure of a man or woman. Here, Mr Obama outshone his rivals.
First, he showed superior judgment. He was the first to realise the Reagan revolution had ended and tapped the disenchantment with 'old' politics. Hence he seized on the theme of change (which is hope). Mrs Hillary Clinton meanwhile played on the theme of being president from day one, but she would still be president of 'old' politics. She also played on the theme of fear (Mr Obama's inexperience) but as one commentator noted, whenever fear takes on hope, hope always wins. Mr John McCain also laid claim to the mantle of change but he was too late; Mr Obama had been identified with it.
Next Mr Obama showed superior organisation skills. He attracted top notch policy advisers and hired the best campaign managers who used Internet technology to great effectiveness and out-stratgised his rivals. The number of campaign bloomers of the Obama campaign was far fewer than those of his two main rivals. His decision not to accept taxpayer funding freed him from the constraints of fund raising and he ended up raising far more than his rivals.
In the intense 22 months of campaigning, Mr Obama demonstrated resolve, grace under pressure, tremendous energy, a great sense of decency and restraint (witness the way he dealt with his grandmother's illness and subsequent death) and great courage. He showed his courage when he decided not to choose Mrs Clinton as his running mate. That would have created a 'dream team' but his victory vindicated his choice of Mr Joseph Biden. Now he would not have Bill and Hillary in a Clinton-dominated Obama White House.
And of course, there is his charisma and eloquence, which recall the power of speech of great past leaders. This skill will be badly needed in the coming years of great challenges.
It is impossible not to grow as a person in leaps and bounds in such a long, arduous and concentrated campaign. The experience and moral authority he has gained must surely outweigh even two terms in the Senate. So the charge of inexperience can no longer hold. Eugene Tan
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->WHILE I was inspired by Mr Barack Obama's audacity to take on the white Washington political establishment, along with millions, I was concerned about his inexperience. Yet perhaps this is not such a great deficit. After all, he took on several elderly, experienced warhorses, including two distinguished ones, and beat them all.
It has been said that Mr Obama did not come up with a detailed programme. Yet a campaign is not so much about a detailed programme (which will change anyway when a candidate becomes president) as taking the measure of a man or woman. Here, Mr Obama outshone his rivals.
First, he showed superior judgment. He was the first to realise the Reagan revolution had ended and tapped the disenchantment with 'old' politics. Hence he seized on the theme of change (which is hope). Mrs Hillary Clinton meanwhile played on the theme of being president from day one, but she would still be president of 'old' politics. She also played on the theme of fear (Mr Obama's inexperience) but as one commentator noted, whenever fear takes on hope, hope always wins. Mr John McCain also laid claim to the mantle of change but he was too late; Mr Obama had been identified with it.
Next Mr Obama showed superior organisation skills. He attracted top notch policy advisers and hired the best campaign managers who used Internet technology to great effectiveness and out-stratgised his rivals. The number of campaign bloomers of the Obama campaign was far fewer than those of his two main rivals. His decision not to accept taxpayer funding freed him from the constraints of fund raising and he ended up raising far more than his rivals.
In the intense 22 months of campaigning, Mr Obama demonstrated resolve, grace under pressure, tremendous energy, a great sense of decency and restraint (witness the way he dealt with his grandmother's illness and subsequent death) and great courage. He showed his courage when he decided not to choose Mrs Clinton as his running mate. That would have created a 'dream team' but his victory vindicated his choice of Mr Joseph Biden. Now he would not have Bill and Hillary in a Clinton-dominated Obama White House.
And of course, there is his charisma and eloquence, which recall the power of speech of great past leaders. This skill will be badly needed in the coming years of great challenges.
It is impossible not to grow as a person in leaps and bounds in such a long, arduous and concentrated campaign. The experience and moral authority he has gained must surely outweigh even two terms in the Senate. So the charge of inexperience can no longer hold. Eugene Tan
