Victor Yves Ghebali, professor emeritus at the Institute for Advanced International and Development Studies, emphasizes that Obama is a "human bridge," a symbol of creative fusion.

    Since its birth, the American nation has constantly presented the world with two antithetical faces. The first - radiant - is that of Tocquevillian America: magnanimous, open to all knowledge, at the cutting edge of technological progress and in perpetual projection of the future; that's the America Jean Baudrillard considered to be "the original version of modernity" as opposed to Europe, which, he described as only the "dubbed or subtitled version."

    Crepuscular, the second face is that of an intolerant America, anti-modern to the point of anti-intellectualism, obsessed by a religiosity that favors the veneer of religion over the substance of the religious message. In short, an open, enlightened America, demonstrating exceptional cultural dynamism, confronts in its negative an introverted America prone to witch hunts and reactionary to the point of rejecting Darwinism, family planning and stem cell research.

    In the course of the last eight years, the Bush administration has embodied the second type of America. The November 4 presidential election allows us to glimpse the possibility of a swing of the pendulum, and, on a symbolic level, much more besides. In fact, Barack Obama represents hope of a new kind. That's because of factors related to one of the founding aspects of the American nation (equalitarianism) as well as one of its wellsprings (multiculturalism). The accession of a man of color to supreme office would testify that equality of opportunity may well apply at the finish as well as at the starting line of public life.

    Now, on top of that, it happens that Obama is not a simple man of color, but a man of mixed race. By electing this "human bridge," America would acknowledge what it is in the most beautiful way: a civilization that draws its vitality from the fountainhead of the virtues of "creative fusion."

    Within the heart of American society, racism undoubtedly persists due to "an imaginary inequality which has its roots in custom" and which "engraves itself in custom to the degree it is erased from the laws" (Tocqueville). It nonetheless remains true that Obama has proved to be a charismatic candidate, who practices truth speaking, who enjoys substantial financial resources and a remarkably well-oiled organization. Moreover, the economic crisis, the unpopularity of the outgoing administration and John McCain's repeated mistakes work in his favor. What about the "Bradley effect?" In the United States of today, which is not the same as that of the 1980s, it is most likely nothing more than a boob-tube fantasy.

    On both sides of the Atlantic, commentators warn against an excess of expectations vis-à-vis an Obama administration: the latter would not be able to operate miracles because of the Democratic candidate's "inexperience" and the disastrous situation he would inherit and (with respect to transatlantic relations) the incontrovertible constants of United States's foreign policy.

    The inexperience argument is inadmissible. In politics, apprenticeship takes place on the job; judgment and decision-making ability weigh more heavily than experience; after all, isn't an expert someone who is wrong ... with greater competence than others? In any case, Paul Valéry's remark to the effect that a leader is only "a man who needs others" applies: Obama will draw on a team of the most seasoned personnel. The rest of the "Obama-skeptics'" argument is not to be ignored. An Obama administration will be confronted with a series of titanic problems: a financial crisis that shakes the foundations of capitalism, two wars that are not winnable militarily, China's surge in power, Russia's re-emergence on the international scene, non-proliferation, transnational terrorism etc. Setting aside possible successes and failures, such an administration will nonetheless have the ability to restore political credit to an America that had legalized torture (all the while having the effrontery to assert the human rights ideal!) and damaged the foundations of domestic democracy, notably through spying on American citizens and the politicization of justice.

    At the same time, it will extricate the country from its ideological rut, while bringing it back to a sense of reality. That is anything but negligible. May we never forget that Karl Rove once dared to assert that America was in a position to "create its own reality," and that the Bush administration's most serious mistake was to have forgotten the golden rule of all politics: pragmatism.

    In summary, what's at stake in the November 2008 Obama-McCain duel is nothing less than the restoration of the radiant values of Tocquevillian America.

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    Translation: Truthout French language editor Leslie Thatcher.

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