Voice of America

“The best is yet to come, but we have more work to do.” That succinct acknowledgement of reality by Barack Obama on Wednesday signalled a profound shift from the euphoric chant -- “Yes, we can” -- of four years ago. The pledge that is expected to craft his agenda for the next four years was more resonant than the upbeat strains of Stevie Wonder’s song, “Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours”.

The going has been tough since the economic blitz of 2008 and as crisis -- international as much as domestic -- piled on crisis, his Presidency was verily on test during last week’s cyclone in New Jersey. He has come up trumps... so very different from George Bush’s almost pathetic, even racist, performance in the face of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans (2005). The average American can perhaps rest assured that the born-again President realises only too acutely that the road ahead is bumpy. In the best traditions of democracy, Obama has sought the assistance of the Republicans without carping at his rivals, as in democracies nearer home. Further, in a remarkable gesture of conciliation, he has promised to look forward to sitting down with Mitt Romney in the weeks ahead to discuss where they can work together to move the country forward. His victory speech has been addressed to what he called the “American family” -- “The task of perfecting our union moves forward. It moves forward because of you, it moves forward because you reaffirmed the spirit that has triumphed over war and oppression”. The implicit allusion to domestic and foreign policy imperatives was more than obvious, indeed perceived imperatives that can on occasion turn out to be misadventures. In his hour of victory, he has displayed a far greater degree of pragmatic realism than emotive rhetoric, notably a forthright acknowledgment of the difficulties ahead, one that has tempered the raucous delirium of his supporters who had assembled in Chicago to greet his victory speech.

Obama has four more years to live up to American hopes. For all the overly cynical projections of the pollsters, he has won by a convincing margin -- 303 votes in the Electoral College against Romney’s 206. Truth to tell, the scales were always in favour of the President despite his somewhat tepid performance in the debates. Yet the going may not be quite as comfortable in legislative terms. Strikingly, Congress remains a fractured entity; the Republicans have been rewarded with a still solid majority in the House of Representatives. The bulwark of opposition in the Lower House remains despite the narrow majority of the Democrats in the Senate. And substantial must be the risk of legislative gridlock over critical reforms. The result, therefore, carries an inherently forbidding challenge -- the President’s fraught relationship with Congress. The tasks of his second term are unnervingly similar to those he faced in 2008. And an improved relationship with Congress will help him tackle what he calls the “fiscal cliff”. In foreign policy, the pullout from Afghanistan will mean one distraction less. But he will have to contend with the fallout of the Arab Spring, most chillingly in Syria, the nuclear ambitions of Iran, and the Israel-Palestine question in the wider context. Barack Obama’s second term will be eminently fruitful if he can leave America and the world a better place. Hopefully, he can.