Obama walks into the record books

By winning on Tuesday, Barack Obama becomes the second Democrat to be elected twice since the Second World War era that witnessed a Democrat, President Franklin Roosevelt, winning four presidential polls in 1932, 1936, 1940 and 1944.  President Roosevelt, who is well respected as the leader of the United States during the Second World War, and the man who rescued the nation from great economic depression, died on April 12, 1945 after serving as president for 12 years, one month, one week and one day.  President Roosevelt was the last beneficiary of the old system which did not have a presidential term limit, a reason why he ran four times. Later the Twenty-second Amendment of the US Constitution set a presidential term limit of two terms, which was ratified in 1951.  After his death, his Vice President, Harry Truman, assumed the presidency but thereafter only won one term in 1948, as he lost, in 1952, to a Republican, General Dwight Eisenhower, a military commander in the Second World War.  Thus, after Roosevelt, it took America 52 years until 1996 to elect a Democrat, Bill Clinton, to a second term, following his first in 1992. But what happened after Roosevelt and thereafter?  Maybe Americans grew tired of Democrats, so with Truman’s perceived weakness at the start of the Cold War, they elected a general-turned politician, Republican Eisenhower, who then served two terms until January 1961.  Then Eisenhower’s Vice President, Richard Nixon, took the challenge to face the Democrats but lost to John Kennedy in one of the most closely-contested presidential polls in US history. Unfortunately for Kennedy, he was assassinated on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas. Notably, President Kennedy was a close friend of Julius Nyerere, by then the President of the Republic of Tanganyika. Nyerere visited Kennedy at the White House in July 1963, four months before his assassination.  After Kennedy’s death, his Vice President Lyndon Johnson took over immediately, sworn-in on board Air Force One. He was elected easily in 1964 by a sympathy vote and went on to escalate the Vietnam War grossly in 1965 when he dispatched 200,000 American troops.  After messing up in Vietnam, he decided not to run for re-election in 1968 leaving the door open to Nixon to realize his dream. Nixon started his effort to end the conflict and won re-election in 1972. He didn’t finish his second term as he was forced to resign in August 1974 following the Watergate Scandal. Before his resignation, Nixon lost his vice president, Spiro Agnew, to an embarrassing resignation over a corruption scandal. Nixon had to appoint the House Minority Leader, Republican Gerald Ford, to be his new Vice President.  When Nixon resigned Ford found himself the president without running for office. Ford concluded the Vietnam War in 1975, which was a great relief to Americans, but he made the mistake of pardoning Nixon while Americans wanted him to go to jail. That decision would later cost him election in 1976.  Another Democrat, Jimmy Carter, won election, entered office in January 1977 and like Kennedy, he was a good friend of Africa especially when he sent an African American, Andrew Young, his ambassador to the United Nations, to visit African countries with the question: “What do you want America to do for you?” Nyerere visited the White House for the second time in August 1977 during the Carter administration, but disappointed it after Carter sent the famous boxer, Mohammed Ali, to plead with African countries to boycott the Moscow Olympics in 1980. Nyerere rejected the idea and Tanzanians won two medals. Other nations like Kenya boycotted the games. After one term, Carter lost badly to Ronald Reagan, a Republican in the 1980 election because of what Americans perceived as weakness in foreign and defence policies, and a bad economy at home. Reagan would serve two terms leaving the office to his Vice President, George H. W. Bush who lost to Clinton after serving one term. President Clinton became one of the most popular presidents America has ever had despite a publicized scandal. But unfortunately, his Vice President, Al Gore, lost a disputed election to George W. Bush in 2000 after a protracted legal battle.  President Bush served two terms from January 2001 to January 2009 and left office one of the most unpopular US presidents around the world in recent history. Then Obama won against Republican John McCain and became the first black man to occupy the White House.  Obama’s Tuesday re-election is not an ordinary victory in the history of American presidency. He is only the second Democrat, after Clinton, to be re-elected since the Second World War. Compared to Republicans, Democrats are loved around the world for being peace lovers and respectful of other nations, and that is what makes world citizens happy about Obama’s re-election. Mr Matinyi is a consultant based in Washington, DC