Barak Obama relocates George W Bush from the Whitehouse on the 20th January, sworn in as the new President of the USA and will have to roll his sleaves up immediately to tackle a vast array of challenges. His first term will have to consist of him negotiating the choppy waters of recession, supporting US jobs and businesses like the huge car industry, perhaps even repealing the online US gambling laws in order to raise much needed tax revenue and police not only the fiery Middle East and fronts in Iraq and Afghanistan, but also his presidency will cover a massive growth in the Internet once more and regulation of Google and other personal-information heavy behemoths be needed for the first time too.
Barak ran on a ticket of change and there will be many people, not only in the US, but all over the world, that will hope the promise is kept and actioned upon. It would seem that all things are interconnected and the media he played so well to obtain the vote of the US public, the Internet, could be one giant he will have to confront and deal with or it might run rampant.
The Internet connects the world, business, finance, religion, terrorism, information, knowledge, entertainment, cultures etc and the infinite mass of information and new, faster solutions and mediums to access and transfer data could find the Obama administration taking a firmer hold on its chief proponents.
This week a spoof Honda car advert was once again being passed around the Internet and it played on the current Hizbullah versus Israel unrest, playing out now in Gaza. Although it was first posted on YouTube several months ago viewers wouldn’t know this and it could hurt both car maker and have an impact on political and humanitarian grounds. This shows how the Internet can be used to hijack and sway users views and why no doubt even though it is thought that the Obama administration is all for freedom and Net neutrality, some changes could be made to tighten what’s acceptable and what’s not.
Bush didn’t touch the Net, but was protectionist. One of the US’s clamp downs on the Internet came in the signing of the UIGEA bill in October 2006 which effectively tied the US online casino market in knots and made it very difficult for US players to play an online casino. Paddy Power a UK bookmaker is now offering odds of 6-1 that Barak Obama will reverse this decision in his first term as pressure increases for the both the right to free speech and expression to win the day and the need for the US government to raise tax revenues quietly in order to help fund the borrowing and massive hands-out made in the current worsening recession.
Going back to the spoof car advert, the powerful imagery and many messages within one also call on US buyers to ‘Change to a hybrid car, and reduce emissions’, but backed with the message that by doing so an American will lessen the chance of foreign extremists being armed via money coming from oil rich states. The Green environment issue is a front that Obama may well champion more than any other American President to create jobs and help bring the US out of recession stronger to make those changes Barak said were on the horizon and American’s would need to grasp.
Shock and awe was one of the outgoing President’s legacies , time will tell whether the new President will win favour and plaudits through more contemplated diplomacy and a deft skill in balance in order to deliver 4 years of change for the better for all the world.
