[A2k] The election of Barack Obama as President of the United States

[James Love]

http://www.keionline.org/blogs/2008/11/05/barack-obama-election-2/

The election of Barack Obama as President of the United States
Knowledge Ecology Notes
5 November 2008
James Love

I'm in Geneva today, at a meeting of the World Intellectual Property
Organization (WIPO). Last evening many people (not only the U.S.
residents) were awake listening to the election results. The hangover
today here is mostly from a lack of sleep, as the results of the
election were not clear until very late (10 pm EST is 4 AM Switzerland
time).

As many people have written, if the election was global, it would have
been a landslide for Obama, and the reaction here is quite positive.
Obama has given the U.S. an immediate lift in terms of popularity and
respect =E2=80=94 both sorely lacking in recent years.

The achievement of Barack Obama in winning this election is so enormous
it is difficult to summarize in a few words. He is the son of a Kenyan
father he never knew, and a mother whose professional life was quite
untypical. He managed to believe in himself in ways that seemed absurd
to many. He has now permanently changed everyone's expectations about
what anyone can achieve. The message will resonate not only in the
United States, but globally.

In winning the election, Obama choose to make a national appeal,
competing and winning in many states previously thought to be reliably
republican. He picked up endorsements and support from many conservative
and moderate voices and voters. At a personal level, I found Obama's
election an inspiring and deeply emotional moment, as did many of my
friends and family members, including persons of diverse political
views.

The election campaign demonstrated enormous poise and very impressive
organizational and management skills, which is encouraging evidence that
Obama can skillfully manage the federal government.

John McCain started the campaign with an enormous reserve of good will,
with a reputation for independence, and a supporter of human rights,
good government measures and a frequent protector of consumer interests.
The divisive and negative nature of the McCain campaign did not enhance
his reputation. As a former resident of Alaska, I was stunned at his
choice of Sarah Palin for vice president, and shocked more by the nature
of her performance.

Much has been made of Obama's calm and thoughtful demeanor. His actions
on many issues are likely to be relatively cautious, pragmatic and
moderate.

Now, with the campaign over, Obama will put together a government.
During his brief tenure as a U.S. Senator, Obama was not deeply engaged
in the issues that KEI follows closely. KEI was never able to get Obama
to engage to protect developing countries from the broader consequences
of U.S. bullying on intellectual property protection for medicines, and
he was not a well known champion of consumer interests in other areas.
The government will be run by the people he appoints, and Obama has
attracted a very attractive and bright group of advisers =E2=80=94 people t=
hat
seem for now to be working together. We are optimistic that many of
Obama's first round of appointments will be very capable, and open to
innovative approaches to policy challenges. Obama will also likely make
some less impressive appointments. Taken together, these appointments
will have enormous policy consequences.

The lobbying activity as regards the transition is quite intensive, from
many fronts interest groups. KEI will try to report on some aspects of
the staffing choices, such as those who will have influence on policies
in areas such as trade, copyright, patents, standards, openness, access
to knowledge, pharmaceuticals, and innovation.

It will be very important for civil society to engage with the new
government, and make clear and well supported "asks" in terms of
policies and appointments.

For now, we are very optimistic about the future, but there is also much
work to be done.


--
James Love, Director, Knowledge Ecology International
http://www.keionline.org | mailto:james.love at keionline.org
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