On Tuesday, June 3, after having finished the three remaining
primary elections, Senator Barack Obama became the Democratic
candidate for the presidency. The Democratic Party establishment,
from former President Jimmy Carter and figures associated with his
administration like Zbigniew Brzezinsky, to the majority of national
and local leaders, who comprise around 800 super delegates, have
decided to vote for Obama. Thus an unusually prolonged campaign for
the Democratic nomination ended, and the competition with the
Republican John McCain for the presidency has begun.

After 8 years of Republican administration, with two continuing
wars - Iraq and Afghanistan - and an economic recession in its
infancy that has already consumed hundreds of thousands of jobs, as
well as housing and consumer expenditures of thousands of people in
the US, expectations that Obama’s coming administration means a
progressive change, are high, especially in a big group of young
people and the African-American community. A change from Bush’s
foreign policy, characterized by unilateralism and militarism, is
also expected.

But Obama already began his election campaign by presenting himself
as someone who can better defend the interests of the US and its
allies in the world. A few hours after assuming his nomination as
presidential candidate, he gave a speech before the most important
lobbying group in US politics, AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs
Committee), where he reaffirmed its "unconditional alliance" with
the State of Israel and condemned Hamas as a "terrorist
organization." And he criticized the war in Iraq only for having put
the security of the US and Israel at risk. Change towards a more
multilateral policy, if it finally occurs, corresponds to the fact
that a sector of the ruling class believes that is the best way to
recover lost ground and repair the situation of the US in the world,
which has deteriorated during Bush’s presidency.

Moreover, Obama has received financial support from the main Wall
Street firms, like JP Morgan, Chase, and Citigroup. Although there
are still five months until the elections, it hardly seems likely
that McCain will manage to overcome the bad image of Bush and the
Republicans. If Obama is actually elected President, the
expectations and illusions of millions of people in the US "who
believed in change," will obviously be frustrated sooner or later.

Translation by Yosef M.

For a deeper analysis of the situation in the US, see Claves N°
3 "Estados Unidos al fin de la era Bush." (Spanish)