This week members of the "Ecolo-J" - the youth wing of Belgium's francophone Green Party - at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) organized an evening devoted to "deconstructing" (in the analytical, though not quite Woody Allen sense) Barack Obama's first month as President of the United States.
They invited two of their professors (American expat and political science expert Katya Long and Francois Heinderyckx, communications analyst), Hubert Bedoret, Green Party deputy political director, plus me, representing Democrats Abroad Belgium (DAB) and addressing how the Obama campaign used Democratic Party rules to best advantage and created its own fundraising network of local activists.
NDLR: Pour les francophones, voici le texte de mes remarques - sans accents: Download Deconstructing Obama majuscules.
Apart from a few questioners on the far left of what is already a progressive party, the audience appeared to share the panel's realistic assessment of a Presidency that offers America's best chance at solving a collection of seemingly insurmountable problems.
A roomful of environmentalists naturally focused on prospects for change in the climate change arena after the "negationist" Bush years, and while the United States has much further to go to make up for lost time, Obama's appointment of scientists to key positions shows that he means business.
Francois Heinderyckx underscored the enormous, almost "grotesque" expectations accompanying Obama's election, and described a communications strategy that not only has to manage expectations but has to manage inevitable disappointment. For a campaign that stressed openness and solicited input from voters, right up through the Transition ("Change.gov"), the Obama Administration's first month has shown a rather sparse "controlled transparency" (the "13 Questions" press conference). Finally, Heinderyckx expressed reservations about "Public Diplomacy 2.0" degenerating into a kind of "Propaganda 2.0."
Panel and audience shared an appreciation of the historic nature of Obama's election in a country with such a fraught racial history, though a sense remained of the surprising closeness of the results given the utter failure on all fronts of Bush and his Republican Presidency. Europeans continue to be fascinated by what appears to be the insurgent power of the Obama campaign and its ability to rally support in unexpected areas of the nation, in part through use of modern means of communication.
Not wanting to dampen their enthusiasm, I warned about the dangers of the American "permanent campaign," where no sooner do we inaugurate a new president than we cast our eyes towards the next election cycle, in this case Congressional elections of 2010 - next year! Europeans, with election seasons that last 5-6 weeks max, conduct campaigns that are like 90-minute soccer matches. Kick the ball back and forth, score 2 or 3 goals, and it's basically over. Form your government.
Europe, please do copy Obama's astute use of networks and citizen involvement, but please do not try and import American Superbowl political campaigns, which last way longer than the Superbowl Pre-Game show and cost billions more. Political campaigning - keep it short, and simple.