Obama and Palin As the Two Faces of 2010 America
By Helen Fogarassy

Nearly a year into a relatively liberal administration elected after eight conservative years, America's new President took responsibility for the country being more divided than ever. In an interview with People Magazine, he said that bridging the divide would be a priority in his second year.

The contrast to that goal was provided by the losing vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, whose visibility continued to dominate the media precisely because she was a loser able to capitalize on losses by a feisty show of good spirit. In the latest of her roles since resigning her elected office as Governor of Alaska, she took a break from promoting her "autobiographical" Going Rogue to take up a position as political commentator on the conservative Fox News channel on what ABC News described as a multi-year contract. Based on past performance, that arrangement could obviously be instantly scrapped if another position took her fancy, such as Presidency of the United States, an opportunity that could come her way by assuming leadership of the grassroots "tea party" movement as she was slated to do within a month.

No doubt Palin's chipper attitude and homey mannerisms account for part of the continued interest in some of the American public to continue viewing her. Wide-eyed and rosy-cheeked with frontier upswept dos while sporting red power suits or chic Yukon caps, she comes off with a disarming style that allows for the utterance of romantic truisms about America and modern life in a way that makes illogic seem no more serious than a charming quirkiness expected of a woman in conservative circles.

President Obama, on the other hand, seems to continue growing much too serious for the liking of Americans since he took the helm of office. Perhaps because they're still adjusting to the unusual mix of dark skin and an intelligence level expected of whites, Americans can't seem to find satisfaction with any accomplishment he manages to implement. Few give him credit for negotiating the mounting opposition unleashed by disillusioned leftist supporters and conservative tea-partiers inspired by Sarah Palin.

As 2010 America goes forward in a global world, the contrast of the two faces serves as a reminder of the condition that led America to take a chance on the western industrialized world's first non-white leader. That was a global economic crisis unseen since the Great Depression of the 1930's. It was created by the deregulated, unilateralist policies of America's last "pale male" conservative administration.

On January 13, the day after Palin's debut on Fox news, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission began its work in earnest. On the first day of hearings, the four heads America's biggest financial institutions admitted to having made mistakes that contributed to the crisis, including the assumption of too much risk and failure to foresee how greatly their actions would impact on the American and global economy.

As those banking titans gave their testimony to the Commission, America was joined with the world in sending aid to earthquake shattered Haiti. It was also juggling volatile situations in the Middle East and strategizing on how to deal with burgeoning terrorist cells in locations such as Yemen.

In view of all that, America would be well-served if its people recognized reality. There is a reason why the new President's expression has grown serious during his first year in office while the losing vice-presidential candidate's has remained virtually unchanged.

Promoting a romantic fantasy about America's back-woods pioneering days is fun, especially if it gets airtime for a peppy pretty face. But the growth of American jobs depended on making the world safe for the marketing of products the world's greatest country could make, a daunting task that would wipe the smile from any serious person's face.

Helen Fogarassy is a Hungarian-born American writer associated with the United Nations for over 20 years. Her website at http://www.helenfogarassy.com is a forum for airing views about how America can best lead in a global world of common human aspirations in context of cherished cultural norms. Views and comments to postings are most welcome.

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