A fresh breeze in a storm

Perhaps it's because I've just been watching that masterpiece of TV writing and production, The West Wing, or because there was something more in it, but I made it a point to watch Barack Obama's Inauguration, meaning I listened to his speech as well as watched the ceremony.

Sure, it was rhetoric and speech-writing at its best, perhaps a touch of the old "sound and fury signifying nothing" (or whatever the quote actually says).

So used are we to the fine words of our politicians generally amounting to a bucket of warm spit that a touch of cynicism will tinge most of our impressions of President Obama's words.

A friend, not known for his philosophical insights, for all that he's not a total idiot, summed up the dilemma on Wednesday morning when, in the space of one sentence, he characterised the speech as "probably just words" and "an encouraging start".

In truth, it's the perception that counts, which is a platitude of cosmic proportions to utter in the latter part of the first decade of the 21st century.

But there was also something of a deeper mood, over-riding that "it's only the perception" feeling. The pall of bitterness and - there's no better word for it - the hypocrisy of George W. Bush's tenure of office seemed to lift perceptibly.

The discomfort the less rabid among us feel when confronted with Guantanamo Bay, with extreme rendition, with water-boarding and with the continued Vietnamisation of Iraq, a discomfort which was rapidly turning to revulsion will now, hopefully, recede.

To be sure, post-9/11 I can understand, and even go some way to supporting, America's vigorous response - an affront like that to humanity merits a strong and uncompromising backlash, we're only human.

But Mr Bush proved to be incapable of riding the wave and managed to turn pro-American sympathy into an ever-deepening antipathy towards the measures adopted and the oily motive that appeared to underlie them.

Mr Obama has promised to eschew these measures, to the almost visible discomfort of the guy who had just handed him the keys to the White House and, presumably, was about to give him the nuclear button. Whether he will or not, and if he will, the extent to which he will, remains shrouded in the mists of the future.

What President Obama did not eschew, though, was an acceptance of America's role as the world's policeman.

Speaking for myself, I would rather they got that dirty job than some flipping fundamentalists, of whatever stripe they may be.

For all their child-like certainty that they're the good guys, the Yanks, basically, are the good guys and it's not such a bad thing that they've accepted their destiny to be the ones to have to do it.

The dirty job, I mean.

My revulsion with racism in all its forms found relief in Mr Obama's nomination. As he put it, within virtually my lifetime (he didn't actually refer to me, though only because we haven't been introduced) his grandfather would probably have been refused service in any bar within 100 yards from where Mr Obama was being sworn in as President.

I hope that the red-neck louts who infest society with their obscene take on the relative merits of the races had the intelligence to come to grips with the fact that their time is now up, once and for all. It doesn't take much intelligence to figure that out, of course, but somehow, I doubt the racists have enough of that particular commodity between them to grasp this simple concept.

If you don't believe me, take a look at the comments section of any news item that refers to immigration, especially if it includes references to pregnant women being air-lifted to safety.

The sad thing about all this is that this fresh breeze comes at a time when we are being battered by economic storms of quite serious proportions, if you'll allow me some English understatement as a slight antidote to the somewhat gushing dose of Americanese to which I've subjected you.

It would be nice if President Obama could do for the economic scene that which he has already done for the political and social landscape, but that would be a bit of an ask. After all, he doesn't have the benefit of a Palace of Thinking within which the common cold will be cured, the Middle East question resolved and the economy righted, in the space of three days.

Still, it was good to have a dose of honest optimism.

imbocca@gmail.com, www.timesofmalta.com/blogs