"An observer of the wall-to-wall coverage of the events leading up to Obama's swearing-in as president might think he was witnessing nothing less than the second coming," grumbles the World Socialist website on Inauguration Day.

The commentary on Barack Obama has, indeed, become excruciatingly repetitive and nauseatingly adulatory, if not idolatrous. Even scholars and intellectuals are celebratory rather than critical; deeming 'the Moment' too epochal not to call for an intellectual ceasefire; a kind of moratorium on their occupational cynicism. What new is there to be said about this man who, as an African American, has become president in the most powerful country in the world; a county whose constitution enshrined the enslavement of his forebears?

What new is there to be said about a man who has ignited the hopes of peoples all over the world; who has lifted the spirit of black people everywhere and who has become the new icon for a race of oppressed, marginalised and dehumanised people? Barack Obama not only vindicates black people. He vindicates what some scholars call The Idea of America - the Shining City on a Hill; the country of possibilities.

Joining the chorus

It is hard not to join in the chorus of praise, for the context demands that this man's greatness be noted and explained. Sure, he has already become a disappointment to the political left and to some liberal democrats.

His Cabinet appointments have been lauded by Republicans, including the two George Bushes and John McCain. That can't be good news for people wanting a change.

He campaigned against Washington insiders, but recycled quite a number of them from the Clinton era. Some growl at the fact that though he waged a ceaseless polemic against tax cuts to the rich in his election campaign, he has since proposed $100 billion in tax cuts to businesses, drawing fire from some Democrats.

But what has defined Barack Obama is his consensual, post-ideological, pragmatic, post-partisan style of leadership. His strategy has been to reach out to all, while not deliberately alienating any except the greedy and the corrupt.

Barack Obama is not the Messiah. But there are some important reasons why his election as US president matters a great deal not only to Americans, but to the world. His inaugural speech gave some noteworthy clues. While the speech was by no means great in terms of rhetorical flourish and stylistic brilliance - it certainly does not come near to Lincoln's Second Inaugural, Roosevelt's First Inaugural or John F. Kennedy's, it did strike the right chords.

His importance

Barack Obama matters more to the world than he does to America as a whole, or even to Black America. You would have to have a sense of how dangerous and reckless was the Bush Doctrine and the ideas of the neoconservatives under Bush to realise just how important Obama is to the world.

If you don't have an appreciation for foreign policy, you can't fully grasp Barack Obama's meaning to the world and will be confined to talking about what he means to black people or to those who were turned off by politics.

The Europeans particularly understand what Barack Obama means and that was why his trip to Germany attracted such a cult-like reception. When Obama said on Tuesday that "power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please," it was a decisive and unequivocal disavowal of the last eight years of US foreign policy and of decades of work of neo-conservative thinkers like Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Robert Kagan, William Kristol, Charles Krauthammer and Dick Cheney.

Obama went on to say that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism "not just with missiles and tanks but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions". There must have been jubilation all over Europe and other parts of the world which had become exhausted by American hubris and unilateralism.

"They knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering of qualities of humility and restraint." Those acquainted with the work of Joseph Nye, the brilliant scholar form Obama's alma mater, Harvard, would have recognised that at long last Nye's campaign for a more humble foreign policy based on ideals, principles and partnerships has taken on flesh in Washington.

Implications of this change

Nye has published a number of books on soft power, and just recently The Center for Strategic and International Studies released the report on its Commission on Smart Power co-chaired by Nye. The commission's report notes that, "Americans are unified in wanting to improve their country's image in the world ... We see the same hunger in other countries for a more balanced American approach and revitalised American interest in a broader range of issues than just terrorism." The neoconservatives openly espoused military superiority over peer competitors.

The implications of this change in Washington are enormous. It's not only that there is now a black man in the White House. It is that we have a black man not like Alan Keyes or even Colin Powell; but a black man who understands that the way the Bush administration has used power has been grossly irresponsible and detrimental to international security.

When Obama said "as for our common defence, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals" , it was a shattering repudiation of George Bush's deleterious paradigm. George Bush believed in torture and supporting dictators while preaching justice, liberty and human rights. As Barack Obama said, to George Bush's shame, America is ready to lead the world again. But it has to do so with moral authority, through smart power, not brute force and intimidation.

Barack Obama will return America to a commitment to liberal internationalism, a rules-based international system, commitment to alliances and partnerships; recognising that some of the globe's most intractable problems can only be tackled through cooperation and consensus, not through unilateralism.

Multilateral changes

I am happy that Prime Minister Bruce Golding took the Obama ascension to power outside of the intellectually myopic and parochial context that our media and many Caribbean people have put it in.

Obama's being president is not just good because we can get some debt cancellation; get some more handouts or some special trading package for the Caribbean. By resuming leadership of the world, by not taking a one-dimensional approach to security and not being blindsided by a narrow war on terror, Washington can now press for the restart of the Doha Development Round, as well as for changes in multilateral institutions like the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO. Washington can now work aggressively towards the creation of a new international financial architecture.

Yes, the leaders who hope to meet Obama in April must work out Caribbean-specific measures to put to him, but they must take a broader approach to development and press for a more equitable international system so that the interests of developing countries can be protected.

Another significant way in which Obama matters is that, as the New Yorker puts it in an excellent article on 'The New Liberalism' in that fine special issue on 'Obama and America' (November 17, 2008) "for the first time since the Johnson administration the idea that Government should take bold action to create equal opportunity for all citizens doesn't have to explain itself in a defensive mumble."

The greed of Wall Street and the abdication of Washington's obligation to the people, which resulted in the financial crisis, made the old conservatism and minimalist Government view a cynical joke.

So Obama could boast on Tuesday: "The question we ask today is not whether our Government is too big or too small but whether it works - whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage; care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified."

Era of Reaganomics

A whole era of Reaganomics and neoliberal economics has proclaimed the dogma of small, minimalist Government and the infallibility of the market. Obama is providing leadership to a movement which is fiercely rejecting the flawed Washington Consensus and neoliberalism which has failed as miserably as neoconservatism has in foreign policy. Obama's rejection of neoliberalism in economics and neoconservatism in politics is part of the major reasons why he matters so much not only to America, but to the world.

"Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. This crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control - and that a nation cannot prosper when it favours only the prosperous." The benefits of prosperity he said must extend to the poor.

The man is solid in his thinking and without crippling dogmatism. His adviser and Harvard Law Professor Cass Sunstein (author of the well-regarded book Nudge) calls Obama "a visionary minimalist".

As Obama said sternly in his inaugural, the old ideological debates are sterile (though class and racial issues are still relevant), but I am convinced that the 21st century calls for a new kind of leadership; one that is both progressive and respectful of dissent; one that is embracing, inclusive and rigorously non-partisan.

Sunstein calls it "deliberative democracy".

Moral leadership

Franklin Roosevelt, whose name is mentioned frequently along with Obama, enunciated on leadership in September 1932. "The presidency is not merely an administrative office," he opined. "It is preeminently a place of moral leadership." This is what Obama has in abundance. Time magazine ran a noteworthy recent cover story on temperament, comparing Lincoln and other presidents to Obama and pointing out how important temperament is to leadership.

Obama is a transformational leader. How he transcended race in his campaign, appealed to a broad base and manage to pull off the biggest electoral victory since Lyndon Johnson in 1964 and won such huge swaths of voters is noting short of amazing.

His biggest victory was not in beating McCain. His biggest victory and what showed his genius was beating the Clintons, the darlings of blacks and progressives and some of the fiercest warriors in American electoral history. Blacks and whites believed him that he could win. And the world is now prepared to believe he can not only win but lead.

Ian Boyne is a veteran journalist who may be reached at ianboyne1@yahoo.com or columns@gleanerjm.com.