Barack Obama: The New Tony Blair
the comparisons are plentiful
2008-11-24
By Hugh Carter Donahue, Ph.D.

Barack Obama’s stunning achievement winning the White House justifiably generates attention for its historic significance. His combination of eloquence, pragmatism, organizational mastery of fundraising, voter registration and mobilization separate him from presidential candidates dating back to President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Obama’s mastery of Internet, cell phone, text messaging and broadcast advertising will be studied and applied for years.

For all the comparisons to JFK for comportment, lithe profile, high energy and easy articulateness and “firsts” (Roman Catholic and black respectively) to win the presidency, Obama’s individual achievement and campaign more nearly mirror British Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose 1997 victory vanquished  England’s Conservative Party.

-Obama and Blair each campaigned and won power by promoting social inclusion and, in so doing, reconfigured electoral politics in America and in England.

-Obama’s decisive Electoral College victory and 53% popular vote majority, bringing 57 senators and 255 congressmen to Democrat majority, distinguishes him from George W. Bush’s dubious wins and Clinton’s two plurality victories just as Blair’s 150+ seat parliamentary victory outpaced Thatcher’s 1983 win and Labor’s 1945 parliamentary landslide, for Blair set the Conservatives back to their worst loss since 1832 reforms.

-During the primaries, Obama edged out better known Hillary Clinton. Blair bested better known Gordon Brown, now Prime Minister and formerly Exchequer Chancellor for Blair, for Labor Party leadership prior to the general election.

-Obama extended Democratic party membership and participation in all ethnic and demographic groups but married whites over age 65, including white men and women, youth and Hispanics and voters in Ohio, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio and Virginia just as Blair built a broad coalition, doubling Labor Party membership.

-Obama’s pragmatic rhetoric resonates Blair’s “New Labor” problem solving without ideological preconditions.

To be sure, some pundits and scholars could contest that Blair’s “New Labor” campaign did not fundamentally differ from Thatcherism and that Blair made modest, tactical changes ridding the Labor platform of socialist planks and building the party beyond its trade union base but, in the end, delivered Tory policies.

So doing belabors a distinction without a difference. Blair altered Thatcherism by acknowledging the importance of royal sovereignty during Diana’s funeral (Windsor Castle burned, in part, due to budget cuts shedding staff), effecting practical state action and negotiating peace in Ireland, a goal since Gladstone and Asquith.

Similarly, Obama’s “change” is essentially restorative. Obama calls for pragmatic corrections to Bush Administration abuses, notably a lawless war in Iraq and domestic policies favoring wealthy elites and the energy and financial services industries over other citizens and sectors. Obama claims this change will correct domestic policies promoting industrial concentration and the concentration of wealth and foreign policies isolating the U.S. as a rogue superpower.

Obama, rather like Blair’s championing the forgotten man, addresses a broad consensus seeking pragmatic domestic policy and decency in foreign policy. 

One only hopes Obama survives Blair’s fate. Each promised honesty and candor upon winning high office. On Election Day night, Obama said, “there are many who won't agree with every decision or policy I make as President, and we know that government can't solve every problem. But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face.” Blair promised as much in spring, 1997, yet will forever be remembered in connection with accusations of “sexed-up” intelligence peddling a baseless war to a trusting public.

Perhaps Obama might handle the burdens of empire more deftly, but it’s too soon, cabinet appointments not withstanding, to tell.

Hugh Carter Donahue, Ph.D. is Adjunct Professor of History at Rowan University in Glasboro, New Jersey. He can be reached at hcd@dca.net 
© Hugh Carter Donahue

Photo: Valerie Goodloe/Johnson Publishing Co., Inc.